Teaching Dance: Reflection

Dear Tracey,

Dance makes unique contributions to the child’s development of body awareness and propriorecption that is important in every moment of life from being able to sit on a chair to walking in a crowd (Dinham, 2014; Rank, 2014). I also think it is a great way to make friends with your body and express emotions that you may not have known you were feeling (Deans, Meiners, & Young, 2012; Dinham, 2014). Every child needs to know how their body exists in space in order to have a clear mind, regardless of dis/ability and dance is a wonderful way to bring this into the mainstream classroom so every child has that opportunity (Deans et al., 2012; Dinham, 2014; Rank, 2014).  

And OH MY GOSH WHAT FUN THE SPELLING OF YOUR NAME! I had so much fun and got so puffed! I feel like not only did it awaken my body but I felt more excited and awake to be able to write this blog entry. I imagine that doing an activity like this would have a similar effect on students – what a great, fun way to help student to re-engage with their bodies and their work (Rank, 2014).

I originally tried to dance in my jeans and that was difficult. It made me think to be mindful of the students’ clothing when doing a dance routine in class, and how some clothing is more restrictive than others (Rank, 2014). Also I think it was great having some parameters when doing this dance but then being able to make individual choices within those parameters (Dinham, 2014; Rank, 2014). I feel like this is important for students too, especially those that might be daunted by dance and choreographing their won dance – to give some quite specific instruction but still allow for creative freedom (Rank , 2014).

Yours, 

Kelda

References:

Deans, J., Meiners, J., & Young, S. (2012). Dance: Art Embodied. In C . Sinclair, N. Jeanneret & J O’Toole (Eds.), Education in the Arts (2^nd Ed) (pp. 128- 144). South Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Dinham, J. (2014). Delivering authentic Arts education. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning Australia.

Rank, K. (2014). Teaching Primary Dance. Carlton South: Education Services Australia Limited.