creative thinking

8 Tips for Teaching Dance

February 19, 2016 by Erika 1 Comment

I’ve had a lot of failures in the dance classroom. There have been some days when I go home and wonder, “How much longer are parents going to keep paying for me to teach them…THAT?”. Or, “Wow, we did not learn anything today.” If you’re a teacher, you know what I’m talking about! Ha, if you’re a parent, you know what I’m talking about! So, my lessons are never pinterest perfect. But, I’ve got a few tips I’ve learned along the way.

Say when before what.

Describe when students will do something before describing what they will be doing. For example, when the music starts, skip to a new place in the room and freeze in a curved shape. Other cues may include: when I say go, when I count to three, when your partner freezes, when I point to this picture, etc.

Allow a little chaos.

As I have taught lessons where student creativity is central to the class, I have watched several teachers become worried that their students are incorrectly interpreting the creative prompts. However, every student should have his or her own ideas to express during the creative process. When twenty-five different ideas are being expressed, it can feel a little chaotic. The creative process is not the same for everyone, so let there be a little chaos!

Challenge students.

So, they haven’t mastered the tendu yet (translation: point your foot). That doesn’t mean we can’t do grande battements (translation: big kicks)! (Who, in fact, has ever mastered a tendu??? Even Misty Copeland (principal dancer with American Ballet Theater) takes technique class!) Elementary school students often surprise me with their dancing abilities. Just as in every subject, we must expect the best from students. Therefore, it is important to constantly challenge students to improve what they are doing. Ask questions like: Can you make your dance bigger? Can you show your movement more clearly? How can you make that movement more creative?

Constantly add other elements of dance.

Though a dance lesson may focus on creation of shapes, challenge students to use different body parts, energy qualities, levels, pathways, or timing. For example, shake your elbow while you skip. Now, turn your leap. Move in a curved pathway as quickly as you can. Perform the sequence as slowly as you can. Continue to add more layers on to an activity once they master its basic form.

Live in the moment.

When teaching a dance class, I sometimes forget to pay attention to what is going on around me because I am so focused on what activity is coming next. Instead, live in the moment with the students. Try to experience what they are experiencing and help them find new ways to explore and discover. As in all teaching, if you are aware of your students needs, you will be better able to teach them.

Dance WITH the students.

I just can’t emphasize this enough. Whenever I move with the students, their commitment to the movement increases. Instead of giving instruction then watching the students complete the task, participate with them. Move throughout the classroom instead of always standing in the front. Especially in creative activities, students often do not need a demonstration; they just want the teacher to participate.

Be clear and concise.

As I explain activities, sometimes I find myself taking too much time in explanation and answering several questions before the activity starts. Instead, explain the activity as simply as possible. While students are moving, add on extra layers of difficulty or additional movement problems. Giving direction while the students are moving saves time and maintains student engagement. So, “When I turn on the music, go running.” Then, while they are running add, “Run backwards! Now run backwards in a circle. Do 4 more backwards runs in a circle, then stop!”

Make rules for dance and remind students of them every time they come to dance.

I have often found that when students come to a dance class, they believe that all the rules of their classroom no longer apply. It is important to establish rules at the beginning of each class. Helpful rules can include: stay one foot away from all furniture and walls; when we dance we speak with our bodies, not our mouths; when the music stops, you stop; do not run into each other; etc. Then say the rules. Every. Single. Class.

Let’s Dance: Winter Weather Patterns

January 26, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

It’s COOOOLD outside. This is how my trees were looking this past weekend. YUCK! But, fortunately for us, winter weather does have it’s upsides. It makes for great dance classes! This lesson is based on four winter weather patterns: freezing rain, snow, sleet, and rain. Plus, you get to read this amazing book:

Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner is just plain fun! I read it to students aged 2-10 and they all love it. Read on for the rest of the lesson plan. (For the creative movement/preschool dance version of this lesson plan, click here).

Warm up: (2 minutes)

What do you know about winter weather? It’s COLD! I want to see you all shiver. Shiver your right arm. Can you shiver just your left foot? Shiver your whole body. Can you shiver very very fast? low? heavy? light? etc.

Experience/Identify: (10 minutes)

We are going to talk about four different kinds of winter weather: rain, freezing rain, sleet, and snow. Printable visuals here.

What is rain? Rain is water that comes down from clouds that get so full of water they can’t hold any more. Rain only happens when the temperature is higher than freezing — hotter than 32 degrees! Let’s try moving rain. How can you slosh and plop like rain? Can you swim through the rain? Can you slosh lightly? Can you slosh heavily? Quickly? Slowly?

freezing rain

Freezing rain is rain that comes out of the clouds as water, but freezes when it hits the ground, or the trees like in this picture. When I turn on the music, dance any way you’d like. Jump, turn, kick, roll, etc. When you hear the music get softer, start to slow down, and when the music stops, freeze. Freezing rain is a slow freeze.

Sleet is a little bit trickier. When it leaves the cloud, it starts as snow. Then, in the air it melts into rain. Do you remember how rain moves? (sloshing, plopping, swimming). But then, before it hits the ground, it freezes again, into little pellets of ice, like in the picture. If sleet hits you, it hurts, because it is hard ice, not soft snow. When I turn on the music, show me sharp movements, like sharp sleet.

Snow falls slower than rain. It is light and soft. In dance, we’d say it has sustained movement. It keeps moving, but slowly and steadily. Can you move in a sustained, steady way when the music starts? Can you do a sustained kick? Jump? Roll? When the music stops, show me a frozen balance.

Read aloud the book Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner.

Stop at first page (before title page). What is the little boy doing? Rolling up a HUGE snowball to make a snowman. I bet that snow ball is very heavy. What can you roll? Head, eyes, shoulders, feet, entire body, etc. Show me some heavy rolling.
“…for his turn in the snowman races”:I want to have a snowman race! Let’s play a game. I will divide you into groups of five. Each group will get a set of winter weather cards! On the cards there are small pictures of sleet, snow, rain, and freezing rain. The first person will run to the cards, pick one up and do the movement for that weather pattern. When his teammates guess which weather pattern he is doing, he runs and sits down and the next student goes. Keep going until all the students have gone. Then return to the story.
“skating tricks on ice”: All of the snowmen are doing their own “trick” on the ice. What is your favorite trick to do? Can you jump and spin in the air? Can you kick really high? Can you do a cartwheel? Think of your best trick. Practice it 5 times while the music is on. Then, show your trick to a partner.
“world’s best snowball fight!” During a blizzard, it looks to me like the clouds are having a snowball fight! When I say turn on the music and say “SNOW!”, everyone stand up and create a blizzard. You may choose any of the movements we have done: heavy rolling, light sloshing (rain), slow freeze (freezing rain), sharp movements (sleet), or sustained balancing (snow).
Finish the story.

We just danced lots of winter weather patterns. Which one was your favorite? Is that your favorite in real life too?

Don’t forget to grab the printable visuals and flashcards!

Let’s Dance: Pueblo Native Americans

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

This lesson was inspired by a Utah core Social Studies standard for 3rd grade:

Standard 2: Students will understand cultural factors that shape a community.

Objective 2: Explain how selected indigenous cultures of the Americas have changed over time.

Pottery (5 minutes)

Teacher: show several pictures of pueblo pottery on the smart board, overhead, or printed copies.

The Pueblo Indians made pottery to use for bowls and containers and to trade with other people. First they searched for good clay from the ground. Search through the room. Search high and low. They thanked the earth for the clay that they took. Then the clay was ground, mixed with water, and rolled. Now, roll on the ground. Find a new way to roll. Can you roll just one body part? A head? Arm? Leg? Roll your whole body. Then they shaped the clay into a piece of pottery. Quickly and silently stand back to back with a partner. Without saying one word, decide who will go first. Partner number one, shape your partner into a work of art. Partner number two, let you partner mold your arms, legs, back, and head into their own piece of pottery. Switch roles. After the pottery pieces were molded, they were fired in a kiln. This sealed them into their shapes and made them hard. If the pottery was not made perfectly it would crack and shatter. On the count of three, shatter or explode!

Designs on Pottery (3 minutes)

After the pottery pieces were fired, they were painted with many designs. Pick a shape from the pictures you see. Make that shape with your body and freeze. Repeat.

Hunting (12 minutes)

Pueblo hunters used bows and arrows. They hunted American pronghorn and rabbits. American pronghorn is the second fastest land animal—second only to cheetahs. Move as quickly as you can. Can you move quickly down low? Backwards? Etc.

Rabbits have good hearing and escape predators by hopping in a zig-zag motion. You are the rabbits and I am the hunter. Pueblo hunters had to sneak up on animals to use their bow and arrows because the animals they hunted were so fast. Crouch in a low shape with your eyes closed. Use your good hearing to listen for me coming. If you think I am getting close, jump in a zig-zag motion to get away from me. If I tap you on your shoulder, make a shape lying on the ground and do not move until we start over.

Irrigation (5 minutes)

Pueblo Indians lived in a desert where water was scarce, or hard to find. They had to strategically use their resources to have enough water to grow their corn, squash, and beans. One of the ways they used their resources wisely was through irrigation of water. They built pipeline systems to bring water from a stream or lake to their fields.

Create a shape chain — like terraces to funnel water from one place to another. Start behind a starting line. One at a time, cross the starting line and freeze in a shape. Once the first person is frozen, the next person may cross the starting line and freeze in a shape. The second person’s shape must be connected to the first person’s shape. Continue one person at a time adding to the chain as it grows longer and longer, farther away from the starting line.Make a chain from high to low where each students’ shape must be slightly lower than the shape before them, then low to high.

Building a Pueblo (7 minutes)

Move through the process of building a pueblo. First, Dig the foundation (explore movements that take a lot of effort – pushing, pulling, straining). Next, search for clay (move like you are searching and looking). Make bricks out of clay (Sharp, cutting movements). Add poles for structural foundation (Freeze in a straight shape). Fill the walls with bricks (Gathering movements). Add a new coat of clay to the walls every year (Repetitive spreading movements). At active pueblos, every year a new coat of adobe mixture/clay is added to the wall to keep them firm.

Once your pueblo is completed, it does not have a door or windows to climb through. Instead, there is a hole in the ceiling that you must climb down through. First, climb up the ladder to get to the roof. Next, climb down the ladder into your house. If enemies were coming, you’d pull the ladder inside so that no one could get into your pueblo.

Review (5 minutes)

Go through all the movements you have experienced today and identify what each movement symbolized. Review the facts about pueblos, hunting, farming, and pottery.

Let’s Dance: Greek and Latin Affixes and Roots

January 22, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

This class was inspired by this standard from the Utah Common Core (4th grade Literacy):

Language Standard 4
Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases based on grade 4 reading and content, choosing flexibly from a range of strategies.

Use common, grade-appropriate Greek and Latin affixes and roots as clues to the meaning of a word (e.g., telegraph, photograph, autograph).

First, grab this printable and print out word cards for all the affixes and roots you’ll be learning today. Make sure to print double sided! Arrange all word cards so that the side with the root word is visible, Jeopardy board style. Allow students to pick words from the board and do the associated activity. Quiz students throughout the class period on the English meaning of each root word.

dynam=power (In small groups, create an interesting group shape. Figure out a way to explode out of your shape in the largest, most powerful explosion you can create. Everyone make your shape, vibrate and gather all the energy you can; now, explode as big as you can!)

micro=small (Teach students a short, eight-count sequence using average amounts of space. For example: step, step, kick, punch, pivot turn, and balance. They have thirty seconds to figure out how they can perform the sequence as small as possible. Can they use different body parts? Levels? )

macro=large (Do in conjunction with micro, and allow students to choose changing the sequence to large or small movements).

cycl=circular (Magic Circle: Quickly spread out in the room, find a spot, and freeze. Take a look around the gym. You know where everything in this room is, right? I will count to twenty. By the time I count to twenty, you need to be inside of this circle on the floor. You may move any way you want as long as you do not run. Raise your hand if you think you can do that. Now, everyone close your eyes. Do not open them again until I ask you to. Be frozen in a round shape inside of the circle by the time I reach twenty. If I see you open your eyes, you will have to sit down right where you are. Do not move quickly so that you do not hurt anyone else. Ready? Go.)

tri=three (Create 3 shapes. Shape #1 will have three body parts touching the ground, #2 has three sharp angles, #3 has three straight body parts. Quiz students on memory of shapes by calling out shapes and requiring them to freeze quickly.)

re=again (Divide into four lines. Demonstrate a short movement sequence for the first person in line to see, while all others face the back. When I say go, the first person will tap the next person on the shoulder. They will turn around and watch the movement sequence once. Then the second person will tap the third person on the shoulder. The third person will watch as the second person does the movement sequence. Continue down the line to the end. The last people in line will simultaneously show what they think the sequence is. Repeat with the line in a different order.)

sub=under (Make a partner shape with one person under the other. Switch roles.)

sum=highest (Everyone line up on the black line. When I say go, run and leap as high as you can over this black line, then line up on the far black line. I am looking to see who can jump the highest. Repeat with: turning while jumping, having bent legs while in the air, etc.)

homo=same (Mirroring: Everyone mirror my movements. Gradually split the class into smaller groups each mirroring a student leader.)

hetero=different (Level boogie: Everyone in the class will be constantly moving while the music plays. When the music stops, do not let me catch you with your head on the same level as one of your classmates. If I catch you, you will sit down on the black line. Play until you have a handful of students who are the “Level Boogie Champions”.)

phone=sound (Rhythm clapping exercise: Everyone stand on the medium yellow circle. I clap a rhythm, you clap it back. Repeat with several rhythmic variations. Now, I clap a rhythm, you make that rhythm with your body without clapping your hands together. Use stomps, slaps, snaps, etc. Repeat several times. Now, you make your own four count rhythm using your body doing something other than clapping.)

scope=see (#1’s either walk, run, jump, skip, or roll through the space. #2’s find someone in the room to watch. Do the movements they are doing, but do not follow them around the room; find your own pathway. Don’t let the #1 know that you are copying them. You can switch who you are following at any time.)

tele=distance (Partner mirroring: Quickly find a partner and stand back to back. Now face your partner. Decide who will be the leader and who will be the follower. Mirror with your partner standing as close together as possible. Now go to opposite sides of the gym from each other. Switch leaders and mirror from a far distance.)

Create and Perform:

Each partnership receives one root word sign. Think of a word that has the assigned root inside of it. Create a sentence using that word. Now, create a short composition that has one movement for each word in your sentence. For example, if I got the root sum and chose the word summit, my sentence might be: We climbed to the top of the summit. My sentence has eight words, so I need eight movements in my dance. My dance could be: Partner shape, jump, run, turn, freeze up high, step, step, leap. Try doing your dance while saying the word that goes with each movement.

The Name Game

January 9, 2016 by Erika Leave a Comment

Here’s a fun introductory game I’ll use in a first day of dance camp or as a creative portion of technique class. Each student must spell his or her name using movement. My name is Erika, so I might E-echappe, R-run, I- itch, K-kick, and A-balance in attitude. Then, show and share with partners and in small groups. If you have time, have students teach their partner or groups their dances!

A- arabesque, above (arms above head), attack

B- bounce, ball, boing, beat, bang, big, balance, blink, bourre, bear walk, butterfly stretch

C- child’s pose, crouch, chasse, creatively walk, crab walk, crawl, clap, jump over cones

D-dance, developpe, dig, daintily tip-toe, downward dog

E- echappe, energetically skip, elbow circles, elevate your arms or feet, elephant stomp

F- flip, forwards march, fly, flex your muscles, do the fish dance

G-go, great big jump, gallop, grin, grow

H-hop, half-split, heavy march, move your head

I-inchworm, itch, icicles (freeze dance)

J-jump, jiggle, jell-o legs, jog, jumping jacks

K-kangaroo jump, kick, kneel

L- leap, lazily turn, loop, laugh

M- march, mash, move

N- neck movements, noodle, nod, nose to knees

O- open and close, over, on top

P- prance, pirouette, plie, push and pull, pike stretch, pat

Q- quickly turn, quietly jump

R- run, releve, reach, roll, robot, ribbon dance

S- shake, shiver, snake crawls, slowly run, skip, salute, somersault, sit, stand, stretch, spin, slither, scarves

T- turn, tendu, teeter-totter, twirl, tip-toe

U- under and over, up (go up), upside down

V- v-arms, vrooom (like a car)

W- wildly crawl, wiggle, walk, wave, waddle

X- x-jump

Y- nod yes, yawn, yo-yo

Z- zig-zag, zoom

If you liked this activity, try my Pilobolus Alphabet activity.