Our visit on October 22 was very fun. After getting a feel for where the students were in in their dancing abilities last week, I devised a lesson plan to teach them some terminology that was a bit more tricky for them in during the Chance Dance Lesson (see lesson plans tab). The two dancing terms that we went over were "move through the space" and "make a shape." The dancers came up with very interesting shapes. Some of the shapes involved other students or inanimate objects. As they came up their shapes, you could really see the creative gears turning in their heads. We also worked on loco-motor movements. They paired energy qualities with loco-motor movements to create fun, interesting ways to move through the space. Finally, we paired making shapes and moving through the space to create an interesting dance that they performed for each other. It was very rewarding to see just how creative they could be. They came up with things that I probably never would have come up with, and I'm trained in dance! It was a successful introduction to dance.
Here is one student's very strong shape. Notice the focus of his head and the energy in his fingers. Awesome!
They were encouraged to try different levels and use different body parts. Notice how every child is using their autonomy and decision making to create something interesting and different from the next person.
(more pictures in the gallery tab)
