1.3 Dance: positive and negative feelings

Assessment

Memorandum

DANCE / MOVEMENT

• Dance can supplement and complement the visual arts, music and drama.
• Use music that featured in the music class to accompany the dance activities

• WARMING UP

• Warming-up exercises should be increased and done regularly. The programme should include body-conditioning exercises, technical skills exercises, movement combinations and movement sequences.
• Choose movements from Grade 7 and build short movement sequences. Experiment with different rhythms. Make use of the respective design elements and allow learners the opportunity to put together own combinations.
• Warming up should not take up more than 15 minutes of class time.

Activity 1

• Learners in their journals prepare a list of positive as well as negative words concerning feelings and emotions, e.g.

happy, alone, love, hate, strong, etc.

• Find a colour that expresses each of these emotions or feelings, e.g. does yellow make you happy, do you feel like moving fast or slowly, do you feel like jumping or does it make you feel lazy? Does blue make you feel strong, do you feel like shrinking or stretching, despondent, crazy, exuberant or reserved? Explore and experience the colours with movement.

• Learners can take turns to shout different words that give expression to feelings or emotion. Learners must react immediately and spontaneously to the word – without thinking too much – with appropriate movement. Repeat several times. Learners can even move into each other’s personal space and make contact (without hurting each other) in order to express the feeling of the word.

• Work as a group or pair, create an own story and have a ‘movement discussion’. Explore various types of movement, such as locomotor and non-locomotor movements.

Self assessment/reflection (to be written down in your diary or journal)

1. Were you able to use your imagination without inhibitions? What was easy and what did you find difficult?
2. Did you make use of locomotor and non-locomotor movements?
3. Were you afraid to think creatively, or not?
4. Did you make use of the various design elements in your attempt to create?
5. Which design elements did you not use?
6. Were you willing to take chances in order to live up to your imagination?

Presenting dance in the classroom

• The creation of an atmosphere of safety, trust and of being accepted in the dance class is essential. A structure with continued understanding and empathy must be maintained as well.
• Establish a control mechanism by means of control exercises to make the learners feel safe and able to enjoy themselves.
• Freedom of movement must be ensured by means of comfortable clothing. Going bare-footed allows complete mobility of the feet and prevents learners from slipping, and is therefore preferable.
• Availability of space must be taken into account when planning the activities. If the classroom is too small and a hall is not available, a space can be demarcated on the sport field (weather permitting). Make sure that all learners remain visible. Desks in the classroom can also be stacked to create more space. If the space is too small still, divide the learners into groups and let the groups take turns. To link up with the visual arts part, the learners can be allowed to dance in the three colour groups.
• Dance activities/exercises must be accompanied by music on either cassets or CD, or by using tambourines, drums, etc.
• Learners must also use diaries or journals to make personal notes.

General research task

• Learners can eventually be given an assignment to research career possibilities in the various art disciplines – dance, drama, music and visual arts.Resulting from the research the class can be divided into four and each group can represent one of the disciplines. A debate can then take place with the educator as facilitator.