My Dance Portfolio

1. Laban's Effort Exploration 

Laban's Movement Analysis is a theoretical/experiential system for the observation, description prescription, performance, and interpretation of human movement. In other words, it provides a way for people to label and use set movements to express and create (in the context of this course) a dance piece. These movements can be used to invoke an emotional response from the audience. Laban  stated that there are four main parts to movements, with each part having two elements. These parts and their elements includes:

• Direction: Direct or Indirect
• Weight: Strong or Light
• Speed: Quick or Sustained
• Flow: Bound or Free

Below is a video that can be used to show students examples of what these terms would look like when presented through dance. 

The Importance of Dance Education

Dance education enables students to use movement as a means of expression and communication. When we think about designing lessons for diverse learners, dance is an excellent way to provide various opportunities for students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. 

By teaching Laban's Movement Theory, students are provided with a framework for movement that allows them to learn how to dance rather than recall a series of dance steps. It also enables students to label and describe the movements that they are performing, as well as design a dance to invoke a certain emotion or theme for the audience. 

Theory Into Action 

A teacher could introduce this theory by have students move through space using different ways of travelling (ie. leaping, galloping, skipping, etc.). Students could also be asked to sink, and rise. Effort tasks could include exploring weight, time, or flow of movement for expressive purposes. Weight could be emphasized through sudden movement, communicating a sense of urgency or spontaneity. Time movement could be sudden or sustained and flow could focus on free or bound movements. Space can relate to general  as well as personal space, pathways, direction, levels, which can all be used to express feeling through dance. Relationship deals with the relationship of body parts to one another (ie. leading/following, mirroring/matching, toward/away) and responding to those movements. 

Cross Curricular Connections

Dance and movement cross-connects to other strands of the curriculum easily. The following document entitled Applying Laban’s Movement Framework in Elementary Physical Education, is a great resource for applying movement to the phys-ed curriculum. 

Why should students understand this theory of movement? 

During my practicum experience I was provided the opportunity to teach a dance unit. At first many of my students were resistant to the idea of dancing and would ask me why it was important. My response to them was that if they learn how to move their bodies, they can better understand and apply those movements to be successful at other sports they may play. This demonstrated to me that not all students recognize the importance of understanding movement, and as educators, we need to incorporate this as a foundation for knowledge for our students. 

2. Connecting Dance and Science 

In week two we learned about connecting dance and science. Dance is a great way to have students communicate and gain understanding in a kinesthetic way. This is a connection that I have made before when designing a science unit where students learn about the human digestive system.

The Digestive Dance

The digestive dance is a fun and creative way for students to demonstrate their understanding of how food moves through the digestive system. Students work together to choreograph an perform a dance routine that communicates how food moves through the various organs in the digestive system. 

This activity also provides an excellent opportunity for students to incorporate technology and research. Students, in their groups, must research which organs are part of the digestive system and how they work to move food through the body. 

Next students must decide who will play what parts (ie. the teeth, tongue, esophagus, stomach, intestines, etc.). Student may use props but are encouraged to remember that food changes form as it moves through the digestive system. 

One example of how the final product may look can be observed in the video below.

3. Combinations and Shapes 

In week three we learned how to connect mathematical concepts with dance instruction. We were instructed to create two dimensional shapes using our bodies. The activity can be extended even further by having two students, or even groups of students combine their shapes. Students can identify the shape they have created, or the teacher could ask the students to form a given shape (ie. hexagon, octagon, etc.). 

This activity is a great way to incorporate art and technology as well. When considering students who may have diverse needs, some students may not have the fine motor or gross motor skill necessary to fully complete the activity. Each student will have different needs, however, here are some suggestions on how a teacher could accommodate those students:

• creating by dictation 
• having students use their hands or props to create shapes
• having students identity the shapes that his/her classmates have made to assess understanding

4. Incorporating Bloom's Taxonomy 

In week four, my group and I created a lesson that combined the social studies curriculum with the dance curriculum. Our group also incorporated Bloom's Taxonomy when designing the lesson for more effective instruction. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a framework created by Benjamin Bloom in 1956. This framework consists of six major categories: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation.

Remember: In this case it would be the knowledge that students gained about First Nations peoples during the Heritage and Identity unit in Social Studies.    

Understand: The student understands what the concept of Powwow dance.  

  

Apply: Students apply this knowledge by learning and performing the Friendship Dance, also known as the Round Dance.

Analyze: analyzing specific dances to connect movement, speed, regalia and dance steps to deeper cultural meanings. 

Evaluate: Putting together elements of dance, history, and social studies to form synthesis of knowledge and application when observing various types of powwow dance. 

 Create: Students create their own dance using steps learned and incorporating the knowledge and understanding they have developed throughout the lesson. 

The final activity encouraged students to incorporate their knowledge and understanding of how Powwow dances tell a story, to in turn create a story of their own to communicate the Turtle Island creation story. Students were encouraged to use the five elements of dance (body, space, time, energy, and relationship) when creating their interpretation. 

5. Flocking 

In week five we learned about dance strategy called Flocking. Flocking is a type of improvisation in which students move in groups, with no set pattern or in a diamond formation (resembling a flock of birds), following a leader and all doing the same movements simultaneously. This is an extended version of mirroring for three or more people. Participants do not necessarily need to be able to watch each other, as long as they can see the leader.

The leader demonstrated one movements that they formulated. The other students will simultaneously copied the movement. Once all students have gained an understanding of the movement, they switched so that a new leader demonstrated a movement. After all students had the opportunity to be the leader and share their movement, we were encouraged to create a second movement. During the second round, music was added to create atmosphere and different interpretations. 

We were then asked to present our dance and received feedback from our peers. We further discussed the impact of the movement compositions and how they conveyed specific messages. We further discussed the transitions that were used and how focused was maintained during the dance.