Dance Week 3

This week in Dance class we focused on the element of body, with special focus on the parts of our body, and the shapes we can make our body into. We also focused on locomotor and non-locomotor movements.

The warm up activity this week was called mirroring, and I thought that it was a great activity and one that I think elementary school children would enjoy. The activity was simply mirroring what your partner was doing, in an attempt to be moving in synchronization with your partner while mimicking his or her moves. This was a great way to explore body movements. This activity could me modified by having students sit down, or by only choosing to move upper, or lower parts of your body. In addition, it can be done with verbal instruction for students who are visually impaired. This activity could also be used as a cross-curricular element as you can relate it to math in terms of symmetry and reflections/transitions.

We also focused on the creative process, and how it manifests itself in the dance classroom in terms of inspiration, and then planning and editing until you reach the final product.

The group that presented today decided to do Zumba. I think that this was a great activity that really got the class engaged and moving. It did not seem like dance, but more like an actual workout, which is something that I think would make this activity more appealing to some students at the elementary level who are uncomfortable or self-conscious about dancing. Zumba is also easily modified for those students with exceptionalities by simply modifying the moves for students with physical exceptionalities as well as having explanations of the moves or videos/pictures for students to model.