DANCE PORTFOLIO

Entry 1

Welcome to my multimodal portfolio for dance! 

This is an exciting experience to have the opportunity to share my learning with all my readers. This week at my Brock dance class, we looked at  Laban's theory of movement. 

"Laban looked upon movement as a two-way language process through which the body could communicate by giving and receiving messages. He believed that movement stems from the interdependence of body, mind, and spirit and he understood that our inner life relates to the outer world. Laban created a theoretical language in order to help the observer understand and record movement objectively. This is still widely used in many fields of the movement/dance and therapy worlds." (Sesame Institute).

Theory of Embodiment.

As educators, we can use Laban's theory to observe, describe and notate in dance! This is greatly useful in the assessment process as some can find it difficult to assess students when the topic or subject is so open-ended like dance. Another theory that we learned later in the course is the Theory of Embodiment. This focuses on how and why students move their bodies. It is important for teachers to understand their students and the situated context that they are moving in. The 2 theories that were discussed and the elements of dance are all concepts that I will use to strengthen and differentiate my lessons. 

Enjoying the first day of class! (No I am not in the picture, I was the one who took it)

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Entry 2

Elements of Dance poster- Energy

BERST!

Berst, is actually an abbreviated version of the elements of dance found the Ontario Curriculum. The elements of dance: body, energy, relationship, space & time. After watching all of the class lessons put together by my peers, I have gathered a collection of dance lessons that teach 1 or 2 elements of dance. 

When creating lessons based on the elements, teachers can also keep in mind the Dwyer theory of how students learn. I found this very helpful when it came time for my group members and myself to plan our lesson. Using the Dwyer theory will help teachers plan according to what is being taught and how to deliver the content to the students. Below is an image of the Dwyer theory. 

A resource that is great for introducing the elements of dance is Dance Cards by Action Pak. This resource is similar to flash cards, but they display 70 creative action words based on Laban's Principles of Movement."The cards encourage each student to experiment, create, link, and choreograph action phrases. The Action Pak teaches physical literacy, language acquisition, and helps each dancer to develop a dance vocabulary in a safe and creative environment. No longer will your students simply regurgitate steps with the hopes of getting things "right", but rather explore and refine using the creative process and the fundamental principles of movement."(ActionPakDanceResource).

Action Pak cards are a great resource to get students moving and using the element of surprise if you wanted to get students spontaneously by choosing random cards. I can see myself using these either at the beginning of the lesson to get my students moving or at the end of the lesson to see how students move in order to consolidate the lesson.

ActionPak Cards in English

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Entry 3

Colour Wheel & Energy Wheel

Instructions for activity:

Choose a colour.

Choose a verb.

Create a quality (light, lively, strong, explosive, heavy, sustained)

Red—travel

Yellow- -jump

Blue-melt.

Orange -turn

Purple – of power

Green – grow.

Overall Curriculum Expectation:

Movement- A1. Creating and Presenting: design and demonstrate compositions of movement sequences and short dance pieces, using the elements of dance to communicate feelings and ideas;

I wanted to share this activity with you readers, as I completed my undergrad in visual arts. I was looking forward to this class as I was intrigued to learn how to create a cross-curricular lesson and activities with Visual Arts and Dance. The activity that I shared above looks at the color wheel, and taking each color and associating it with a verb or an action. It is important with this activity to work as a class first in order to get students to make the connection of how the colors can represent an action in dance.

I can see myself using this activity at the beginning of the year with my students in Visual Arts to create a cross-curricular lesson. I like the idea of a how an activity like this gets students thinking beyond what they would normally associate colors with and apply it to an action. I feel like this activity would be helpful for kinesthetic learners because in Visual Arts students tend to just sit down to work on their activity. This activity also gets students thinking and seeing that their body as a tool. Just as a paintbrush is a tool in the visual arts, so is the body. That moment with students could be a teachable moment to explain how visual arts goes beyond the traditional painting or drawing.

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Entry 4

Connecting Dance & Science!

Ontario Science Strands by Grade

As Visual Arts was an interesting subject to learn how to integrate with dance, I equally found that science is a subject that is interesting to intertwine with dance. I did not see at first how to connect science with dance but interesting enough, our Prof showed us a TED Talk on incorporating dance to visualize and demonstrate science components. After watching the video, I learned just as we did with Visual Arts, that science, and dance can create new learning opportunities for students. I feel that introducing a lesson or an activity, like the one that was demonstrated in the TED Talk, will benefit kinesthetic learners. Getting students to act out and become the concept that you are trying to teach in science will help the students to retain the information and have a better understanding of the concept. I can see myself doing this in my science class as it gets the students a chance to get up and move and break the system of what is normal and traditional in teaching science. This will be a fun way for students to gather more information about the content they are learning before they act it out in a dance sequence.

Below is the video that was showed to us in class which I would like to share with you readers.

An example of how I would create a cross-curricular lesson with science and dance is by using a key term and getting students to use their body, thinking of The Elements of Dance to demonstrate the term. For example, if the student's key term is photosynthesis, I would get them to think of how their group would demonstrate photosynthesis using their body and incorporating the element of relationship. Students would then have to think about how they interact with one another in a group and physically user bodies to demonstrate photosynthesis. They would have to think of the beginning stages along with the end result and transitions. This activity can be used as the action portion of a lesson or to consolidate the students learning. Students can be assessed based on their interpretation of the key term and how well they incorporated the element along with working with their peers.

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Entry 5

This week I had the chance to give a class lesson. Our focus was on the element of relationship which included the strategy of flocking and mirroring.

Elements of Dance in our lesson:

Body: symmetry versus asymmetry, organic versus geometric shape, angular versus curved shape, gesture, body zones

Relationships: meet/ part, follow/lead, groups (Specific Focus for this lesson)

Space: positive versus negative space, pathways

Time: tempo, rhythm, pause, stillness, acceleration/deceleration

Effort: energy, force, quality (e.g. punch, thrust, float, collapse, wiggle)

Learning Goals- Students learned to:

- Apply the creative process to choreograph short movement sequences with a partner/ group.

- Use techniques/ strategies (mirroring & flocking) to create movements for choreography.

- Recognize when it is necessary to use concentration in dance through improvisation.

- Explore the elements of relationship and body through dance.

- Rehearse, and present movement sequences with a partner/ small group to a selected piece of music.

Flocking

Flocking- In this activity students will be introduced to the concept of Flocking. During this activity, students will be divided into groups of four or five. Each group will form a shape. The first student will lead the group facing the front. The other students will turn their bodies towards the leader and face the same direction. Students will form a shape that looks like a flock of birds following the lead bird. The leader will demonstrate one or two movements that they have formulated. The other students will simultaneously copy the movement. Once all students have gained an understanding of the movement, they will switch so that a new leader demonstrates a movement. After all students have had the opportunity to be the leader and share their movement, they will create a second movement. During the second round, music will be added to create atmosphere and different interpretations. Students will present their performances to the larger group.

Mirroring- A type of improvisation. Two students face each other. Student A initiates the movement, while student B follows, maintaining eye contact as appropriate; students switch roles after a set time.

Mirroring done with partners.

Possible Extensions:

- Choral speaking and chanting can be incorporated with flocking.

- Flocking can be explored in a larger group.

- Flocking can be used to explore contrasting ideas using opposites in movement, and to explore a character’s inner thoughts.*

-Discuss strategies either through conversation or product (i.e. exit card)

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Entry 6 

Reflecting back on this course, I have learned many new strategies and lessons that I will implement in my future classroom. I did not have the opportunity to teach dance in my placements but I feel confident now more than ever to teach it to my class. With my new found confidence, I wanted to share a list of the strategies that I have acquired in this course with my readers. Enjoy! 

On our last day of class, we had the opportunity to go through a lesson that our prof created with students at a local elementary school. I found the experience interesting as the lessons that have been developed in class are taught to adults, but this time we had a mix of both adults and children. I like how we got the chance to see how students would react to a lesson and also for us to be in the same role as the student.  We are always put in the role of the teacher, so this field trip was refreshing to experience both roles of the teacher and student. While on our visit, we took the last class photo, bittersweet moment!

Last day class photo!