Kinesthetic Learning Rationale “I hear and I forget; I see and I remember; I do and I will understand.” -Confucius No matter what it is referred to as - dance, creative movement, kinesthetic learning, creative dance, or dance-based learning - it is beneficial to all students when incorporated into the classroom. Movement is the key. Creative movement is a form of dance, so students are using and introduced to the basic elements of dance: body, energy, space, and time. According to Elizabeth Lloyd Mayer, Ph.D., a psychoanalyst at the University of California, Berkeley, “Creative movement is a joyful way for children to explore movement through music, develop physical skills, channel energy, stimulate imagination, and promote creativity.
Again, all students are participating in one way or another when movement is incorporated in the classroom. But it does not end there. Dance is ubiquitous, found all over the world. As dance involves all students, it can also incorporate the diverse cultures celebrated at school. Every year, a new population of students arrives in the classroom, and I never know what types of students will be part of our classroom, especially in Kindergarten. They could be an array of students from different cultures or speaking different languages. Creative movement enhances and brings knowledge to the students of cultures around the world. Introducing dance from different cultures is a must-do. One way to achieve this is through movement and story. An example explained in the article "The Power of Creative Dance" teaches dance stories. This is a powerful way to choose multicultural books, poems, or songs to show images of different cultures while creating dance movements based upon these stories, poems, or songs.
Including multicultural dance in the curriculum also offers an excellent opportunity to invite professional artists to share their expertise with children" (Griss, 1994, p.79). Connie Bergstein Dow suggests selecting five to seven images that could spark movement from a particular song or book. This could be an image of a character or a scene. The students then create movements to bring the character, scene, or story to life. Music can then be added. The story is read aloud, and after the reading, the students take their image and practice once more. As the music plays and dance cues are called out, the students, by group, bring the image to life. At the conclusion of the dance movements, the students freeze and hold their shape or sculpture. They then come together and discuss their experience (Dow, 2010, p.35). This type of lesson incorporates many aspects of teaching. The students are engaged, communicating, being expressive, developing social skills, thinking critically about the story concepts, collaborating, and, above all, creating. This sounds like students are using and acquiring 21st-century skills. Is it possible for the Common Core State Standards and 21st Century skills to be taught through movement? The answer is a definite "yes." A 21st Century classroom aims to establish a student-centered, project-based environment that focuses on creating lifelong learners.
Ballet is an athletic art form that utilizes muscle control, flexibility, and physical strength. It requires extreme discipline from the dancers and takes an extreme amount of mental concentration. This discipline causes dancers to have success throughout life and specifically in academic studies. There are many ways that dance can affect the success of a person’s life; however, there are two in specific that make dancers generally more successful. To begin, ballet causes dancers to be self-motivated workers; dancers cannot rely on others to push them to be better, but must have the drive within themselves.
For my practice group activity, I had the opportunity to model a cognitive disabilities activity called Rope Dancing. The frame of reference used for the group was Allen’s Cognitive (Level 2) and incorporated the use of a nylon rope and instrumental music (Cole, 2012). Members of the group modeled rhythmic movements to their upper and lower extremities. A total of six members participated, cohesively, in the group for approximately 20-minutes.
For the dancer, music and choreography are paramount. The music guides the dancer, and the moves express the music. However, the dance has to start from somewhere.
“ The eye of man hath not heard, the ear of man hath not seen, man’s
“Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever...Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.”
Every dance that is created by a choreographer has a meaning and or purpose behind it. The dance choreographed could be used to send a political, emotional, or a social message. Regardless of the message being sent, each dance created possesses a unique cultural and human significance. This essay will examine and analyze two dance works from history and give an insight into what each dance work provided to the society of its time.
...re of different dance cultures within the vocabulary of their scope, then the results would be so astounding as to give that dancer an unspoken quality distinguishing them from among their peers. Movement knowledge is cultural knowledge and remembering that each culture is beautiful and different in its own way can help create a dancer that will resonate with any audience member.
"Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”
The mission statement of the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) states that the museum is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere—past, present, and future—through partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life. REF. The Circle of Dance meets the mission obligation in several aspects. First, it offers education and advances knowledge of the Native Cultures in the form of dance. Secondly, it uses examples present throughout the Western Hemisphere. Finally, if provides the historical link between the origination
Jonas, Gerald. Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement. New York: Abrams, 1992. Print.
It may seem impossible to include art in an academic setting, but it is possible, effective, and fun. According to Barry Oreck, it has been proven that students learning molecular bonding through dance have a more proficient understanding of the concept. He states, “We have found that if you learn something through a theater game, you can still answer a test question” (New Horizons Dickerson 3). This statement proves that the arts are extremely important and beneficial. With fine arts, students have a safe environment to express themselves, a motivation to stay in school, and higher test scores.
[6] Cohen, Selma Jeanne. International Encyclopedia of Dance: A Project of Dance Perspectives Foundation, Inc. New York: Oxford UP, 1998. Print.
The benefit of cultural diversity in schools is evident in the dancers at Darwin High School, where they are naturally exposed to multicultural dance, expresses Newth. In a survey that was conducted in Darwin, mainly to students at Darwin High School, a student responded, agreeing that “exposing dancers to different cultural dances will help deepen this understanding”. Another participant responded that the experience “builds tolerance and understanding and provides new
According to the Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority (ACARA) (2017a, version 8.3) by participating in the four strands of Creative Arts; Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts it enables children to explore, form and express their understanding of themselves and others as they make sense of their world. For instance, when children participate in Dance they are
"THE STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF MOVEMENT EDUCATION." THE STRUCTURE AND METHODS OF MOVEMENT EDUCATION. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2013. .