Week 9
Monday 3rd September 2012
Workshop #2 Site Specific Dance Education
Background
It has been researched that our first experiences of the world are through
our senses.
Our identities are formed by our experiences
outside of ourselves and the responses we get,
positive and negative, from the world around us.
Children seek to gain mastery over their
environment through understanding it.
For these reasons, dance in the environment or in
a space outside the classroom (alternative space)
can be a very useful tool in exploring a new
theme or consolidating and building confidence in
an area of learning.
Susan Doel, 2010
Teaching and making dance in alternative spaces
 |
| Enjoying our day at Johnsons Park in the sun. |
Information
My name: Chanell McAsey.
Group members: Hannah Smith, Cameron Brown.
Lecturer's name: Jackie Dreessens.
Todays class began by creating a dance piece based on a memory from our teaching experiences.
We began by forming a line based on how much we enjoyed our teaching practicum. On one end was 1: most enjoyable and at the other end 10: least enjoyable.
Through formation of that line on a scale we could see how each of us felt about our futures and then chose a word which best represented our teaching experience as a whole.
There were words such as; eye opening, motivation, confidence etc.
Based on our 'word' we created a movement which we belive represented our word in movement. It was then that we could physically represent how we were feeling.
We then proceeded to move around the room, in a circle with a person yelling and performing their word in the center of the circle. We then changed our spatial arrangements and moved in differing directions of the room whilst performing our movement and chanting our word.
Based on where each person was placed on the scale formed the basis of the groups. In our groups we created an interpretive dance piece combining each of our movements into a piece of dance. Our group represented the feelings we each felt, indecision, eye opening and unsure. Through performance we could relay our feelings to the class and show them in our bodies. Our group performance showed varying levels, cannoning effects, freeze framing and fundamental motor skills such as; rolling, stopping, bending, twisting, landing and turning as well as a series of loco motor skills such as; running, galloping, walking and hopping.
Groups then performed their pieces in unision then in cannon forms which created more excitement for the viewers, we then succeeded to movement around the class exicuting our own personal word and movement. Finally we ended up in a straight line where each person then, in a cannon, performed their 'word' and action.
We have to find ways to tap back into the experience from the past.
We, as students, have to figure out what it is we want to explore and the outcome of this.
In the arts, we must remember that there are no yes or no answers and that we must explore ways of living through predicting and reflecting.
We then continued our way outside to take part in interpreting the environment, by giving the answers in movement. The following slideshow clip will summarize the experience, as well as provide a pictorial recount of the events.
Look at our environment. What can we see? What can we interpret from this into movement and dance?
Ask a leader to make their way around the environment and interpreting things as they go; in the following images we have interpreted park benches, lines on the ground, steps and bushes whilst exploring our environment.
When a dance piece is conceived in relation to a particular place (and is therefore “site-specific”) the location becomes as much a part of the performance as the dancer’s body. Brought out into the world, “dance expands its imaginative repertoire, engages with new audiences, and helps reinvigorate a sense of communal space” . (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/site-specific-dance_n_1707315.html)
More images to accompany the Johnson's Park Site specific activity
We then found a
particular object which happened to be in our environment, a statue of Henry
the 8th. By looking at the object, we then
had to interpret something we saw, something that stood out and that we could
recreate. Students chose to be his boots and would rein act putting on his
boots, some chose his posture, others his crown or his scribe. As you can see
from the image below, I chose to be his cross which he was
holding
In completion of the workshop, we were asked to lay down where we practiced meditation. It can be said that ‘Meditation is a practice in which an individual trains the mind and/or induces a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit’ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation. Through this form of meditation we learnt to relax our minds. Some then spoke of how they felt during meditation, some used it as a time to let their imaginations run wild and others to sort out the clutter in their minds. I found it useful to just shut my mind from all thoughts and listen to the sounds of nature.
Finally, we took part in the experience of yoga. Yoga assists in detaching your body from itself, as the Buddhists might say. We discussed the benefits of Yoga for our breathing, stretching and for the strengthening of our core.
According to Susan Doel notes a typical dance lesson should occur as follows:
1. Warming Up
for the lesson
task in which to explore the concept. This can be done with the whole
body, parts of the body, individually or in groups. Students can share
with the class their findings
technique.
movement problem to solve on the spot without practice
(improvisation), or to solve through creating a set study
(choreography), which can then be shared with the class.
Music
Teaching aids and safe use of props and equipment
This class involved taking students into the environment in order to perform site specific dance. The biggest safety concern in this task is children's physical safety outside. We as teachers, must ensure that if children are working outdoors that all safety precautions are taken at all times.
Main art learning processes
'Using
dance in alternative spaces gives children the
opportunity to get feedback from their world about who
they are'
The main art learning processes were that of an ethnographic study.
Qualitative research:
Improvisation:
Selection:
Arangement:
Refinement:
Evaluation:
Further development of dance teaching ideas across the curriculum and other areas of VELS
The Arts
Creating and making:
Progression Point 3.5:
Manipulation, using appropriate skills and techniques, of
selected dramatic elements to communicate ideas for a
specified purpose or audience.
Creating and making:
Progression Point 4.75
selection and development of movement phrases for a
specific purpose .
Interpersonal Learning
Working in teams:
Progression Point 2.25 :Recognition of the right s of all team members to participate
and feel accepted as part of that group.
Progression Point 2.25:
Victorian
Essential Learning Standards - VELS. 2012. Victorian Essential Learning
Standards - VELS. [ONLINE] Available at:http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/.
[Accessed 05 September 2012].
Meditation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 2012. Meditation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. [ONLINE] Available at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meditation. [Accessed 05 September 2012]
Site-Specific Choreography: When Dances Goes To Unexpected Places (VIDEO). 2012. Site-Specific Choreography: When Dances Goes To Unexpected Places (VIDEO). [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/28/site-specific-dance_n_1707315.html. [Accessed 02 October 2012]
Susan Doel, 2010 (no further information was given)
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