Dance/Movement Workshop

Yesterday, I, along with ten or more others, had the opportunity to attend "Dance and Movement Workshop" in the Cochrane Room in the East Building. The workshop was led by Freddie Moore, a Founder and Artistic Director of Footprints Dance Company.

First, we set goals for the workshop and outlined what was to come in the next three hours. We then took off our shoes before stretching and getting comfortable in our own bodies. This was an importance step, for it was emphasized that as teachers, we must be comfortable with our own bodies before teaching our students to be just that.

We introduced ourselves around the room and expressed our feelings by using body movements. Even though it was a bit awkward at first, we soon began to truly feel comfortable under our own skins and no longer felt self-conscious. We made a good three minute dance routine together, using the ideas that each of us came up with. It was exciting to see that most of us were untrained/unskilled in dance, yet we were able to contribute to the creation of such movements.

Freddie then played this Youtube video for us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHDyxTRCwQ0 We first watched it with the sound off, and observed the children's movements. We discussed our guesses as to what was happening in the video and how the children seemed to feel through their body languages. After the brief discussion, we watched the movie again with sound. It was eye-opening to see that children who looked so disengaged and inattentive were actually actively participating and listening to the teacher (which we could only find out the second time with the sound on). *YOU SHOULD TRY THIS ACTIVITY TOO!*

Next, Freddie split us into groups of 3-4 people and played a nursery rhyme song to each group. Each song represented a different genre or style of music. For example, "Ms. Mary Mac" was a powerful, hip-hop like song, while "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" was a soft-jazz song. Each group had to take their nursery rhyme and create a dance movement in about 30 minutes and perform it in front of everyone else.

The purpose of this activity was to show that children could become more self-confident and comfortable with self through dance and movement. It was also surprising to see the dances come together, because each person in the group had such different ideas.

At the end of all the performances, we gathered around and discussed what we had learned from the workshop. We were all excited to implement dance and movement in our future classrooms. All of us agreed that this workshop should have been required for all education majors to attend, because it was not only exciting and fun, but such a beneficial tool to have as future educators.

The main ideas I got out of this workshop were:

• Dance/movement does not discriminate. No matter who you are, what your background or ability/disability may be, anyone can participate and express themselves using movements.
• If a child feels disengaged or uncomfortable and does not want to participate in the dance, the teacher could still make that student feel like he/she is a part of the dance. No matter what the movement is, it can be incorporated.
• Dance/movement can be a powerful motivational tool.
• A child sitting still does not always mean attentiveness. The opposite can actually be true - a child who is fidgety or moves around a lot could be very engaged and attentive.
• National Dance Standards can be applied to any subject or lesson in the classroom.
• Dance/movement is a necessity for children. It is a natural part of our lives.

I know Suzanne is trying her best to have this workshop again for next semester, so if you werent' there this time, I hope you can make it to the next one. It was truly inspiring and beneficial :)