Today’s lecture looked at Creative Dance theory. Cone (2009) thought that dance should represent children’s’ ideas. We also looked at Smith-Autard’s Midway Model for Dance in Schools (2002) Which prioritises both the planning and execution of the dance equally and explains how the teacher should not prioritise one over the other.

In drama, we were taught by the remaining teaching groups. One really stood out for me as it looked at ‘Old Nick’ – a highly sexist and horrific character from ‘Room’ by Emma Donoghue. It really captured my attention as it was brilliantly executed and really taught me how controversial or strong issues such as bullying can be explored with a class.

Today in dance we all took a part to play in our warm up and taught it to the class. Then we chose a Christmassy theme and created starting moves for our final dance. This was thoroughly enjoyable and I feel more confident in myself as a dancer.

Today I learned the importance of working together and using other people’s ideas to better your own final product – for example using the drama ideas to explore issues with my own class.

Reference List

Cone, T. (2009) Following Their Lead: Supporting Children’s Ideas for Creating Dances. Journal of Dance Education. Vol.9(3), pp. 81-89.

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