Elements of Dance

Although you may remember reading about time in my "retrograde" post (refer to Forms of Dance tab), for this post, we will be focusing on the Week 3 Zumba Lesson. During Zumba, we focused on two elements of dance. These forms included time and body.

Time: A large component of Zumba. Zumba combines fast, medium and slow movements. It can be influenced by the tempo of the music, as well as by counts.

Body: Another element of dance that closely relates to Zumba. Zumba uses expanded, neutral and confined space through movement as you work through the fitness routines.

If you recall this lesson, you will notice that we first played music that was slower in it's tempo while getting our fellow teacher candidates comfortable with the moves. As groups moved from one station to the next (moving through all four stations), we slowly picked up the speed of the tempo of music. Once everyone knew all four moves, we chose to piece the entire dance together with a fast paced song called "Limbo".

It is important when introducing a step to your students that you either do not play music while learning the step, or at the very least, play music that has a slow tempo. When students know the moves and are ready to compile the entire dance together, you can choose an age-appropriate song that has a quick tempo.

If you would like to see the dance moves we used, please refer to the following link:

My Own Balance - Basic Zumba Moves

Again, for the purposes of this dance, we used Salsa Front and Back, Merengue Walk, Cumbia Sleepy Leg and Reggaeton Stomp.

In addition, if you are looking to introduce a Zumba lesson with your class, the following may be useful modifications to consider:

• Ease of routine;
• Repetition of steps;
• Less intense movements;
• Guided routines;
• Head or hand movements can be used if mobility or balance issues are present;
• Cues for following the beat, counting manually can be done if there is a visual impairment;
• Easy and clear instructions for processing disorders.

Reflection:
Time and body are excellent elements to incorporate into dance. They are so easy to manipulate, regardless of how skilled you are at dance. You could be a beginner or a professional dancer, and you will still be able to slow down or speed up your dance movements. Also, the great thing about the element of body is that you can explore different height levels and see what feels good for your body, but also to see how it changes the look of the dance too. Sometimes using different levels, different body parts, and different speeds can intensify your dance. They worked really well with Zumba, but it also worked really well with our weather dances, where we used these elements for the choreographic form, retrograde, too.

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