Today we began by attending a lecture on creative dance. Having previously read Theresa Cone’s work, I found it interesting to relate my now experiences with dance to her writing. Having had previous experience with dance – both as a student at a dance school and as a dance leader working in primary schools – I have enjoyed learning about the theory behind creative dance. Some of the benefits of dance have always been, to me, obvious. It provides people with an interest and a way to keep fit and healthy (both physically and mentally) which is not centred around how well you can throw or catch a ball. However, before learning about it within an artistic sense, I had considered it to be exclusively a sport. This misconception of its limitations is highlighted as being a view of many throughout the world by Gilbert (2005) as she says that many people have viewed it as something which P.E. teachers should deliver. When considering this point, it seems almost ridiculous that a P.E. teacher should be considered as more capable of teaching young children an art form than a class teacher. Therefore, I was encouraged to think about the term ‘creative dance’, which suggests the further development of creativity through expression of feelings and connections to knowledge, rather than simply ‘dance’, which I think we sometimes confuse for exercise to music.

During this morning’s lecture, we considered Smith-Autard’s (2002) Midway Model for Dance in Schools. This model suggests that we should not ignore neither the process nor the product of dance; meaning that the dance must be meaningful and expressive but it should also be aesthetically pleasing. This can be achieved by teaching children the 10 Basic Skills of dance to give them the required skills and knowledge for them to combine these with their imagination and creativity, to come up with dance routines and to solve problems effectively. Reflecting on this, for my own understanding of the connection between the two conventions, I have related it to learning how to read – we must first develop graphic and phonic knowledge before we can develop a strong contextual understanding of the texts we read. Similarly, we must develop the ability to write before we can convey our feelings and creative stories using the written word.

We also took part in a dance input today in which we worked in groups to create a dance with a chosen theme. We chose Christmas and had to plan the dance based on a model created by Cone (2009). This model required us to consider the characters, a storyline and a title for our dance, as well as to consider any props or costumes that we plan to use. We chose the story of the elves making presents on Christmas Eve, before Jack Frost appears and tries to ruin Christmas by freezing all of the hard working elves. But Santa appears right on time and over powers Jack Frost with his jolly ‘Ho Ho Ho!’. We choreographed this dance in our groups today and used the 10 basic steps as well as adding in different conventions such as cannon. Due to the nature of our story, we felt that facial expressions were very important in our routine and that the nature of the moves should reflect the feelings of the characters at any given time. The process of this essentially allowed us to come up with an imaginative story within a theme, which would traditionally be written. However, in this context, we are telling our story through movement. To do this, we had to discuss how the different characters would feel at different points in the story and had to consider incentives and reactions. For this reason, along with so many others, this process of creative dance is so much more enriching and meaningful that copying a dance which a professional has made up. As Heath and Gilbert (2015) argue, copying can only take us so far while creating is limitless. Therefore, the products of dance stories like this have the potential to be both insightful and original. However, it is important to consider that children may require to be prompted to consider how the characters in their story would feel and reminded that they should express these feelings in both their movements and their facial expressions, to effectively and powerfully convey their messages to the audience in an aesthetically pleasing way. Performing our dances next week will allow us to showcase our product and to potentially be inspired by the products of others.

After dance, we moved on to our drama input. We took part in drama lessons which were lead by our colleagues and then my group led our session. We based our lesson on ‘Prince Cinders’ by Babette Cole. In a previous post I discussed how I was feeling before we delivered our lesson and today, after we delivered it, I was feeling pleasantly surprised. The engagement and active participation of our colleagues made it an enjoyable experience. As this was a micro-teaching exercise, I developed my communication skills and practised projecting my voice. I also made sure that I was aware of my position in the room and my colleagues and I practised giving set times to the participants. It was overall a very valuable experience in which we were able to practise general teaching skills along with drama conventions. We focussed mostly on the character of Prince Cinders, who was lonely and had low self-esteem at the beginning of the story, but by the end his horrible brothers were punished and he was rewarded. Looking closely at characters allowed us to use the process of this drama to tell the story in a more meaningful way, and the participants were able to relate to at least one of the characters and to develop justified feelings, whether positive or negative, towards them. As discussed by Jackson and Leahy (2006) drama allows children to be present within and out with a fictional story. This is a very powerful component of drama as it provides children with the opportunity to view things from two different perspectives – their own and that of a character. This allows them to compare the two and to make connections between them, using higher order thinking skills, such as evaluation, to justify both their own feelings and the feelings of the characters in question. This is a particularly sophisticated skill and is related to developing empathy for others. This is just one of the reasons that the process of drama is important.

I have discussed the use of drama to tell stories in previous blog posts, although its ability to teach life lessons in a memorable way is something which I feel, especially in my time spent in education as a pupil, has been overlooked in the past. Drama can allow learners to relate to cultural, social, and environmental world issues that may have previously seemed so distant from their own lives that they struggle to comprehend them. For example, learning about both sustainable education and integrated arts at the same time, has allowed me to increasingly see the connections between the two. Drama inputs can be used to put children into the shoes of almost anyone around the world; from politicians debating about climate change policies, to natural disaster victims and charity aid workers of all ages. I strongly believe that this would help children to make connections with the world in much more powerful ways. Anderson (2004) suggests agreement with this point as he discusses the use of drama in bringing situated learning to the classroom. Taking children to the scene of a natural disaster may be physically impossible. However, bringing the scene of a natural disaster to the classroom through drama is by every means possible!

However we use drama, whether it be to teach lessons about world issues, to teach values, or to develop life skills, the process of the drama is unarguably vital. Although, the product of the drama should not be forgotten. From today’s input, we considered how our colleagues who took part in our drama lesson have now had some practice of drama over the past few months. This meant that the products of the role on the walls, mimes, and response to the teacher in role, were likely more effective than they would have been should we have asked the same group of people to do these tasks without any previous drama input. Therefore, it is important to consider as a teacher that although it is vital to allow the children to guide the process to some extent, teacher input is necessary to structure and encourage student progress. This progress should be evident as over time, the pupils should develop more confidence and should be encouraged to delve out with their comfort zones, ensuring that every pupil is getting a chance to participate and the more dominant pupils are not taking over. The participation of all should lead to a vast range of different perspectives and ideas which should be discussed and evaluated. We should also regularly look back at our products and evaluate them as proof of the effectiveness of the process (QCA, 2004), as well as proof of new skills and ways of thinking.

These inputs today highlighted to me that within all of the arts, the process and the product are equally important.

References 

Anderson, C. (2004) Learning in “As-If” Worlds: Cognition in Drama in Education. Theory Into Practice. [Online] Vol.43(4), pp.281-286. Available: Taylor and Francis. [Accessed: 7 November 2017].

Cone, T. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. [Online] Vol.9(3), pp.81-89. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 19 October 2017].

Gilbert, A. (2005) Dance Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. [Online] Vol.76(5), pp.26-35. Available: Taylor & Francis. [Accessed: 21 November 2017].

Heath, S. and Gilbert, L. (2015) Creativity and the work of art and science. The Routledge International Handbook of the Arts and Education. [Online] Vol.1(1), pp. 398-409. Available: http://shirleybriceheath.net/pdfs2016/creativity-work-art-science.pdf. [Accessed: 21 October 2017].

Jackson, A. and Leahy, H.R. (2006) ‘Seeing it for real…?’ – Authenticity, theatre and learning in museums. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance. [Online] Vol.10(3), pp.303-325. Available: Taylor and Francis. [Accessed: 7 November 2017].

QCA (2004) Creativity: find it, promote it: promoting pupils’ creative thinking and behaviour across the curriculum at key stages 1, 2 and 3: practical materials for schools. [Online] London: Qualifications and Curriculum Authority. Available: www.qca.org.uk/creativity. [Accessed: 19 October 2017].

Smith-Autard, J. (2002) The Art of Dance Education. London: A & C Black Publishers Ltd.