Thursday, 21 February 2013

Dance Pedagogy: Children



Title: Sea Life
Theme: Movement wise exploration of plants and animals that might be found in the sea
Age group: 5-6
Duration: 45 min
Space: Studio
Equipment: CD and books (about sea)
General goal: Deepen the knowledge about sea through dance movements
Learning objectives:
1.    Basic knowledge of levels (low-medium-high)
2.    Sense of space and ability to create your own pathways in space in relationship to other group members
3.     Knowledge about the flow, especially bound flow where energy is controlled and can be stopped at any point

 Introduction (5’)/Warm-up (10’) (Music: A sailor went to the sea &There’s a hole in the bottom of the sea)
As students enter the classroom, they sit down in the circle. Tutor introduces the theme and asks students if they know what Sea Life Centre is. Have they ever been there? What did they see? Most likely that kids going to name all kind of fish such as sharks, starfish, crabs and so on. Tutor can show them a book and introduce other animals and plants that can be found in the deep sea. For example coral reefs, giant spider crabs, sea lions or even giant tube worms.
Concepts of warm-up: be able to explore all findings in movement including different levels. Students will be able to develop the understanding of different shapes body can create. Children are divided into two teams.
·         Move sideways, face your team, swing your upper body 4 times from one side to another, move sideways back to your team (WAVE)
·         Move sideways, face your team, do 4 star jumps, move sideways back to your team (STARFISH)
·         Move sideways, face your team, give to all body a good shake and do roll down and up at the same time, move sideways back to your team (SEA SNAKE)
·         Using tiny steps move across the space with the quality of small fast moving fish then come back to your team (FISH)
·         Move across the space as a long, delicate sea grass which grows up and all the time waves then come back to your team (SEA GRASS)
Transition: from warm-up lines first people lead their lines and create a big circle.
Main body (20’)
Concept: be able to understand the differences between shapes which are frozen and which are done while moving. Exploration of two totally different aspects: stability and flow.

·         In the middle of the circle will be a book to remind children what is that coral reef and how it looks like because we going to create our own coral reefs! Coral reefs are colonies of tiny leaving animals. Whoever wants to start goes to the middle of the circle and does a frozen shape. Another person has to join the first with his own shape. However there is one rule! To stay in contact with others.


Transition: groups of four.
·         How does the fish move? Straight, zigzag, wavy, fast, slowly… In groups children will move as a fish tribe. The rule is to be close to each other in a group but do not touch each other. Moreover, one group cannot interconnect with other fish group. Start moving slowly and then speed up. Leaders in groups will need to change as soon as all group changes direction.
Transition: become independent, move across the space on your own.
·         Free improvisation allows children to use all the movement vocabulary learnt in this class. Movements to describe fish, see grass, coral reef, etc.
Relaxation and Conclusion (5-10’)
Coral reef slowly melts towards the floor. Children finish in a sitting position.
·         Discussion of what students have learnt from this session (qualities, movements, etc.) Brief review of the covered material
·         Sharing the emotions
·         Sharing the problems
Outlook on the next session: Continue exploring the sea life which might transfer into a rivers and rainforests.





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