Following our one and only dance input of MA1 I have decided to try planning my own dance lesson. The lesson I have planned is for a P5 class and the stimulus for the lesson is the seasons.

The different seasons conjure up different emotions, different associations etc. and I thought it would be interesting to explore these through dance.

Prior to the lesson which I have planned the children would have had 2 lessons focusing on the different types of movement and expression within dance, meeting the outcome EXA2-08a, as well as a class discussion on the stimulus of ‘Seasons’.

 The lesson itself would meet the outcome:

‘Inspired by a range of stimuli, I can express my ideas, thoughts and feelings through creative work in dance.’ EXA2-09a.

The learning intention would be: To create a group dance/movement piece which is inspired by the seasons.

The success criteria:

• To work effectively as part of a team listening to each others ideas of the thoughts and feelings which relate to ‘seasons’.
• To contribute to your teams efforts by effectively expressing the thoughts and feelings discussed through dance, drawing on those used in previous lessons if needed.
• To be able to rehearse a completed dance/movement piece as a team.

The overall lesson would last for around 1hr 15 minutes. ( A breakdown of my timings can be seen on the above image.)

I feel it would be important to have a consolidation lesson soon after the initial lesson allowing the children to perfect their routines and perhaps to include an element of performance working towards the outcome:

Drawing on one of the examples given by Nikki Doig within the dance input the children could be split in half with half of them being the audience and half performing. This removes some of the apprehension for the children of performing in front of their peers.

The input with Nikki highlighted some of my own apprehension over teaching dance. During my school career my only real connection with dance was mandatory social dancing at the end of each year. Since then I have found a love for exercise classes with a dance element such as Zumba but after an unfortunate accident I now suffer with an ankle injury which considerably restricts the things I am able to take part in.

During our dance input I went through mixed emotions feeling completely useless due to my injury and quite out of place. What this highlighted for me was the mixed emotions I will be faced with when I come to teach dance to my pupils. It is important then that I can demonstrate enthusiasm to my pupils regardless of my own hesitation and show them that despite any reservations they are having they can still have fun and take part.

A next step for me is to look into ways I can demonstrate movements of dance to my children even with my injury.