Week 14: Dance

Today was the final dance lecture/workshop for the semester. Within the lecture, we revisited various ideas and concepts that had been explored previously (e.g. defining ‘dance’), then progressed to examining the variety of available resources for teaching dance in our schools. Below is a list of where some of these can be attained.

- AUSDANCE - http://ausdance.org.au/

- Bangarra Dance Theatre - http://www.bangarra.com.au/

- Dance Educators Professional Association (DEPA) – 02 9886 7594- National

- Aboriginal and Islander Skill Development Association (NAISDA) - http://www.naisda.com.au/

- Sydney Dance Company, Walsh Bay - http://www.sydneydancecompany.com/

- Scootle  (Provides 8,000 digital curriculum resources from The Le@rning Federation. Teachers can find interactive learning objects, images, audio files and movie clips) - http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/search?topic=%22Arts%22

- Quantum Leaps, NSW Department of Education and Training

- Cool Cates Resources, Bushfire Press

As emphasised in our dance lectures, it is crucial that, as teachers, we strive to effectively teach dance to the best of our ability. The following link explicitly lists a range of methods and practices that will assist teachers in their goal of creating lessons that embrace this art strand to its full potential.

http://ausdance.org.au/articles/details/effective-dance-teaching-methods

Today’s workshop examined how the use of stimuli can be utilized in dance as the starting point or incentive for creative movement. Stimuli can be categorised into 5 groups: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, ideational. Various ideas or concepts that are brought to the surface by the stimuli could be translated to dynamic qualities, timing, spatial floor patterns, body shapes, relationships and other aspects of dance composition.

The group I was in for today’s workshop received a photograph of the beautiful Australian outback. We were instructed to create a commercial that incorporated dance, which reflected a message the photograph was attempting to convey. Within the limited time frame, we did our very best to create an engaging advertisement, but it proved to be a very difficult task! Nonetheless, it was a fun task indeed, and students, who would have several lessons to actually complete the task, would find this fun and appealing without a doubt.

The other groups had different forms of stimuli, such as a shell (tactile) or sculpture (visual), to prompt ideas for a dance composition. They presented very advanced and inspiring pieces!

What a wonderful learning experience this unit of study has been, I have genuinely enjoyed every workshop and believe that I have gained a lot of valuable pedagogical knowledge and skills toward my future profession. Over the course of this semester, I have grown to appreciate the arts on an even deeper level and feel more encouraged than ever to ensure that this will be passed on to my future students. Whilst I have always believed strongly in regards to the importance of the arts within and across our schools (esp with working for the Regional Arts Coordinator at DET), this unit of study has allowed an even greater insight as to how the arts can be delivered and appreciated within the mode of lessons.

To conclude with a quote that opens the introduction to Gibson & Ewing’s ‘Transforming the Curriculum through the Arts’:

The arts are the window to the soul.

- George Bernard Shaw

And to officially complete this entry, below is a video from America’s ‘So you Think You Can Dance’ (season seven) - Allison & Robert’s incredibly moving contemporary piece, “Fix You”.

Week 13: Music (2)

Each and every one of our music workshops have been so great, and today marked our final time together. We examined the musical concepts*, listening for appreciation.   

• Duration

What is the tempo? Does it change?

How many bars does the solo last?

How long or short are the sounds? Are there silences?

What rhythm patterns feature? Are the rhythms syncopated?

• Pitch

What is the pitch of the solo voice or instrument?

What is the melodic contour (shape) of the improvised solo? Does it move by steps or leaps, does it move up or down?

Is the tonality major, minor, modal? Is there a change of key?

• Dynamics and expressive techniques

How loud or soft is the music? Does the dynamic level change?

What techniques does the soloist use to add to the expressive quality of the music? For example, are notes played legato or staccato, or accented; does the music slow down or pause; is the melody line ornamented?

• Tone colour

Which instrument plays the solo and what other instruments are heard?

Does the soloist use techniques to modify the tone colour?

Are the sounds acoustic, electric or electronic?

• Texture

What other layers of sounds are heard during the solo and what role/s do they serve (for example, melody, countermelody, harmony, bass line)?

• Structure

How is the material of the solo organised?

What musical ideas or motifs feature?

Is there repetition and contrast within the solo?

Does the solo include riffs or ostinatos?

(NSW DET 2011)

We spent the duration of the workshop listening to various pieces and analysing them together according to the six concepts of music.  The first piece we listened to was Carnival of the Animals – The Swan, by Camille Saint Saens. I absolutely love this beautiful and tender song, which was originally written for two pianos and a cello back in 1886. Listening to this piece brought back a series of emotions and memories, took me back to when I first heard a student teacher perform this piece in my Year 8 class. Even back then I had been swept away at how delicate the piece was, and have dreamt of learning the cello one-day ever since. I was also reminded of the introductory piece to the musical suite – Royal March of the Lion, as I have taught this on piano to a number of my students. I find it so interesting how music, emotion and memory are strongly linked.

Listening to this piece a number of times over this week has reminded me of something that I recently read in “Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?”, where Eli Siegel asks:

“Is there a logic to be found in…every work of art, a design pleasurably acceptable to the intelligence, details gathered unerringly, in a coherent, rounded arrangement?—and is there that which moves a person, stirs him in no confined way, pervades him with the serenity and discontent of reality, brings emotion to him and causes it to be in him?”

Hearing this music, it is hard not to be stirred, and in “no confined way.” What we hear and what we see in our minds are made one: a swan (depicted by the cello) glides gracefully through water (represented by the piano), its long, elegant neck yearningly reaching for the sky, and bowing down with modesty.  It is both graceful and strong. Here is Saint-Saens’ stirring music.

The other pieces that we also analysed throughout the workshop included Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’, Elfman’s ‘The Ice Dance’ and Williams’ ‘Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme’. I really loved listening and analysing all these pieces; oh how appreciating music can be such a wonderful and emotional experience.   

To wrap up my music blog entries, I want to share my favourite classical piece, Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’. I learnt this piece on piano while in high school and absolutely adored it. Somehow, it is such an indescribable experience to play it, it is just so beautiful and full of emotion… Below is a video of ‘Canon in D’ using the original instruments that Pachelbel wrote it for.

And finally, below is a ‘modernised’ version of ‘Canon in D’ – it is very amusing but simultaneously reveals the incredible talent of these musicians!

Week 13: Music (1)

Today’s workshop began with an examination of how sound can be organised into a process of experimenting, imitating, improvising, arranging, composing and notating. We then listened to a piece of music, and without being provided with the title, had to close our eyes and listen carefully to it. Whilst doing so, we were encouraged to jot down thoughts that emerged, the story that came to mind as we listened, how it made us feel, etc.

The piece we listened to used a wide variety of percussion instruments. As I closed my eyes, I pictured a person peacefully making their way through the natural setting of a rainforest. The layers of sound and building tension reflected the variety of unfamiliar animals within the forest that increased a sense of anxiety within the person. At the magnificent climax, I pictured the person emerging into a beautiful opening, one like the picture below. After listening to the piece, we were encouraged to share what we had imagined with the person next to us. My friend and I were surprised to find out that we had a similar story come to mind! We came to the conclusion that the used of ‘natural’ sounding instruments, such as the woody sound the xylophone produces, inspired us to imagine in this way. We later found out that this piece was in fact titled ‘Rainforest’, played and produced by the group B’Tutta. 

The next component of the workshop involved ‘sound scaping’ which involved notating music through the non-traditional method of diagrams, symbols and/or pictures. Below is an example that our tutor showed that reflected what this representation could look like.

My group did a sound scape of a thunderstorm in six parts. Beginning with the light sound of raindrops, the pit-a-pat-a sound grew louder, building up to produce a sound that depicted heavier rain. As clouds began to roll in, there was thunder and a crash of lightning.  After a while, the sound of heavy rain returned. The rain eased, and the piece concluded with a sound of ‘peace’ after a storm. We used a range of percussion instruments, some including cymbals, a bass drum, and a glockenspiel. Doing this activity reminded me of a thunderstorm body percussion performance that I stumbled across on youtube whilst doing research for my music lesson on professional experience. It is such a magnificent representation of a thunderstorm, and as I listen to it with my eyes closed, I am completely convinced that there is a thunderstorm happening outside!

To conclude the lesson, we learnt about raps. In my opinion, composing (and in some cases, performing) a rap can be such an effective tool of learning – it’s ‘cool’ and so students enthusiastically engage in the process of creating one. It encourages students to think imaginatively, consolidate their learning as they represent their knowledge in a new and different way and also develops their poetry skills. Whilst on professional experience, I utilised ‘rap writing’ in my lessons on a number of occasions. For instance, students wrote (and performed) a rap about Order of Operations: BODMAS (Maths), Flight (Science), and how they felt from a characters perspective after reading a chapter from C.S Lewis’ book ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’.  And what amazing raps they produced, I was constantly blown away!

Week 13: Dance

It was examined today how dance can be taught and learnt in an effectual way that encourages one’s unique creativity to be explored alongside the imaginative interpretation of ideas. We explored in the lecture how different stimuli (including visual, kinaesthetic, auditory, tactile and ideational) have the ability to stir and evoke ideas of creativity within a person and reflect their interpretive approach in a practical demonstration. This was examined more deeply within our dance workshops, which were based upon the children’s book ‘Henry and Amy: (Right-Way-Round and Upside Down)’ by Stephen Michael King.

After reading the text, we did a series of locomotive and progressive warm-up activities that encouraged us to ‘get in the zone’. One particularly engaging activity that followed this was a dance version of ‘Chinese Whispers’: students formed a line, and had to pass on a short dance sequence that either represented the character of Henry or Amy, to the next person in the line. The final person was required to perform what they believed was passed on to them, and it was interesting to observe the way people interpreted other peoples dance sequence, modified movements, increased/decreased dynamics etc. Overall, it was a very enjoyable and engaging activity that I will definitely be using in my future classroom. I also had the idea that one could use a similar modification of the game for drama ‘Chinese Charades’. The first person in a line would receive a sentence that they had to act out to the next person, and so on. The final person would have to act out what had been passed on to them, and would attempt to phrase this into a sentence. The original and final sentence would be compared, and the class could discuss various drama techniques that were employed, as well as the significance of interpretation in performance.

To wrap up the dance workshop, groups were formed and we were instructed to create a dance sequence that either represented the character of Amy, Henry, or a combination of the two characters. My group was allocated the combination of Amy and Henry. We titled our dance ‘The Journey of the Shadows’, and created a dance that symbolised Amy’s journey of taking the uncoordinated Henry around and teaching him how things were to be done properly. Eventually, Henry got the knack of things, and a playful ending represented their friendship restored back to balance, with Amy no longer being as ‘bossy’ as she once had been.

Grumet (1998) points out that one’s contact with text, alongside a personal interpretation, assists in the development of a performance. 

Performance simultaneously confirms and undermines the text. The body of the actor, like the body of the text, stumbles into ambiguity, insinuating more than words can say with gesture, movement, intonation. Mimesis tumbles into transformation, and meaning, taken from the text, rescued from the underworld of negotiation, becomes the very ground of action. (p. 149)

In conclusion, a compelling TEDTalks presentation, 'Do Schools Kill Creativity?’ Sir Ken Robinson discusses intelligence, creativity, and the necessity of the arts within schooling. Robinson highlights the traditional public schooling as a product of both industrialisation and academia, of the need to train people for jobs and to attend college, which all ultimately suppress children’s creative capacities. Robinson asserts that schooling that honors creative intelligence, which is diverse, dynamic, and distinct, is necessary. As Robinson (2006) states,

Children need math and they need dance and they need to experience and think across disciplinary lines. Creativity is the process of having original ideas that have value. … More often than not it comes through the interaction of different interdisciplinary ways of seeing things.

Week 12: Music

Today’s music workshop focused upon the instrument by which we produce from the sound from within; the voice. Specifically, we examined singing, which can be defined as to make musical sounds with the voice, especially words with a set tune. The workshop began by brainstorming some of the techniques that make somebody a good singer;

• Accurate sense of pitch
• Good range
• Controlled Breathing (from diaphragm)
• Correct Posture (Standing up straight, legs at shoulder width, with one foot slightly forward).
• Rhythmic Accuracy
• Articulation (Lips, teeth, tip of the tongue)

Like any physical activity, a warm up of vocal exercises should precede the singing component. There are several important reasons for this, such as warming up the voice, stretching the muscles and articulating technique.

Whilst warm-up activities can often be perceived as tedious and repetitive, with enough preparation and effort, fun and engaging vocal exercises can be delivered to students. In our workshop, we were provided a sheet of example vocal exercises that developed the way we use our tongue and lips when singing, as well as examining pitch intervals and how to breathe in an accurate and controlled manner. Below are some other examples/resources for warm-up vocal exercises;

• Vocal Exploration Cards
• http://shop.musicplaytext1.ihoststores.com/images/misc/VocalExplorations.pdf
• Animal Sounds Warm Up
• http://www.music-for-music-teachers.com/support-files/vocalises-animal-sounds.pdf
• Mouth Shapes
•  http://mcmurrysingingsigns.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/mouth-shapes.html
• Bouncing Ball - Using the ‘doo’ sound with the voice, bounce an imaginary ball, following the changes in height with changing pitch of the voice. Add a ‘boing’ sound effect each time it hits the ground. See how high the ball can bounce. This is an ideal remedial activity for children with monotone singing voices.

In the next component of the workshop we began singing (woohoo!). We firstly sung a short song called ‘Beachcombing’, a relatively straightforward piece due to its limited vocal range (F-B). This music can be attained for free at jozzbeat.com, a website that offers an abundance of classroom music resources. To conclude the lesson, we sang ‘Wet Day Blues’. This music was attained from welcometomusic.net, another online resource that offers sheet music, accompaniment, and much more for the musical classroom. Our class was divided into two groups, and together we sung the song, often in harmony. It was a beautiful way to conclude the lesson!

To wrap up, I thought to share another child prodigy, classical crossover singer Jackie Evancho. She is such an angel. At 10 years of age, she gained second place in America’s Got Talent.

Week 12: Dance

Our dance tutorials are awesome! The interactive and physical elements to the lesson allow the learning experience to be exponentially more interesting and engaging. Moreover, we are provided with the opportunity to step into the students shoes, have a go at experiencing the lesson’s activities from the other end and see if they are ‘fun’ and effective.

We began today’s dance tutorial with a series of dance ‘warm-up’ activities. There are several reasons behind why it is so important to ensure that there is a time for warm-up before dance practice. For instance, the warm-up:

• physically prepares the students’ body (e.g. raise the pulse rate and body temperature, mobilise joints and warm muscles)

• helps to focus students’ mind on the lesson as well as reflect the focus or content of the lesson

(DET, 2011)

In our tutorial, we were firstly told to move about the room in different ways and forms, whether it was walking at a steady pace, side stepping on a medium level or moving in a zig-zag form. We were encouraged not to copy one another, but be creative and unique in the way we interpreted the instruction. We giggled and squealed like little children as we made strange moves, or accidentally collided into each other.  The next warm-up activity built upon this, and involved breaking the class up into smaller groups. In a ‘follow the leader style’ each group formed a line, and each person within the line was designated a different movement element. For instance, the first person incorporated a ‘swing’, second person combined ‘percussive ’movements etc, and the members in the group had to follow and copy these moves. Children, without a doubt, would find both these activities very exciting. The next segment of the lesson included a more serious warm-up, where we practiced and developed our specific dance moves (e.g. the twist) as we made our way down the length of the room. These moves would later be incorporated into the dance that our tutor had choreographed.

As mentioned earlier, ‘warm-ups’ are fundamental to a dance lesson. The following link (Curriculum Support; DET) provides a sequence of warm up activities for dance, specific to focusing upon cardiovascular, technique exercises or thematic warm-ups.

http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/primary/pdhpe/dance/dan005.htm

In the body of the lesson, we examined ‘musical theatre’. I was excited by this; I love all of ‘those’ movies (e.g. Pitch Perfect) and also have a slight obsession with the TV series ‘Glee’. Using one of the songs from the musical Hairspray as accompaniment, we learnt a dance. It was fast paced and involved what some would classify some tricky/advanced moves (e.g. shimmy!). But what fun it was!

To conclude, this week I stumbled across a tap dance of the famous ‘cup song’ from Pitch Perfect. It’s great!

Week 11: Music

Today we also began the art strand of music – this is in the form of a weekly 2-hour workshop. I was also super excited to begin this part of the course, I LOVE music! I thoroughly enjoy playing music; I played the piano and saxophone for the HSC and as of this year I have been teaching piano for 8 years. I have found teaching music to be such a rewarding experience; to watch my students improve week by week and develop a real appreciation and passion for music brings me such a great sense of joy. I also enjoy listening to music, whether it’s a CD of a favorite band of mine or turning on to my favourite radio station, smooth 95.3. Music, I believe, is so special. There are dozens and dozens of reasons why music is so important, and should be taught to our students from a young age. And that is why I am so excited to be doing this art strand; to be encouraged to ensure that music is taught at schools and to learn how we can be teaching this in the most effective manner.

The workshop began by watching a youtube video of a child prodigy – Jonathan. At 3 years of age, he exhibited a great musical talent in conducting. Below is a video of Jonathan conducting to the 4th movement of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. In the first few seconds it appears to be just another cute kid waving his arms to a recording of a symphony. But before long, it is apparent that he is uniquely gifted – he is locked into the music, expressing himself with his full body, frowns, smiles, rolling of eyes. He glides from mood to mood, from being possessed to jumping with joy at Beethoven’s percussive blows and syncopations. It’s amazing! (I spent a good hour this afternoon watching many other video’s of Jonathan; he is now 6 years of age and has already conducted a symphony!)

Throughout our music workshop, we learnt the names of a variety of percussion instruments (e.g. tone block, cow bell, tambourine, bongos, etc) and attempted to create two different sounds with each of the instruments. We briefly examined the five musical concepts (pitch, dynamics, tone colour, structure, duration), before moving on to learning about note values. We then examined Vanessa Amorosi’s hit ‘Absolutely Everybody’, and broke the song up into intro/tag, verses, chorus, bridge, coda etc. To conclude the lesson, each student in our workshop were provided with a glockenspiel or xylophone and played ‘Purcell Canon’. It was absolutely beautiful! 

Whilst I was on professional experience, I had the opportunity to teach a music lesson on body percussion. Below is a copy of the lesson plan.

Body Percussion

- Music -

LESSON DATE:  Monday 9 September 2013

LESSON AIM: Students learn and appreciate the music that can be produced through ‘body percussion’, and produce their own rhythm in a small group. 

SYLLABUS OUTCOMES:

- [MUS3.2] Improvises, experiments, selects, combines and orders sound using musical concepts.

·      by responding to music through performing and organising sound activities and identifying features of this music

• understanding, appreciating and evaluating their own work and the work of others

LESSON OUTLINE:

RESOURCES	- IWB (Youtube)
Introduction 15 min	1. Introduce lesson: Body Percussion - What is body percussion? ·       Body percussion involves using the body creatively to generate percussive sounds. - Traditionally, there are four main body percussion sounds. What might they be? ·       Stomp: Stamping the feet against the floor or a resonant surface. ·       Slap: slapping either the left, right or both thighs with hands ·       Clapping hands together ·       Clicking fingers - What are some other possibilities for body percussion sounds? ·       E.g. hitting chest, clicking with the tongue against the roof of the mouth, etc
	2. Simon Says - Play Simon Says using body percussion sounds. Once the class has the hang of it, allow a student (who is engaged/actively participating) to take over and continue.
	3. Show class examples: 1.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb-2VsE2y-U - (stop at 1.15min) Ask students: What was good/effective about the rhythm they produced? (steady beat, etc) 2.     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3XBNvPLWMs - (start at 16sec) Tell class this is a performance. Ask students: What was good/effective about the rhythm they produced? (many layers, variety of sounds, etc)
Body 20 min	Activity: Make your own rhythm - Groups of maximum 5 students - Create a body percussion rhythm ·       Important to keep a steady beat (suggest four) à keeps it going/doesn't get awkward ·       Introducing the idea of layering* as an option ·       Inform students to use dynamics* where possible ·       Tell students that there is an opportunity to perform your groups rhythm to the class J  * define terms with students - Tell students that they can write/notate their rhythms if they can - Whilst observing/5min remaining, warn students to start rehearsing the whole rhythm
Conclusion 5-10 min	Performances - Ask students what they enjoyed about each group’s body percussion performance

ASSESSMENT:

- Observe: In groups, students create a rhythm using only body percussion.

To wrap up the first music entry for my blog, I thought I would share another child prodigy; Emily Bear. As a composer and pianist, she has played with orchestras in the U.S., Europe and Asia, at such venues as Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. By the age of eight, she had composed more than 350 pieces. She is incredible - there are no limits to the musical heights that she can reach. Below is her first appearance of the Ellen Show back in 2007 (fast forward to 3min35sec for the performances).