Week 9 Thursday 6th September 2012
Jacqui Dreesens
This week’s lesson was based on the gumboot body percussion style of dance. This style uses ‘your hands, feet and voice to play rhythms and make music’. This again was an instruction based lesson, with Jacqui teaching us movements used for this style of dance.
To start the lesson we created a circle in the space.
We then experimented with body percussion, firstly stomping our feet in different rhythms to make noise.
After trialling different tempos and beats, we then began to add in arm/hand percussion, following Jacqui’s movements. These movement qualities included clapping, tapping our legs with our hands and hitting our chest with our hands. Jacqui created a movement sequence in which we all followed, completing in unison.
Once we had mastered those skills, Jacqui added in voice into our body percussion, making loud sharp noises going in between the beats of our hands and feet.
We then added in moving side to side, and forward and backwards, changing directions while stomping our feet and moving our arms.
After playing with different ways to move in the space with body percussion, we stretched our muscles. Types of stretches included arms stretches,
bending and stretching out,
calf stretches,
and lunges.
After stretching we continued to explore the different movement qualities in body percussion, this time moving in a circular direction.
Once this had been completed, we broke up into our assessment groups from the prior lessons and had to create a body percussion group routine, using inspiration from this video from a group of gumboot dancers in Cape Town, South Africa. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSgFAG0mtac).
We had to think about the group organisation, movement within the space, the tempo and the movement qualities we were going to use.
We then performed these to the class, one at a time.
To finish off the lesson, we got in a big circle and played a slapping game used in African cultures. For this game, everyone had to connect hands, with their right hand on top and their left hand underneath the other person’s hands.
You then slap your partners hands, clapped yours, then slap the other persons hand again. It was very tricky as you couldn’t look to see where your hands were going, just had to trust that they would make it to where you wanted.
After practising a number of times, Jacqui decided to make it harder, by switching the way your hands go out. So you would slap with you right hand on top and your left underneath, clap your hands together, then slap this time with your left hand on top and your right underneath, and you would repeat it. It was hard to get used to at first, but then was really fun and was a great challenge.
To make it even more challenging, we did this walking around in a circle.
We played a knockout type of game, so if you mucked up you were knocked out of the circle, until there was one person left. I was lucky enough to be one of the last 3 people left in the circle.
We then warm down, by doing a couple of calf, and hamstring stretches to finish the lesson.
Motif:
The motif throughout the lesson was mathematics. Mathematics was portrayed throughout the lesson, through movement qualities being added and subtracted from a sequence.
Adaptation for different VELS levels:
This style of dance could be used at any VELS level; however the complexity of the movement qualities would alter.
Integration with other subjects:
Main arts learning processes:
VELS
level:
|
Adaptation
of lesson:
|
Level
1
|
For this level, I would introduce
stomping and clapping with the students getting them familiar with different
tempos and sounds.
|
Level
2
|
At VELS level 2, I would introduce
stomping, clapping and voice with the students getting them familiar with
different tempos and sounds. This would be free play, allowing students to
explore with percussion.
|
Level
3
|
VELS level 3 states that, ‘students
select, combine and experiment with ways of using a range of arts elements,
principles and/or conventions, skills, techniques and processes, to explore
arts ideas’ (VCAA, 2009). For this style of dance, I would introduce students
to the percussion movements, teach them a number of combinations, then allow
them individually to have time to select some of those movements and create a
small sequence.
|
Level
4
|
For level 4, I would use this whole
lesson, allowing students to get into groups and create their own body percussion
dance as VELS states students ‘collaboratively explore and experiment with
different ways of presenting arts works and consider appropriateness of
presentation for intended audience’ (VCAA, 2009).
|
Integration with other subjects:
- History – This could be integrated by getting students to research the history of the gumboot body percussion, and getting them to show the different movement qualities used.
- Mathematics – As shown in this lesson, this style of dance can be integrated with maths, by adding or subtracting movement qualities from the sequence.
Main arts learning processes:
- Improvisation
- Creativity/Imagination
- Design
- Interpretation
Personal Reflection:
This lesson was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed exploring the use of the legs, arms and voice to make music. This type of dance is really energetic and very exciting to do and watch.
I felt very comfortable in this lesson, and was able to learn another dance style to put in my tools of becoming a teacher. I’m sure children would love experimenting with body percussion, as I know I sure did.
It is yet again great to see the many avenues in which you can take children down for dance. There is just so many styles you can teach, and many ways to go about it. I am really enjoying being able to further my knowledge and skills in dance as a teacher.
References:
FabDrumming 2012, African drum workshop, drum circle, African dance & body percussion, FabDrumming, retrieved 13 September 2012, <http://www.fabdrumming.co.uk/drum_workshops.php>.
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