Stick Fight: Developing Focus and Strength

The students were able to experience direct movement generated when using a stick. The sticks were given to them to play with, just to warm up. Some chose to use the stick to illustrate actions such as fishing, plowing, rowing. Gradually, they began to use the stick in more abstract ways, moving across the room. Eeventually, they let go of the stick to then just use their arms in an event more abstract way, with a very focused sense of direction. Usually, I use light pieces of fabric to illustrate the opposite of working with the stick, but in this occasion it was just important to use a prop to teach a dance quality that is otherwise very difficult to understand by non-dancers.

"I felt a sense of focus and concentration" Kyla Samuels-Stewart

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Ballet for the Blind and Nutrition Games

Don Quixote Keiko planned a ballet class for blind and visually impaired children, one on one, using styrofoam tubes to help them sense arms positions. Adriana planned for a great class on how to eat healthy foods. She also taught students how to measure portions so that eating is as nutritious as possible. See her lesson plan bellow. Healthy Active Kids Instructor:Adriana Bevilacqua Subject(s) and Grade Level: Dance 6 th grade Unit Topic:Movement and Nutrition Lesson Topic:Food groups and portion control Date(s) 04/15/2018 LESSON PLAN TEMPLATE I. VISION-SETTING OBJECTIVES To give the students a foundation for healthy eating habits and how movement can enhance overall health. STANDARDS LANGUAGE ESOL STANDARDS MATERIALS: music, speakers, nutrition pyramid, portion contr...

Variation and Improvisation: Different Means to the Same End

Dance-specific conditions of practice Jordan and Jenny taught students two different ways of body expression. The former through a variation and the latter through improvisation. Both ways contributed to unleash the expression of body shapes and images in motion. One follows a preconceived designed based on the teacher's choices of movement, based on a specific music and lyrics. The other recurs to the use of free movement for the students to find their own way of expressing themselves. Both added to the students' repertoire a totally new idea about what dance teaching methodologies can look like. Bellow, there are students' affirmations: " My favorite part about Jordan’s class was how positive she was. Everything from the warm up, which was designed to boost our energy, to her attitude during the combination, was very encouraging. She very clearly got the message across that it is okay if you are not perfect in class, which I think is a great thing t...

Jack and the Beanstalk & Team Work

Camila and Briana brought to class two very different and innovative subjects. Camila use the story Jack and the Beanstalk to stimulate movement choices based on the characters and events of the story. Video Briana, on the other hand created different activities such as the human knot, the shipwreck, Circle and Numbers. Both students demonstrated great creativity in the way they planned and taught their lessons. Human Knot Game

Methods of Teaching Dance

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