Leading with Creative Dance

Abstract

Creative dance is not easily defined but involves using our whole bodies to express and enhance our inner thoughts and feelings using different techniques and sometimes incorporating aspects of different dance forms. This chapter suggests a range of creative ways to embed dance and movement in the early childhood, primary and middle years curriculum. It explores how dance can enable self-expression while improving our physical skills and flexibility. The activities and units demonstrate that the elements of creative dance including action, dynamics, structure as well as organising or choreographing movement and appreciation lend themselves quite naturally to the other Arts disciplines. The resonances with drama, visual arts and music are explored but other Key Learning Areas are also considered.

FormalPara Learning Objectives

• to develop a rationale for creative dance;

• to understand how dance involves our whole being;

• to explore creative ways to embed dance and movement across the curriculum; and

• to experiment with using dance to interpret feelings, ideas, dilemmas and needs.

1 Introduction

David McAllister, the outgoing Director of the Australian Ballet, has commented that, in his view, dance is one of the least understood of the Arts disciplines, and, consequently, it is perhaps the most neglected in early childhood, primary and middle years classrooms. This may be the result of the stereotypes related to the performative aspects of dance, associations with the tutu, and femininity and concepts of elite skills (Buck 2004).

2 Creative Dance Defined

I guess it’s as simple as when a rhythmic idea in the body fits together with a rhythmic idea in the structure of a pre-recorded piece of music. So especially in an improvised setting, it’s a synchronicity, or a sense of arriving at something spontaneous that connects. (Whaites 2014 in McKenzie 2017)

Creative dance is not easily defined but involves using our bodies to express and enhance our inner thoughts and feelings using different techniques and sometimes incorporating some aspects of different dance forms. Creative dance involves us physically, emotionally, intellectually and aesthetically. Donald Blumenfield-Jones (2008) suggests that dance is a ‘personal affair of motion’ (p. 175) and suggests that when we dance we are analysing or interpreting through our bodies and turning that analysis or interpretation into action.

When we move creatively we are engaged in problem-solving, and are embodying our thoughts and feelings. Dance involves our whole selves in individual self- expression and, at the same time, improves our physical skills and flexibility. In addition creative dance involves organising or choreographing that movement and, finally, performing it (Image 5.1).

Image 5.1

Year 6 students creating body shapes

This chapter includes creative ways to embed dance and movement in the primary and middle years curriculum. It demonstrates that the elements of creative dance such as action, dynamics, structure as well as appreciation lend themselves quite naturally to the other Arts disciplines, in particular, drama and music, but also across other Key Learning Areas. Dance activities can also be visually represented through paint, charcoal, clay or digitally. David Spurgeon (1991) advocates that ‘students can achieve rewarding, satisfying and aesthetically pleasing dance experiences via improvisation’ (p. 4).

3 Movement Is Important in Everyday Life

Movement is part of the child’s life from the moment they are conceived. From birth movements like sucking, reaching, stretching, kicking, crying, rolling and, ultimately, crawling, walking and running continue to be critical to healthy growth and intellectual development. Learning to talk also requires movement of our vocal cords, and most of us embellish our language with gesture and movement. Often the first sign that a child may be experiencing some developmental difficulties is indicated by difficulties with their motor activities. As Cust (1974) wrote:

Children readily reveal their modes of exuberance, anger, tiredness and fear in movement. They will jump and twirl for joy, stamp in anger and slouch and stoop when tired or bored. It is this natural, spontaneous use of movement as an expressive medium that children are urged to exploit in creative dance.

Unfortunately sometimes starting school means that movement becomes more limited for the young child. Children are often expected to ‘sit/stand still’ or to ‘work quietly’ in the classroom, and the emphasis is increasingly on verbal followed by written activities. For some children, this is an extremely difficult expectation because they are kinaesthetic learners and need to be actively doing things to learn effectively.

While some teachers are happy to include the more traditional ‘folk’ or ‘bush’ dancing as part of the physical education curriculum, this is not always done well and leaves some children with a distorted and very limited view of the unique possibilities that dance and creative movement can play in their lives.

Feeling comfortable in and with our bodies is important to sustain throughout schooling and, indeed, through life. As Noone (in Everett et al. 2009) reminds us, ‘being comfortable with our own bodies helps us connect with other bodies, as well as with non-human elements in our physical, social, cultural, economic and political environments’ (p. 197). In 2001, Shirley Brice Heath’s study of extra-curricular activities after school, or what she called the third learning space, found that involvement in dance activities develops students’ interdependence, planning and designing, precision in focus and risk-taking. She asserted that intercultural understandings could also be developed through dance, providing examples of students from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, who had developed empathy for each other through their dance collaborations:

Dancing together illustrates the ultimate in aesthetic and visible rendering of coming together, being in one another’s heads and bodies, and joining in mutual support and interdependency. (p. 14)

Another example of a dance programme that is used to improve students’ academic and social outcomes can be found in Dance – The Next Generation run by the Sarasota Ballet School in Florida, in conjunction with the University of South Florida. Since 1991, each year, as many as 100 economically disadvantaged and/or at-risk Year 3 children are accepted into the ten-year full scholarship dance programme with the aim of enabling student self-discipline inherent in the study of dance and resulting in achieving academic goals and becoming a positive, contributing member of society. Students attend classical ballet, jazz, elements of dance and composition to improve their self-esteem, identity and purpose. A former dance student from Dance – The Next Generation commented:

Dancing has shined a light in my life and taken me to places I never thought I would be. (http://www.sarasotaballet.org/index.php/dng-success-stories.html)

One of the interesting things with Dance – the Next Generation is that the aim is not necessarily to develop outstanding dancers (although some participants in the programme have become well-known dancers)—it is to improve students’ academic and learning outcomes.

4 A Rationale for Creative Dance

Dance is expressive movement with purpose and form. Through dance, students represent, question and celebrate human experience, using the body as the instrument and movement as the medium for personal, social, emotional, spiritual and physical communication. (Dance in the Australian Curriculum, https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/the-arts/dance/)

Just as with visual arts, drama, music, literature and film, we argue that it is the engagement in the dance process that is crucial, not the teacher’s own skill in this area. Becoming physically articulate and finding one’s own ways of moving can often improve a child’s abilities with spoken and written language at the same time. The Out There: the Australian Ballet in Schools programme offered to schools by the Australian Ballet since 2006 is premised on these understandings (Cameron 2010). Other research suggests that collaborative dance opportunities can enable children to break with stereotypical ways of looking at themselves and the world. As Macdonald (1991) argues:

Only those children who have experienced creative dance can appreciate its physical, intellectual, and emotional impact, since physical movements are external representations of internal events. Because these movements could not take place without inner experience, the inner experience cannot be denied. Creative dance helps children explore their views on life issues, on the human condition, and on their own condition. (p. 434)

As we mentioned in Chap. 4, those educators who advocate a wholistic approach to curriculum planning emphasise the connections between the mind and the body (e.g. Miller 1988). Cust (1974) reminds us that creative dance is concerned with ‘movement imagination’ (p. 3) or the ‘kinaesthetic feelings or sensations of fastness, slowness, suddenness, sustainment, strength, lightness’ (p. 4).

Macdonald (1991) uses this premise to argue that creative dance involves much more than the physical self—it involves our whole being. One of the best historical examples of this is Isadora Duncan, a dancer of the early twentieth century. She argued that dance was the outward manifestation of inner feeling and awareness, and that to dance was to involve oneself in the greater movements of the universe (Duncan 1969). Contemporary dance enthusiasts assert that dance involves learning through all the intelligences: verbal-linguistic, mathematical-logical, visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, auditory-musical, intrapersonal and interpersonal, and naturalistic (Gardner et al. 1996).

Many teachers, however, express a lack confidence in the creative dance area and, consequently, creative dance is frequently overlooked in their classrooms. Other schools leave dance to a specialist teacher and happily deposit their class at the door of the hall for this lesson and quickly escape. In addition there is a myth that is strongly perpetuated by many parents and community members that creative dance is much more the province of girls. This is an unfortunate misperception, given that many boys prefer to learn kinaesthetically, and creative dance provides such an opportunity.

Interestingly, it would seem that the neglect of dance is often a feature of western education cultures. In contrast, in African and Pacific Island cultures, for example, dance is an extremely important part of the curriculum. Robyn Archer (2009) reminds us that it is the Arts processes that are important—so it is the creative movement making and exploration that are important rather than the dance performance itself.

Activity

How do you feel about teaching creative dance? Why? When was the last time you took a dance class or lesson? Is it time to have another?

5 Goals of Creative Dance

Integrating creative dance in the early childhood, primary and middle years curriculum aims to enable students to:

• enjoy moving creatively;

• know their bodies well and feel comfortable with and confident in them;

• express ideas and feelings through movement, both individually and collaboratively; and

• apply artistic elements such as time, shape, and energy and structure to their movement.

6 Beginning with Creative Dance

Those who advocate that dance should be an integral part of the curriculum provide many examples of how this might happen. Certainly poems and stories can be interpreted through creative dance as exemplified in the Monkey Baa Theatre Company’s rendition of Wild and Brook’s (2000) Fox. If students realise that they can use their bodies to interpret their feelings, ideas, beliefs and needs, such understandings have the potential to affect their whole approach to learning (Image 5.2).

Image 5.2

Students exploring the concept of ‘the quest’

Research in this area is sadly minimal. Macdonald’s (1991) Canadian study, however, shows how eight teachers of varying experience teaching grades, ranging from junior kindergarten through to Grade 3, quickly saw its significance in their classrooms after just six 2-hour workshops. The workshops incorporated some basic dance theory as well as concrete ideas for the classroom. Children were introduced to the concept of focus. They made different shapes with their bodies, experimented with different body levels, worked in groups and danced with props and to different sounds. Creative dance was introduced in their classrooms in mathematics, science and language content areas. These teachers were actively encouraged to participate alongside their students and then to follow up with the ideas and skills that had been introduced in between the workshops. The strength of this project was that Macdonald addressed the professional learning needs of the classroom teachers at the same time—although no benchmarks of student learning before and after the dance programme are reported.

7 Establishing a Positive Creative Dance Context in the Classroom

Depending on their family and cultural background, students will come to creative dance with different attitudes to and understandings of the art form. Whatever background they arrive with it is important to create a positive and supportive atmosphere where students feel comfortable and ready to have a go. They need to understand that there is no right or wrong in dance and they should not feel threatened. The following suggestions may facilitate a positive dance climate in your classroom:

• Discuss routines, signals and organisation and your expectations including the need to share the space amicably.

• Find a space that will work for creative dance. If you are going to use your classroom there needs to be a routine everyone is aware of for moving desks without fuss.

• Encourage students to explore their own body movements. You might want to start with mirror activities led by you and then by different students before they mirror in pairs.

• Teach your students the language of dance. Discuss with them how shape, motion and time are all important features of dance. They might like to think about shape as arrested motion, similar to the way frozen images or depictions in drama allow us to focus on one moment in time.

• Model good posture, safe dance practice, appropriate ways to bend, stretch, rotate and so on.

• Focus initially on exploring the different elements of dance through non-gender-specific content and themes. Over time move to more extended topics.

• Provide opportunities for students to create movements which connect with others.

• Encourage students to work in single- and mixed-sex groupings.

• Incorporate a wide range of music from a range of different cultures with strong beats and suggesting different moods and themes. Discuss the way the different music encourages different kinds of music (there are strong links to the music chapter here)

• Introduce percussion instruments.

• Explore a wide variety of sounds including those that are generated electronically.

• Encourage children to explore different movements and levels. Ask questions that will extend students and help them explore how they can use movement to improvise, discover and create dance. Gradually students will develop confidence to take risks.

• Enable students to make decisions about their creative process so that they can develop ownership of their dance activities.

• Provide opportunities to view, respond to and discuss live dance performances (Image 5.3).

Image 5.3

Students responding to Dream of an ancient tablet

Following are some suggestions to encourage you to think about potential connections between Dance and other Key Learning Areas.

8 Dance and Mathematics

A Year 2 class learning about different 3D shapes (prism, cube, cylinders, spheres) made cardboard models to represent each one. Later in small groups they made models of a nominated shape with their bodies and when the music changed they transformed into the next one. The teacher photographed the models and displayed them in the classroom, referring to them regularly.

Similarly, Macdonald (1991) suggests that fractions can be better understood through rhythmic movements and the elliptical orbit of the planets in the solar system around the sun can be explored through dance.

Example

Leading with Dance in Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): A Lesson Sequence on Flight for Year 1–2

Introduction

The following sequence of lessons developed by Robyn Ewing illustrates how dance can be used as the catalyst for a science investigation. Although developed for Stage 1, it can easily be adapted for older children.

Session 1

Play excerpts from Neil Diamond’s Jonathan Livingstone Seagull or similar music, evoking flight and freedom.

Ask the children to close their eyes and think about what the music reminds them of?

Brainstorm their responses.

Play the music again. Ask children to move to it using different parts of their bodies in isolation (feet, arms, head) and then using different levels—reaching up high, getting down close to the ground, stretching out as far as they can horizontally. Finally they can move at different paces (fast, slow, light, heavy, etc.).

Repeat the music and then ask the children to move using their whole bodies.

Tell the children the title of the music and discuss.

Session 2

Read the first few pages of the book Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.

Discuss what it must be like to fly.

Watch excerpts from the film Flight with Birds (William Lishman). Discuss the way birds begin to fly, move in flight and alight. Study different kinds of birds and the way they fly. The albatross is a good example—so clumsy on earth, so graceful in the air.

What makes the movement? What is the movement like? Children make similar movements and describe them.

How might it feel to fly?

Session 3

Teacher shares a factual text that explains how birds are able to fly.

Play the music again.

Ask the children to visualise what might be happening at different moments in the piece.

Ask children to move to the music again using their understanding of the music and the movie.

Children paint their impressions of ‘flight’ using large brushes, sponges and rollers.

They may also consider what colours they associate with flight.

Session 4

Teacher reads the legend of Icarus who wanted to fly so fashioned wings and then flew too close to the sun causing his wings to melt.

Children conduct experiments with paper aeroplanes, miniature hot air balloons, 3D models using feathers and so on. Their experiments can be recorded.

Session concludes with time for the children to work in a small group to design a sequence of movements that accompanies the music and tells the story.

Session 5

Children have opportunities to work together in their small groups with the music to shape their storytelling through movement.

Teacher and children brainstorm words used to describe flight, for example, ‘dart’, ‘dive’ ‘soar’, ‘glide’ and ‘float’. These are photographed and displayed, and also represented visually with paint and clay.

Children explore movements to represent these words. They use these movements on high and low levels. They share their movements with each other.

Some of these movements are shared with the whole class and a dance sequence is created, which is filmed then annotated/critiqued by the dancers.

Teacher’s Reflection

I was struck by how readily the children explored the music through movement at the beginning of this sequence—it seemed to set the parameters for their talking and listening, and creative writing at a higher level. I had wondered how much scaffolding from me they would need but they responded well to working both as a whole class and then in small groups. They appeared to really engage with the flight DVD and represented different verbs associated with flight imaginatively. I was impressed with their writing about the legend of Icarus. Photographing their work and displaying it was both motivating but also a useful assessment tool. (Robyn Ewing)

9 Integrating Dance and Writing

Nesbit and Hane (2007) worked simultaneously with dance and creative writing aiming to infuse children’s writing and choreography. They engaged primary school students in three different artists-in-residence programmes, in schools, over a 12-month period. In a study of literacy devices, for example, students explored the concept of hyperbole in exaggerated movements. Action verbs were the inspiration for dance sequences embodying these words. The researchers and class teachers noted improved imaginative writing as well as new-found confidence and skill in creative movement.

10 Creative Dance and Literature

Following discusses a sequence of dance and English lessons based on Blue Sky, Yellow Kite (Holmes and Bentley) for students in years 2–6. Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEMryQzyPQk

The exploration of this picture book begins with movement before moving onto other responses.

Example

Leading with Creative Dance: Blue Sky, Yellow Kite (Janet Holmes & Jonathan Bentley)

Session 1: Building the Field

Teacher asks students about their experiences with kites and how they work before asking them to be a kite, beginning with lying on the grass to soaring in the sky above, tossed by a strong wind, getting stuck in a tree and eventually returning to earth. Music can be played—for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQ1tbwPqDTw

Teacher asks the children to Think about something that is really special, that they would find hard to share. They can share this with a partner or write it or draw it on a post-it note to share later.

Session 2: Getting into the Story

The first four openings of the book are shared. Daisy and William’s homes can be compared.

In A and B pairs, A sculpts B: Daisy looking through the fence, then B sculpts A: William flying his kite. Standing back to back students start as their sculpted image and transform to their imagined image over the count of ten, then back again. They think about how each character is feeling at this point in time.

(Follow-up: drawing the sculpted image and add a thought or speech bubble.)

Session 3

Read the next two openings. In pairs imagine the conversation as Daisy and William meet each other and William shares his kite. Form the drama circle and share excerpts of these brief conversations. (These can be recorded or written up later).

Going Beyond/Interpreting the Story

Read the next two openings. Discuss what is happening here either as a whole group or in small groups. What has Daisy done? Why? How is Daisy feeling? William? (Children can write in role as either Daisy or William—how are they feeling at this point in time?)

Session 4

In small groups share thoughts about what might happen next. Students devise three movement sequences to tell the rest of the story. They can think of a caption for each sequence. When each group is ready, these can be shared; initially, all at the same time, and then each can be viewed separately.

(Follow-up: these can be drawn and a paragraph written about one of these key moments).

Session 5

Students choose either William or Daisy and create a sequence of movements that represents the character.

Read the rest of the story. Discuss and compare with the children’s dance sequences.

Session 6

Students and teacher decide on a dance ‘plan’ to retell story.

Or

Students break into different groups to portray the emotions that are evident in the story, for example, jealousy, kindness, loneliness, forgiveness or guilt.

Students choose appropriate music and choreograph a sequence of movements to display these emotions.

Follow-up: Daisy writes a letter to say sorry to William.

Follow-up: Kite-making could follow. ◄

Teacher’s Reflection

This is a stunning exploration of strong emotions—Daisy wants something so badly she just has to have it but then she can’t live with herself; William’s unselfishness and capacity to forgive. The dance opportunities enable the students to work collaboratively and to immerse themselves in these emotions. (Robyn Ewing)

The following integrated unit brings together visual arts, dance, history, geography, drama, media arts and English in an exploration of My Place. It can be adapted to meet the needs of students from Stages 2–4 (Years 3–8).

Example

Finding Your Place in the World

Purpose

This unit aims to explore both place and the dynamics of place. It is anticipated that students will develop a sense of how things change over time and that they can make a difference to whether change is positive or not.

Session 1

Teacher and students read the first few pages of My Place (Nadia Wheatley 1987). They discuss how each of the children feel about their place. Extend this discussion to how the students feel about their own place.

In pairs, students share features of their own place.

Teacher asks children to brainstorm descriptive words that express how their special place feels for them.

Students embody these words themselves or sculpt each other (e.g. ‘safe’; ‘comfortable;’ ‘warm’, ‘accepted’).

These words are displayed around the words ‘My Place’.

Students are asked to sketch/photograph their own house and bring it to class.

Session 2

Students share their images in groups of four.

Teacher continues to read the next two or three openings of My Place. Students discuss the central enduring features of this particular house and neighbourhood and time frame.

Students examine the similarities and structure of the vignettes they have read so far in My Place. (My name is _____ and this is ____). Students use this model to write their own vignette about themselves and their place.

Session 3

The class takes a walk around their neighbourhood and around their school using a map as a guide. What do they think are the enduring features of this neighbourhood? Students make observation notes, and sketch or take photos of those features and the sketches/photos are later enlarged and displayed. Students write captions to describe them. Returning to school, students can discuss the major things they saw, felt, heard and so on. Make a ‘Y’ chart:

• ‘our neighbourhood looks like/sounds like/feels like’.

If possible, old photos of the neighbourhood are collected and displayed alongside the children’s sketches and photos.

Session 4

Students are asked to make a still image of one of the features they observed during the walk.

They are asked to think about how this feature could be represented through movement rather than a still image.

After some warm ups, students explore how they could use movement to represent the way they felt on their walk/the various things they saw/what they heard.

Each student can be asked to show their movements to a partner and then the partners can share with another pair. They can experiment with combining their movements into a sequence.

Students can sketch their thoughts and feelings about the dance movements they created.

Session 5

Teacher asks students in pairs to brainstorm questions they would like to know about the area they live in. These questions are later shared as a class and prioritised.

Session 6

Students interview several long-term residents of the area using questions they developed after their walk around the neighbourhood. Students make notes.

Session 7

Teacher continues to read My Place.

In groups of four students choose one of the decades depicted in My Place. They study the picture for this decade in the book and depict this as a still image. They will need to think about how to depict the tree, the stream and the characters.

Students present their still images. Teacher taps in to selected students to see how they are feeling.

The still images are photographed, and later the photos are used as a starting point for writing about this vignette.

Session 8

Ask the children to re-form groups and think about how they can represent this vignette through movement rather than as a frozen image. Teacher uses questions like:

• How could you use movement to show that the canal is now very polluted?

• How will you move to show the relationship between the tree and the children?

Children work on creating a movement sequence and, if desired, can choose music or percussion to accompany their sequence. These can be shared with the class and children can be given opportunities to reflect on their own and others’ creative dances.

(This could, if desirable and appropriate, lead to a performance for parents and caregivers).

Session 9

Children view several episodes of the children’s drama My Place (Australian Children’s Television Foundation 2010) that is based on the book. They discuss the choices made by the directors in representing these vignettes through film.

Teacher finishes reading the book. Students share their responses to the story in literature circles and ask:

• What do you think are some of the most important things that Nadia Wheatley wanted to say through My Place?

Students choose their favourite decade to draw, paint, collage or sculpt.

Sessions 10–11

In small groups, students use the following questions to research their chosen decade in Australian history. They will be given several sessions to undertake the research and develop a PowerPoint presentation for the class:

• What were three major world events during this decade?

• What were three major Australian events during this decade?

• Find out about something that was invented in this time frame?

• What is something that has lasted from this era?

• What is something that has been lost?

These presentations will be made over two weeks at various points during the school day.

Session 12 (Optional)

Excursion to a museum to look at a display of ‘the way things were’.

Children could discuss what they think their neighbourhood will be like in another decade. What would they like it to be like? How could they help shape it that way? (This could also be represented through still image or creative dance.) ◄

Teacher’s Reflection

It’s my experience that students often have difficulty with finding their place in the world and sometimes this can also be manifested in mapping, reading scales, understanding the passing of time. I found embedding dance in this unit very useful for extending students and drawing them outside of their comfort zone. Embodying place was empowering and certainly some students demonstrated a new-found confidence. (Robyn Ewing)

11 Conclusion

Creative dance should be an integral part of every early childhood, primary and middle years classroom. Its place in the curriculum should not depend on teacher skill or confidence in dance. Rather, as Buck’s opening quote suggests it is about the fostering of collaborative opportunities in the classroom to enable students to develop an understanding that movement and dance are part of who we are and that we should feel comfortable with knowing and expressing through our bodies.

In her poem, The Simultaneous Dress, Blaise Cendars (1914) writes on her dress she wears a body. Oh, if we could give students that kind of confidence! It is our experience that children will not need much encouragement to explore dance—given the opportunity to create movement in a supportive environment they will really engage with the possibilities it brings for new ways of expressing their knowledge and understandings.

Questions

Do you agree that children need to be comfortable in their own bodies and in connecting with other bodies? Can you think of some meaningful ways to include creative dance in your next unit of work? What strategies could you use to help develop these?