Dance and Movement Workshop!

On Thursday, October 15th, I attended a “Dance and Movement Workshop” on the 2nd floor of the East Building. The workshop was led by Suzanne Carothers, the Director of the Undergraduate Childhood Program in the Department of Teaching and Learning at New York University and Freddie Moore, the Founder and Artistic director of Footprints Dance Company. The participants of this workshop included juniors and seniors in the Childhood Education program at NYU as well as several Steinhardt staff members.

We set some goals for the workshop. We discussed the activities we would participate in and discussed ways to implement them in our future classrooms that we teach. The “movement” started right away as we stripped off our shoes (and some people their socks too) and practiced some warm up techniques to prepare us for the activities. We made sure to stretch all the different parts of our bodies that we would be using throughout the workshop.

The first activity dealt with our experiences with movement throughout the day. We each said how we use movement in our lives and what movement means to us. We made a chart of some themes that were seen from how we described movement in our lives. We then took some of those themes and worked on expressing those movements. Freddie chose about 8 different ideas/themes that we worked together to decide how we show that feeling or idea. For example, one of the words on the chart was “struggle” because some of us find it difficult to move around as often as we should or would like. We came up with a “move” for each of the 8 words and put them together in a choreographed manner. This activity allowed us to be creative as well as working as a group to make a cohesive dance routine.

Then, we discussed some of the ways that we see movement in our student teaching placements. We were then separated into groups of 3-4 people. Each group was given a song (from a CD Freddie brought to class which was a compilation of common nursery rhymes with different rhythms, tempos, and beats than the traditional versions of them). Each group had to choreograph a dance for a 30 second section of our song. My group chose “Hey Diddle, Diddle”. At first, we were thinking way to literally. We were trying to make movements for each word that allowed us to show the story as the song was playing. We realized that the song was too fast and we could not all do movements for every single word. We had to work together to make our moves fit the song. We decided that not all of us in the group had to be doing the same moves at the same time. This task was very difficult for us. Two of the people in our group were dancers while the other two, including myself, had no idea where to start. We learned how to work together and make the dance work for all of us and portray the story of “Hey Diddle, Diddle” in a way that everyone could grasp the idea. After our “planning time”, each group performed for the audience of our peers in the workshop.

From the beginning of the workshop to the end, I realized a lot about movement and myself in general. I realized that dance does not mean that you have to be trained, fit, talented, and coordinated. Dance is a form of expression that is spontaneous at times and can be used to tell a story. I would not say I am the most graceful dancer, but I was able to move in a way that told a story to my colleagues. I realized that movement is something that happens at every moment, whether it is planned or not. Some people struggle to find ways to move, some people are handicapped in ways that restrict their movement, and others are moving all the time without even noticing. Movement is a part of our lives and it will be a part of every child’s life that we will teach in the future. This workshop provided me with ways to discover how I can use movement as a motivational tool for students as well as a way to refocus their attention or just relax them if they are stressed. The workshop provided me with strategies to coordinate ways for students to use dancing and movement in a productive way throughout the school day.

At the end of the workshop, we were given a certificate of achievement for completing the workshop. We were also given a picture book called Beautiful Ballerina by Marilyn Nelson and Susan Kuklin. Ballerinas from the Dance Theatre of Harlem were the inspiration for this book. The book includes the text of a poem written by these young ballerinas with graceful photographs of the girls. This book will serve as a great way to celebrate dance and movement in my future classrooms.