According to Melissa's Week 2 Dance Outline, Retrograde is defined as, "A choreographic form in which a dance or movement sequence is performed in reverse order (e.g., a dance phrase performed from back to front)."
During Week 2, the classroom participated in weather dances. The task entailed for each group (4 groups total) to come up with a dance to showcase the "Retrograde" form.
On the whiteboard, we were told to alter the following:
Time - slow, moderate, fast, moderate, slow
Energy - light, medium, heavy, medium, light
Through discussion and practice with my fellow group members, Andrew, Tyler, Matt, Annessa, Eva and Alex, we decided to create a thunderstorm dance that involved several different body levels (high, medium, low), as well as altering our time and energy.
This is a picture of what part of our dance in motion looked like:
The steps of our dance included:
- Group members starting at opposite sides of the room facing each other with heads down;
- Start walking towards one another, linking arms, travelling in a circle;
- Return to a circle position with arms straight up in the air, lowering your arms and body to the ground and back up;
- Depending on your role, you would showcase what rain, wind and lightning would look like through dance;
- Then, all group members return to rain as they return back into a circle formation, changing your body from high to low levels;
- Finally, stand up in the circle, travel in a circle with your partner linking arms, and return back to your starting position.
According to Melissa's definition in her weekly outline for week 2, we successfully met the expectations of retrograde.
Modifications you may want to consider for this lesson, according to Melissa's teaching tips include:
- Wear an assistive-listening device to enhance your voice;
- Speak clearly and slowly;
- Make acoustic modifications in classroom (e.g., carpeting, acoustic ceiling tiles, window treatments);
- Provide preferential seating;
- Use visual aids to supplement auditory information.
Reflection:
This dance was really fun in my opinion. It was neat to see the different groups pull off different weather dances. Creating the thunderstorm was really fun and different from other activities we have done. This activity definitely demonstrated the creative process from the arts curriculum. I would love to see my future students create their own weather dance too, if I ever teach dance. The great thing about the weather dance is that it is not grade specific. It can just be a fun activity to do with your students. It is very interactive, which will lead to student engagement. I am not one who likes to dance, and even I was engaged for this activity. I would definitely like to try this out in the classroom!
Unison:
During Week 3, myself, Matt, Annessa and Alex lead a 20 minute Zumba class. The choreographic form we used for this lesson was unison. Unison is when all dancers are moving at the same time and performing the same movements.
The good thing about Zumba is that it does not matter what your fitness level is, or how good of a dancer you are. Everyone can participate at their own pace and their own skill level.
The way we decided to set up our lesson was introduce our lesson, go over the forms, elements, theories, inspirations, curriculum connections and modifications. When we were finished that step, we divided the class into roughly groups of 4, and had them rotate between the four stations around the room. At each station, the groups found themselves learning 1 of 4 moves, lead by myself, Matt, Annessa or Alex. We provided a visual on laptops, as well as demonstrating the dance move for them. This way, groups could feel confident with the dance move, prior to piecing all 4 moves together. When the groups were ready, we lead the class in a dance that included all 4 moves, in order to make the dance unison.
In addition, we put a spin on unison by allowing each group to come up with their own move. Therefore, at one point, each group was participating in a move that no one else has learned yet. However, we returned to unison by having the class learn each of the new moves, and adding it into the original dance moves.
For the purposes of this dance, we used Salsa Front and Back, Merengue Walk, Cumbia Sleepy Leg and Reggaeton Stomp.
If you would like to see the images that were at each station, please refer to the following link:
For more information on this lesson, please refer to the tab entitled "Elements of Dance", in order to dive deeper into how we conducted this lesson. Here, you will also find a list of modifications.
Reflection:
Zumba was such a fun lesson to teach students. I tried to take one Zumba class at a gym about a year ago. I recall feeling very out of place in the class because it was my first time in the class, and everyone else in the class was doing so well, picking up the dance moves like second nature. For me, it didn't come natural. Needless to say, I never did return for another Zumba class. However, now that I have experienced teaching Zumba, and had fun performing these dances with the class, I would definitely like to try another Zumba class in the near future. Zumba is great because as it was mentioned, it doesn't matter if you screw up because you can always jump back in with the class. If I were to teach this to my class, I would definitely remind them of that point, that it is okay to make mistakes in Zumba, and sometimes those mistakes might look like a cool new dance move!
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