Dance

Week 2 

Thursday 15th March 2012

In our first dance workshop, before we started composing, we walked around the room at different tempos, different levels and directions as well as leading with various body parts. At each corner of the room, we had to either Hop, Twist, Leap, Stomp or Clap. We made up some movements, got into pairs and shared our ideas, collaborating on how to put movements together based on how it felt and to ensure a flow to the movements.

After doing this activity in the classroom, students could involve themselves in the appreciation process by documenting and reflecting through journals, blog, scrapbook, videorecording etc. Students would discuss about their process of composing their dance, how they used locomotor, non-locomotor movements, the changing directions and patterns they used, how the dynamic changed when more people were involved etc. I thought that these were really good ideas to get students involved, to have them show off their hard work as well as go through the process of appreciating theirs and other’s work. 

Week 3

Thursday 22nd March 2012

In our second dance workshop, the Social aspect of dance was given to us. This included barn dances, ballroom or traditional. We structured our dance piece so it would flow, using transitions such as turns. Our dynamic was high energy and fast paced. We used a variety of directions and patterns, going forwards, backwards, turning sideways and spinning with a partner diagonally to make use of space. Together with fast tempo, circular formations, and relationships we tried to convey our concept of friendship and happiness. 

Through this workshop, I learnt that the choreographic process involves a range of steps. And that these can be taught in the classroom. For example, if the students were to learn about traditional dances, cultural dances or an event was currently the topic of the classroom, students could develop a deeper understanding of the topic, idea or theme through dance. As Gibson (2011, p.35) states, dance develops interdependence, enables students to plan and design, focus and take risks, and develop intercultural understandings. 

                           Week 4

Thursday 29th March 2012

I learnt that students learn cognitive skills through dance. I learnt this through our composition activity. The tactile stimulus was a rainbow coloured rope. In this activity, the cognitive learning we participated in was: perception (bright, contract and release, twists), logical thinking (structuring the dance). We included some canons, levels, different directions and times, at different tempos and dynamics. Metaphoric thinking (metaphor of being tangled and letting go), critical thinking (whether the movement fit into the piece), concept formation (the idea of the string, being pulled and tangled) and decision making (how to move from one movement to another) were included. 

Creativity (how to use the elements of dance to create variety and interest in our dance) and memory (remembering the movements and performing) was also involved. In doing these activities I learnt that dance can be a way of developing the cognitive learning in students. It can be a way to explore ideas and concepts, use students perceptions to create a dance, develop their critical, logical and metaphoric thinking, memory, decision making and a way to express creativity.