My workshop experience in my dance was extremely positive. I have taught dance for many years through being a dance leader at school and I have now moved onto teaching at the studio where I was a student. This means I feel confident in teaching dance; however the workshop introduced various different aspects of dance in the primary school and the experiences of dance that myself as a practitioner has to facilitate.
The lesson that we participated in was suitable for all; as it had such a range of choice in what moves or travelling phrases you were able to choose. This made it fun and engaging as we had to think about what we wanted to do as opposed to just copying a dance that someone created. This will allow young people to be creative in their thinking and have the opportunity to perform their own ideas. There were also opportunities to come up with various solutions which shows that there are multiple possibilities not just one. We were asked to work individually, in partners and in groups which allowed group working and communication with others. Travelling was the focus of this lesson but it was not done in a way that prevented expression of participants own ideas; for example often in my dance classes I have a travelling section within my class but I give the methods of travelling. This works in some of my classes however, it is important to give young people the opportunity to create travelling phrases and short phrases using their own ideas. The lesson was structured in a way that did not make participation uncomfortable as it was built up from everyone doing movements at the same time, to then doing it in big groups to finally presenting to the class in small groups. This facilitates the experience of performing, maybe on a small scale but this was all completed in one lesson, with a serious of lessons these skills could be built on and developed.
There are key ideas which I will take from this workshop into my placement. One idea is that it is a good idea to use videos to explore dance. They can be used to provoke thinking and understanding of different styles of dance. Videos can also be used as a stimulus for the young people to then go away and create a variation on what they have saw. Another idea that I would use during my professional practice placement is that I can do a whole lesson on one skill, a lesson that can be adapted to suit all stages of primary schools. The last key message I will take forward into practice is that dance can be done widely in the classroom and as part of a PE lesson. In the classroom; it can be taking part in videos online – for example; Just Dance videos where the young people and myself take part. Dance in the gym can take part in various forms in terms of building on skills and technique or creating a big class dance.
