DANCE| Recovery- Hope and Celebration
This week we focus on Dance. For this challenge I need to incorporate both the theme of challenge 3 which was loss and my original composition for challenge 4, which was music.
The main questions throughout this process that we were asked to focus on were; why is creativity important to individuals and in education? How can we use our bodies and movement with music to create and communicate? These questions I at first could not answer simply, I could come to the conclusion that not all students strengths are within English and Maths, some students strength come shining through in The Arts which is why creativity in education can be and is so important. It breaks up the stagnant “1+1= a square window”. As to how do we use our bodies to with music to create and communicate … this was tough. My brain went immediately to interpretive dance. Which, we can see when we watch animals ‘dance’ in the wild, we can only imagine why they are dancing and create a story from there.
To communicate hope and celebration I chose the video of the Dancing Brolgas. Which fits in with my challenge 3 of loss and recovery theme with the book The Drought.
Word Bank
Movement words
– Gliding – Skipping
– Turning – Bending
– Rising – Twisting
– Jumping
Body Parts that can move
– Arms – Neck
– Legs – Head
Movement Exploration
Jumping– this will symbolise much like in the video; the joy and relief the rain is bringing
Flapping arms– symbolising the happiess and joy that the rain
Planning my Choreography
After watching the Brolgas dance it really hit home regarding the loss, recovery and hope theme in the stimulus. They may have experiences a long period without rain; which related to Challenge 3 and The Drought where the drought took away so much of the farmers hope and the land was suffering. This dance needed to show the recovery and hope that the rain has brought these birds. This needs to be conveyed through movement. Which is why I have chosen jumping and flapping arms. This depicts happiness and joy, symbolising the hope in that moment that the rain will be there to stay. To ensure that the theme is felt by the audience, the routine needed to be well structured (Roy et al., 2019, p. 104).
Using my arms, legs, head and torso I would be able to develop the choreography in a way that would depict excitement and whole body crouching will be a way to symbolise the rise of the loss and choosing leaping straight after will depict the happiness, hope and joy that the birds are feeling from the rain.
The Classroom
Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices(ACADAM005 – Scootle )
Practise technical skills safely in fundamental movements (ACADAM006 – Scootle )
Perform dances using expressive skills to communicate ideas, including telling cultural or community stories (ACADAM007 – Scootle )
Identify how the elements of dance and production elements express ideas in dance they make, perform and experience as audience, including exploration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance (ACADAR008 – Scootle )
The students will first be introduced to the unit via a lesson focusing on dance movements and how to group them together to create a sequence of steps to tell a story.
The students will then be asked to split into groups of 4 and come up with a performance using dance movements to express ideas of hope and recovery. This incorporates the content descriptors of “Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices(ACADAM005 – Scootle )” and Perform dances using expressive skills to communicate ideas, including telling cultural or community stories (ACADAM007 – Scootle )“.
The students will first have to create list of movements and body parts that they will incorporate in the dance performance as well as creating a dance map, as we have in the challenge. The students will then be asked to choreograph their dance routine and record it for the class on their iPads, which incorporates some ICT into the lessons and caters for those students who do find it difficult either performing in front of a group or struggle to memorise movements.
Critical Reflection
I chose Gibbs Reflective Cycle to complete my reflection regarding this task.
This was a challenge that I was somewhat dreading, not as much as the last challenge but I certainly did not feel confident going into this. However, once I sat with the challenge materials and reflected on the previous challenges I was able to find my feet with it. The experience of making the video was extremely nerve wrecking as remembering the movements was a bit of a challenge and the adaptation to the classroom section was challenging. This is because I am not used to trying to think of ways that students can be 100% creative within the classroom, this is going to be a weakness of mine that I will endeavour to work through! Students need to be able to have the freedom to create their own movements and not be controlled (Roy, et al. 2019, pg 118). This guided my classroom adaptation so that students knew what movements to incorporate but had the freedom to choose.
I could have taken more time to really work on the movements within the dance routine to tell the story in a way that was inclusive of the theme of loss from challenge 3, however I was focusing more on what will happen after the drought and how the animals would feel. Really reflecting back on this process, I have enjoyed this challenge the most out of the 5 because it wasn’t as strenuous as the previous challenges on my brain!
References
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2022). Australian Curriculum: Dance (version 8.4). https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/dance/
Oz Outback Family. (2017). Funny dancing birds Brolgas dancing in outback Western Australia [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/1Tjy16PTsgQ
Roy, D., Baker, W., & Hamilton, A. (2019). Teaching the Arts Early Childhood and Primary Education. Cambridge University Press.
UCD Reflective Practice Models. (2021) Gibbs reflective cycle. https://www.ucd.ie/teaching/t4media/reflective_practice_models.pdf
Not.So.Artsy 