Introduction
I decided to do an extension assignment on creative dance because I spent the last 4 years teaching Mini Ballet, which is a form of creative dance. I danced throughout my entire life and it was such a great part of my life, it let me express myself and stay active when I could not participate in other sports. I really like the idea behind creative dance and bringing it into the classroom for all students to experience.
Getting Started
We started off the class with Dr. Hopper introducing the lesson and why creative dance can be great within an elementary classroom. With our standard PE games, we learn and teach smaller kid version games so that they can eventually be able to play the adult version of games, we can do the same thing with dance. As Dr. Hopper says in the video, everyone dances, it is embedded within different cultures and all through history, and by changing the focus from the moves that kids learn in structured classes to the creative movement that they can decide for themselves, there will be much more participation and enjoyment within the class.
After introducing the broad topic of creative dance, Dr. Hopper narrowed into what exactly we were going to start off with during that class. He went over the action words and how they connect to the exploration of movement.
Progression A Video
Progression B
After a couple of practices of part A, we moved on to part B which had its own set of words and imagery that coincided with part A. The section started off with the word Freeze and the idea of tension throughout the body while reaching for the distant mirage. After practicing the freezing and reaching for the mirage, we moved on to disappearing of the mirage and how it can deflate the person who is reaching for it. The key word in this movement was Sink. as the mirage disappears, we sink towards the ground. After practicing these key movements, we grouped up the class and added the Rush that we learned in part A. Within each group of 4 everyone had a number 1 through 4 which would be their order of who rushes and freezes at the mirage. One by one the group would rush to the same mirage focus point, and with the last person each group sunk slowly, expressing the deflation of the mirage. At this point we added in the idea of a Rise, which would be performed before the final sink of the disappearing mirage. Putting the rise and sink together with the disappearing mirage, allowed the dancers to build tension, and show their skills at moving in slow sustained ways. The imagery that went along with this was the shimmering of a mirage evaporating before their eyes.
Combining A and B Video
References
Carline, S. (2011). Lesson plans for creative dance: Connecting with literature, arts and music (p. 164-167). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Wall, J., Murray, N. (1994) Children and Movement. Ch. 2, (pp. 44-72)
Getting Started Video
Progression A
Between the two lesson plans above there is a lot of room for adjustment in how this lesson can be taught. Each lesson is teaching the same things but in a slightly different way, which is the idea we want kids to understand when they are doing creative dance, it’s the same word or action but performed in a different way because we are different people.
For the first section of teaching this lesson, Dr. Hopper took the lead and taught in the process of action word by action word, blending them together pretty seamlessly. We started with the Rush, a quick movement where the students run in a curved pattern to find their own space, and eventually a space with a partner. Then we moved onto the Hide, where after rushing each student hides themselves behind an imaginary object found in the desert. After the exploration of hide, we worked on Surround. This one I found could be quite tricky as we are not pretending to surround a particular thing but the space around us. Seeing the surround being done by our class was quite interesting because everyone surrounded space in their own way. Some twirled around themselves to gather the space, some reached from the ground up and vice versa, some went side to side, or in a curved motion from front to back. Blending from the surround was the movement Whirl. The whirling was a great moment for creativity because they students can pick what kind of whirl they want, growing bigger or smaller, going up or going down, moving or staying in one spot. After Dr. Hopper went over these four actions and had everyone make a movement connection we put them all together in a sequence that worked with the music. The sequence was surround, rush, surround, rush, surround, rush, whirl, hide. Before we did this with the music, Dr. Hopper suggested completing the sequence using our fingers as the movement tool. I have never seen this approach before, but it really seemed to cement in their minds exactly what they are doing and when.
Progression B Video
Combining A and B
For the last section of this lesson, we combined parts A and B to create the whole dance. For time purposes, we shortened the song and therefor the combination was slightly different than in the original book by Sally Carline. The sequence that we used went A B A A to an ending where each dancer sinks all the way to the ground. Before we danced this sequence with the music we finger danced the whole thing like we did for part A. After it was clear that everyone understood what sequence went where with the music we spread out and performed it, keeping in the groups they originally practiced in for part B. The class did a great job at showing their interpretation of the action words and phrases and exploring their own movements.
Reflection
Overall I think this class teaching went very well. My peers seemed to enjoy the movement tasks and exploring the connections between their bodies and the action words that were chosen. Because of the way we taught the lesson, basing each movement off an action word that everyone in my class could recognize, the response from everyone was great. There was little confusion of what was expected of them, mostly because each movement other than the time allowed to perform it, was open for interpretation. During the whole lesson, there was concentration and laughter from my peers as they did their movements which was a great thing to hear. When I chose this lesson, I had envisioned a class where everyone would be having fun and moving around in ways that maybe they didn’t think they could before.
Co teaching with Dr. Hopper was great because I could see how everyone responded to his teaching and adjust my own teaching where needed. I found that I can tend to give answers and too much direction, but seeing how Dr. Hopper left the class with as much room for creativity as he could while ensuring that everyone understood the concept helped me change the way I wanted to go over some parts. Dr. Hopper and I taught this lesson in about an hour, with only enough time to run through the final combination once. If I were to teach it again I would consider spreading it out into a unit plan spanning 3-4 classes rather than trying to push all the movements and imagery into one class. Not only would it allow for more for the students to practice and expand their movements, it would give more opportunity to focus on different aspects of the dance, such as the change from quick rushing movements to slow and sustained surrounding movements.
Teaching creative dance in the same way we teach soccer or basketball could be very beneficial to elementary students. Not every child can play a physical sport such as soccer, but every child can dance. Dance is a very broad subject, the type of dance I grew up with and taught was more structured than The Mirage lesson that we taught, and because of that not every child could participate. With lessons and units like The Mirage and others from Sally Carline, even students with physical disabilities can participate and have fun exploring the way their body can move and how it can connect to the thoughts and feelings we have.
Each person has a different understanding of things and a different way to express themselves. It interesting to see how my peers interpreted the action words in their own way, without worrying about what others were doing. I feel that by putting more creative dance into our elementary school classrooms, we can grow the confidence and independence of our students. Units and lessons on creative dance has the possibility to teach our students that everyone sees things and interprets things differently, which can be a hard subject for them to grasp.