We’ve all seen it. She’s the life of the party when she starts bending her knees and shaking her hips to the beat of the music. She’s dancing for the whole room and loving every minute! Get your mind out of the gutter – I’m talking about the baby in the room! From a very young age there is no denying that dance is a part of human nature. But somewhere along the way the love of dance begins to dim as some children realize that dancing means taking a risk. How can we keep dance “normal” as children begin to age?
Reflecting on “The 8 Characteristics of the Innovator’s Mindset”, from author and principal George Couros, I found myself thinking a lot about innovators being Risk Takers, and how it applies to dance in my classroom. I am always amazed with the participation levels of my grade 1 students when it comes to taking a risk and dancing! The trick is to warm them up to the experience by introducing new things slowly; making it comfortable, easy, and inviting. I mean, don’t we have to do this with adults as well?
WHERE TO BEGIN
I start the day with basic stretches and body isolations every morning. This makes dance a regular part of our routine, not a “scary” experience, and the kids really enjoy feeling their muscles work, getting their blood moving, and listening to the latest Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift song.
HOW TO CREATE A DANCE CULTURE IN YOUR CLASSROOM
Once students are comfortable moving in the morning, we progress to a super simple choreographed dance that incorporates a little more energy. My absolute favourite time of the year is October when we learn “Thriller” by Michael Jackson (a very simplified version). The kids go crazy for dancing like a zombie, especially on Halloween when they are in their costumes!
RISK TAKING
After they have practiced these skills they begin to think of themselves as “dancers” and are much less intimidated by the risk involved in dance expression. This is when the characteristics of innovation can really be seen. Students can work together and create short dance pieces on any topic, and they feel comfortable moving their body. For example, we created dances titled, “Snowflakes”, “Autumn”, and “Feelings”. All were beautiful, empowering, and totally created by the students.
I was going to blather on about all of the amazing things that have come out of exploring dance with my class, but when I revisited the Manitoba Dance Curriculum I found these excerpts that really summarize all of my thoughts and practices.
“Dance enriches a vibrant culture and is integral to human life. It has the power to illuminate, deepen, broaden, and enhance human experience. Dance offers a unique way of perceiving, interpreting, and communicating diverse life worlds. As one of the oldest and most primal of the performing arts, dance has existed across all cultures and historical periods. It has always been a socially significant component of all civilizations, and remains a relevant symbolic tool for people around the globe today.
The fusion of body action and cognition manifested in the dance Framework promotes self-initiated learning, active problem solving, openness, collaboration, innovation, socialization, empathy, flexibility, critical and divergent thinking, and risk taking. Dance has the potential to promote responsibility and leadership and to prepare and inspire future citizens of the world to understand and address the most critical challenges of their times.”
As teachers, and citizens, let’s work hard to keep dance bright in the eyes of our children as they age. They payoffs are great. And, even if dance is a little uncomfortable for you, reflect on why? Is risk taking holding you back?
Jenna Kennedy
Strathcona School
Cluster 1971
Dance as innovation. This makes a lot of sense. Who said that if something is a little out of your comfort zone you will learn more (the saying goes something like that). The point being that when you are uncomfortable you have to work harder to make it work and that’s actually not a bad thing. What’s stunning is that young ones seem to have the ability to BE comfortable in most things. Its seems as we age we get “uncomfortable”. I agree with you… How can we find a way to capture this youthfulness for all?
Jenna, your room must be a fun place to be! You’ve masterfully yet gently moved your little dancers from stretching to choreographed dance. You’re right, “introducing new things slowly; making it comfortable, easy, and inviting” is a great way to build trust and support risk-taking. This process works well for dance, but would apply to other risky situations as well – a few examples include public speaking, sketching and writing. Thank-you for this reminder!
Thanks for the nice compliment! We do like to have a good time 🙂 I totally agree that it applies to other risky situations as well. Your example, ‘public speaking’ is something that my class really needs some practice with. Sometimes you can hear crickets outside my room when the kids have to speak in front of everyone. I’ll have to work on this. If you have any tips for gr.1’s pass them on to me.
Loved reading your blogpost! I dance all the time in my class. I used to teach kindergarten where you can do anything and they think you’re great. It took me awhile to get up the nerve to do it with my older students but once I did it, eventually so did they. Who doesn’t love to dance?? I have learned that when I am willing to take risks with my students ( especially older students) so are they.:)
I’m curious to know what grade you teach? It might be fun to do a little dance FaceTime or just share a video of a dance project…What do you think?