Deryck Ball
Carline, S. (2011). Lesson plans for creative dance: Connecting with literature, arts and music. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, p. 1-12
Quote:
“Even if a dance idea was not working very well, I had the feeling that it would if only I could clarify my teaching process” (p.4)
This first chapter presents us with an overall framework to viewing/understanding movement and how it relates to dance. It outlines vocabulary and terminologies, giving us the basic language of dance and how it relates/connects to our bodies and how we can manipulate it to express many different ideas/emotions. To focus in on dance as a part of physical education, we are given 4 lenses in which to do so with: 1) Body Awareness 2) Dynamic Awareness 3) Spatial Awareness 4) Relationship Awareness. With the full understanding of this groundwork, the author offers us assessment benchmarks and ideas to guide us in our own assessments when we become teachers.
Reasoning:
Based on the studies of Rudolf Laban, four areas of movement are highlighted and given as a starting point to teaching/assessing Creative dance:
1) Body Awareness: What the Body is Doing: Labelled as the “expressive” area of Physical Education, it is important to note that reasons for movement are different between Sports Education and Creative Dance (CD). There are only so many reasons and ways of moving in sports, whereas in CD with the addition of the “creative/expressive” dimension, the reasons for movement become limitless.
2) Dynamic (Effort) Awareness: As these four groups cover very broad areas, Laban further broke down the area of Dynamic Awareness into four subgroups that together form a very good foundational understanding that helps us teach/assess “how the body is moving”:
i. Weight: Using Firm and Fine as our terminology to describe the difference between a “punch” and a “pat” for instance gives us a mental picture of how tense the muscles are during the action. Day to day life utilizes the range between Firm and Fine, very seldom one or the other. As teachers, we are introducing content that is to broaden this range for our students by highlighting the polar opposites.
ii. Time: In describing quick actions/movements and durations, all of which happen over time, we are given “sudden” and “sustained” to add to our Creative Dance Vocabulary. For many, being able to demonstrate the difference is easy, however for some this may not be true. As it calls upon self-control and concentration “sustaining” will be a moderately difficult activity for most children to do.
iii. Space: When looking at space in relation to CD and PE it is important that students develop a sense of how their limbs can move within this space. For younger children (I image for the same reason as “sustaining”) it is difficult to repeat linear motions, for instance with their arms, tending to fling them. Our limbs can move in two ways with regards to the space around us “Curved” and “Linear”.
iv. Flow: To say something moves freely infers that it is flowing, that it has continual uninterrupted room to move; to interrupt this flow would be to “bind” it.
It must be noted that most activities that are carried out by students use a combination of these four subgroups when teaching/describing/assessing how the body is moving, such as in Skipping (weight and time).
3) Spatial Awareness: Using 8 categories Laban breaks down how we interpret, teach and assess WHERE the body is moving by describing it using the following:
i. Personal Space: Actions close to the body (Shivering, spin, pause etc). Moving out of this space requires a degree of competence within personal space first, due to safety.
ii. Directions: As the body is designed for forward motion, children love the excitement of changing directions. Backwards motion is one that requires safety reminders and provides for a challenge at the same time. Use this as an extension tool.
iii. Pathways: Moving in a straight line is boring, especially for children. After straight mastery of a concept increase the difficulty with the introduction of a new pathway, or direction to travel.
iv. Levels: Experiment with center of gravity. Jumping allows for students to grasp the feel of their body in relation to a high moving center of gravity. When dealing with a ‘range’ of motion, our objective is to develop the polar opposites before working on the middle ground.
v. Body Bases: Making shapes with the body while in the laying, sitting, crouching, kneeling positions.
vi. Body Shapes: Utilizing our limbs and personal space, we can create many shape with our bodies working on control of muscles (Round shapes, narrow shapes etc.)
vii. Spatial Prepositions: Best used with students of age 7 and up, the students explore the spatial concepts such as being above something, below it or surrounding it.
viii. Extensions into space: This is all about making sense of 3D shapes created with the body. The area behind is explored while the leg extends backwards into that space. Making cognizant what is not seen.
4) Relationship Awareness: “The possibilities of leading and following, meeting and parting, splitting, mirroring, contrasting and being in canon and unison are enormous”(p.9). Not only does this expose students to new interpretations of ideas it also provides for a fun and challenging extensions.
Assessing Dance might seem like an impossible task, however, after reading the last section of this chapter and using the structure from the first half, a few suggestions are given: 1) Select a few students to monitor more closely (without their knowledge), each class 2) Make a video recording of the classes. It is also suggested that students are communicated to exactly what it is that they will be assessed on. Having students perform their group dance more than once is another suggestion as it confirms memory of dance, gives a second chance to see something that may have been missed the first time.
Assumptions: As the author does state, she’s pretty lucky to have the same students for so many years in which she could use as a basis for this book. She may assume that all “generalist” teachers have no knowledge of dance, however, I point this out as a positive assumption. Being from the group of have NO knowledge of dance what so ever, I can appreciate this direction.
Conclusion: As generalist teachers, some with and some without dance experience, we need a place to start and build from when teaching dance. Having no experience myself in dance, this chapter gave me some substance in which to start an exploration into dance with that I will eventually invite my students to join in on (if need be).
Significant Information: I have included the significant information in the above under “Dynamic Awareness” and “Spatial Awareness” as the subcategories.
Question: I don’t know about you, but I’m completely new to dance and was surprised upon noticing Dance was a part of our curriculum. What was your first impression when you first found out we were going to be learning to teach dance? After reading this chapter do you feel differently about dance in education and your responsibility to teach it?