Animals and the Origins of Dance/Drama (VELS 1 & 2)

This week was my first dance/drama lesson. I was a little bit nervous as I’m not really a dancing and I’m always the slow person at the back that looks lost! I was hoping there wouldn’t be any in front of class performances.
In this lesson we looked at creating a story using our bodies, and thinking about how to move if we were animals.
We explored the locomotive movement and non locomotive movements. we started by sitting in a circle playing a follow the leader type game with hand gestures and sounds, this was the example of non locomotive movements, we then stood up and moved around the room following the leader in actions and movements, we then all came together in a big snake like line, we had scarves that we used as props. This activity was fun, although I found it went a little bit too long as I started to lose interest.
We then learnt the kingfisher boogie that had great actions and was heaps of fun, I enjoyed the background to why Jackie created the dance, and once I knew the meaning behind the dance it gave me a greater appreciation of the dance and song.

Below is a video of the dance we learnt in the first lesson, as you can I struggled with the choreography! It’s all about having a go and having no fear! I’m not a professional dancer being judged on my performance. 

 

Reflection: How would use what I learnt in class. 

Today's class was heaps of fun and had lots and lots of movement. I was thinking as we were doing the snake follow the leader game, that I could use this in a literacy class for junior school students, say they had to do a descriptive piece on a particular animal. The beginning of the lesson could be about exploring the movements of the animals, they could then write from their experience.  

The Second part of the lesson was creating a story about what happened at the waterhole. I loved this activity! My group was great they were all willing to participate and we had a lot of fun being animal characters and taking on the persona of the animals. As you can see below, I was a fish! I loved the free flowing movement I had to create; I imagined I was actually in the water hole. I also imagined I was a cheeky fish, that loved jumping and splashing other animals. My costume inspiration was from the story "the rainbow fish" my costume was rough and made on the spot, I still enjoyed it though and it helped me feel more like a fish then myself!

 


Below is the video link for our story! As I said before this was a super fun activity that our group enjoyed so much! 

WATER HOLE STORY LINK

Here is a picture of our class peer assesed performance! we were happy with our feedback!