Skill Themes in Dance

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Chapter 29

• Skill Themes in Dance

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Chapter 29 Key Points

• Chapter aims to foster an understanding of the
  teaching of movement concepts and skill themes in
  dance
• Even teachers with little or no formal dance
  experience can make dance an exciting and
  enjoyable experience for students
• Several purposes for dance in the curriculum
• Children Moving classifies dance experiences
  into
• Rhythmic dance
• Folk, ethnic, and square dance
• Creative dance

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The Purpose of Dance

• Dance experiences in physical education should
  give
• children
• The ability to use their bodies to express
  feelings and attitudes
• A sense of satisfaction from effectively using
  their bodies as an instrument of expression
• Enjoyment and appreciation of dance as a
  worthwhile physical activity for everyone
• Ability to interpret and move to different
  rhythms

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Types of Dance

• Rhythmic Experiences
• Focus on childrens ability to move to a rhythm
• Folk, Ethnic, and Square Dances Focus on
  structured dance forms of a particular culture
• Creative Dance
• Focuses on creativity and expression

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Skill Themes in Dance

• Teaching Children Dance Unstructured Forms
• Prior to learning structured forms of dance,
  children need experience in moving freely in
  response to their internal rhythm
• Children need experience in performing locomotor
  movements in free space in response to various
  rhythms
• Children Moving focuses on
• Rhythmic dance emphasis on childrens ability to
  move to rhythm
• Creative dance emphasis on provoking creativity
  and expression.

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Chapter 29 Skill Themes in Dance

• Teaching Children Dance Unstructured Forms
  (cont)
• Rhythmic and creative dance are many a times
  taught concurrently during a lesson
• Very young children are usually in tune with
  their bodies hence it will be important for
  teachers to provide expressive dance experiences
  that enhance this innate expressive ability

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Progression in Teaching Rhythmic Experiences

• Children move to their own internal rhythm
  (fundamental body actions and traveling skills)
• Children move to an external rhythm (such as a
  drumbeat) imposed by the teacher
• Manipulatives are added to the rhythmic
  experiences (i.e., streamers, scarves, lummi
  sticks, balls, jump ropes)
• Use of teacher-designed routines to elicit group
  responses to a given rhythm
• Use of student-designed routines (alone, with a
  partner, with a group) combining various movement
  qualities and patterns (i.e., jump rope routines,
  ball handling routines to music)

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Progression in Teaching Creative Dance

• Children develop sensitivity to and awareness of
  movement through exploration (focusing on
  fundamental body actions and traveling skills)
• Children perform tasks that focus on the spatial
  quality of the movement (use the movement
  concepts to help children realize the potential
  of a movement)
• Children explore movement as a tool for self
  expression (expressing an idea, attitude, or
  feeling)
• Children structure their communicative movements
  into organized forms (sequencing)
• Children design a dance (structuring several
  sequences into a whole)

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Chapter 29 Key Points

• Teaching Children Dance Structured Forms
• Folk and square dance
• Range from simple to very complex.
• Require competence in moving to a designated
  rhythm before they can be completed successfully

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Chapter 29 Key Points

• Some Teaching Points
• Expressive dance content consists of the majority
  of the skills themes categorized under locomotor
  and non-manipulative as depicted in the wheel
• Movement concepts are used to heighten and expand
  childrens movement possibilities as they express
  themselves
• Dance ideas are found throughout skill theme
  chapters, especially in Chapter 19 (Traveling)

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Chapter 29 Key Points

• Some Teaching Points (cont)
• It is a professional responsibility to include
  dance in the physical education program. All
  children should have opportunity to experience
  creative movement and rhythmic experiences
• For some students, dance may well be one of their
  lifetime choices for physical activity

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Movement Analysis Framework The Wheel