BLOG POST #4 - How can dance be connected through the curriculum?


Responding Statement

As teacher's, it is our responsibility to 'know our students and how they learn' (AITSL, 2017), this includes learning styles and preferences, student personalities and their likes and dislikes. To support bodily movement or kinesthetic intelligences (Gardner, 1993-1999), movement or dance integration is a medium that could support student learning across the Key Learning Areas (KLA's) of the Australian curriculum.

An example of integration of the KLA's; year 4 English and Dance. 
Content descriptors:
  • ACELT1603 Discuss literary experiences with others, sharing responses and expressing a point of view
  • ACADAM007 Performs dances using expressive skills to communicate ideas, including telling cultural or community stories
(ACARA, 2019)

Students read part or all of a text. To demonstrate an understanding of comprehension and perspective, students summarise and predict events of the text with movement and the expression of dance.

Further, dance facilitates, with ease, the general capabilities and the cross-curriculum priorities (ACARA, 2019). From the example explained students exercise:

General Capabilities
  • Literacy capabilities when reading, comprehending, predicting and responding to texts with dance choreography in mind.
  • Numeracy capabilities when students explore and further construct the sequence of events or timelines.
  • ICT capabilities, the text itself could be from ICT or the performance could be recorded and self-reflected apon. 
  • Critical and Creative thinking when students creatively express their interpretation with movement.
  • Personal and social skills when viewing and responding to peer ideas and points of view.
  • Ethical understanding when respecting peer performance. This capability could also be enhanced by exploring moral or value-based stories or texts.
  • Intercultural understanding when considering other points of view. Students could also 'theme' their dance according to dance types or cultural styles. Intercultural understandings could be further strengthened by exploring biblical texts to interpret, therefore shaping a christain world view. 
Cross-curriculum Priorities
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures when exercising the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning (2012) in storytelling in a non-verbal manner, creating symbol and images with their body.
  • Asia and Australia's engagement with Asia when exploring cultural dance styles or the text could originate or extend Asian cultures.
  • Sustainability is explored when learning through bodily movement and not resources, further students could explore the sustainable habits or attitudes in texts. 

Learning in Dance

As part of the Australian curriculum, it is a requirement for students to understand, perform and respond to a variety of past and contemporary cultural and community dances. Examples of cultural dances could include:

Aboriginal Australian Dance

Figure 14: Aboriginal 'Fire' Dance (White Wolf, 2011)


Asian Cultural Dance

Figure 15: South Asian cultural dance (Trinity University, 2014)


Asian Contemporary Dance

Figure 16: Asian contemporary dance (Mahasarinand, 2018)


New Zealand Maori Dance

Figure 17: Maori war dance - The Haka (New Zealand Tourism)

Aboriginal Contemporary Dance 

Figure 18: Aboriginal contemporary dance (Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia, 2019)


Making in Dance

Discovering cultural dance, this weeks' making in dance activity explored African cultural dance. Choreographing a sequence of 4-5 repetitive movements, students perform with a grounded or sunk body aesthetic focusing on the use of the low and mid levels and limited forward, backward and pivotal travel. Using the stimuli of a cultural story, Figure 19 conveys 'welcoming the rains'. 

Figure 19: 'Welcoming the Rains' - African Cultural Dance (Saunders, Lewis, Thacker, Williams-Butler, Henderson, 2019)

Content descriptors of stage 2 dance and geography that are performed during this task:
  • ACADAM007 Performs dances using expressive skills to communicate ideas, including telling cultural or community stories
  • ACADAM005 Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using the elements of dance and choreographic devices
  • ACADAM006 Practise technical skills safely in fundamental movements
  • Year 3: ACHASSK069 The similarities and difference between places in terms of their type of settlement, demographic characteristics and the lives of the people who live there, and people's perceptions of these places
  • Year 4: ACHASSK087 The main characteristics of the continents of Africa and South America and the location of their major countries in relation to Australia 
(ACARA, 2019)

Responding in Dance

Appreciating peer performances, students use the TAG review process (Figure 20); Tell something you like, Ask a question, and Give a positive suggestion, to examine dance meaning and interpretation and provide constructive feedback.
Figure 20: TAG reflection and peer feedback process (TeachersPayTeachers)

Sam responded to Figure 19. He employed dance vocabulary and terminology to tell his likes of the variety of travel used in the dance. Sam continued by asking a question about my perspective and interpretation of the story to clarify his understanding. Finally, Sam gave the positive advice of focusing on the use of facial expression next time. 


References


ACARA. (2019). Retrieved from Australian Curriculum: https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/
AITSL. (2017). Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. Retrieved from Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership: https://www.aitsl.edu.au/teach/standards
Bangarra Dance Theatre Australia. (2019). BOOK TICKETS. Retrieved from Bangarra: https://www.bangarra.com.au/performances/
Gardner, H. (1993). Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed. Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books.
Mahasarinand, P. (2018). Contemporary dance Hotpot. Retrieved from The Nation Thailand: https://www.nationthailand.com/lifestyle/30336664
New Zealand Tourism. (n.d.). HAKA - MĀORI WAR DANCES. Retrieved from 100% Pure New Zealand: https://www.newzealand.com/in/feature/haka/
NSW/ACT Inclusion Agency. (2012). 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning Factsheet.
TeachersPayTeachers. (n.d.). Retrieved from Teachers Pay Teachers: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/
Trinity University. (2014). Celebrating Cultural Diversity. Retrieved from Trinity University: https://new.trinity.edu/news/celebrating-cultural-diversity
White Wolf. (2011). Dreamtime:Traditional Australian Aboriginal Fire Dance. Retrieved from White Wolf Pack: http://www.whitewolfpack.com/2013/08/traditional-australian-aboriginal-dance.html



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