WEEK 9 – Tuesday 5th November 2019
Our Tuesday planned out slightly different this week for a start we didn’t have a lecture and we also began our block of dance workshops.
Our music workshop was an exciting one, we had 22, primary 7 pupils from Bellsbank primary school with us, who taught us all about their string instruments. A brief background of the pupils: they are all from a deprived area, an organisation supplies string instruments for free and provides the children with weekly lessons. The young boy I was working with had been learning to play the violin for primary 4. I could tell he was passionate about the instrument and had developed a love for learning about string instruments. We worked through a range of activities with the children to give us students an introduction on how to hold the violin correctly, how to pluck the strings and finally how to use the bow. This was a great experience for the children from Bellsbank, stepping foot in a university is something they may never have had the opportunity to do. However, today, they were given the chance toc come into the university and work alongside students. They were the ones with all the knowledge, teaching us.
In our dance workshop, we were looking at the 10 basic moves we should teach children.
- Jump
- Kick
- Roll
- Twist
- Turn
- Hop
- Gesture
- Reach
- Balance
- Slide
These are the basics, that we should develop our dance lessons from. We completed a few warm up activities, then we were put into groups and were required to use the basic 10 steps, to come up with a dance routine. Cone states that “One of the most powerful experiences dance educators can offer children is the opportunity to create a dance that reflects their ideas.” (Cone, 2009) Children are given the opportunity to come up with all their own moves, using the basis of the 10 steps. I really enjoyed the dance workshop, I liked the activity we done where we had to go into one big line. Zara then played a song and the person at the front was required to make up a dance move that the rest of the class then had to follow. Every time the music was changed someone else was at the front and had to come up with a move. I think this was good as it would be good to use with children, it allows them to express themselves in a way they might not always get the opportunity to.
References:
Cone, Theresa. (2009). Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol. 9, pp 81-89. Available: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233223027_Following_Their_Lead_Supporting_Children’s_Ideas_for_Creating_Dances [Accessed: 8th of November 2019].
