Teaching Dance in a Fun Way

Schools generally require students to remain as still as possible. The idea is that movement distracts students, causing them to lose focus during class. However, expecting children to remain motionless all day is sheer madness. Fortunately for them, there are recess periods and physical education classes that allow them to burn off their energy. Young teachers often forget this, but it is possible to incorporate movement into education.

Learning Through Movement

Every year, the Grenoble Academy’s Higher School of Teaching and Education offers future teachers a “cultural week.” Among the various activities, one of the most unique focuses on discovery through the body. Students engage in different experiences designed to awaken their senses. For example, they navigate a course with multiple obstacles made of different materials while blindfolded, guided by a sighted partner who simply follows the student’s pace. In this way, they discover how the body and culture can be connected. This activity may inspire new pedagogical applications.

The arts are part of the core curriculum, and among the various forms of artistic expression, dance is often overlooked. Yet this art of physical expression can be a wonderful way to combine movement and culture. Not to mention that, as we noted in a previous article, dancing can be highly educational. In fact, retired professional dancers can become teachers who know how to pass on the passion for this art form that has been a part of them since childhood.

Teaching Dance While Having Fun

Dance teachers often don’t have access to as many teaching resources as teachers of other subjects. Since 2018 in Quebec, they’ve had access to two educational games designed specifically for them. Developed by two dance professors at the Université du Québec à Montréal, the first is called “26 Dance Cards.” The idea is that the twenty-six cards represent the letters of the alphabet. On the back of each card, a dance is suggested based on a term beginning with that letter. For example, for “Z,” the word is “Zombie.” The students must then stand up and move like the undead rising from the ground. The “Balloon” associated with “B” asks the children to dance like a balloon that has been left to float away in the wind.

The second game is “Words on the Fly,” which includes 55 colored cards representing elements of dance: the body, space, time, energy, partner relationships, and compositional techniques. Working in small teams, students must create a choreography based on the terms they draw. Their work is then evaluated by the teacher and their peers based on how accurately they interpret the cards and the originality of the dance they present. This game has already attracted so many dance teachers that it has prompted a second production run.

Dance vocabulary and the art of dance can certainly be taught in a fun way. Teachers can draw inspiration from these games to further integrate movement-based learning into their class schedules.

Illustration: YLegrand - VisualHunt.com / CC BY-SA

References

“26 Dance Cards.” Bouge De Là. Accessed February 14, 2019.
https://bougedela.org/fr/action-mediation/26-cartes-a-danser/.

Ducharme, Jean-François. “Two New Educational Games for Teaching Dance.” Actualités UQAM. Last updated: January 12, 2018.
https://www.actualites.uqam.ca/2018/nouveaux-jeux-educatifs-pour-enseigner-la-danse.

“‘Discovery Through the Body’—Does That Speak to You?” Cie Infusion. Last updated: October 25, 2018.
https://cursus.edu/fr/dossiers/185/danser-partout

Lévesque, Anne-Isabelle. “Moving, Having Fun, and Dancing with Students.” RIRE. Last updated: February 19, 2018.
https://www.ctreq.qc.ca/ressources/bouger-samuser-danser-eleves/

“Dance Teacher: Turning Your Passion Into a Career.” We Love Prof - Superprof Magazine. Last updated: February 22, 2018.
https://www.superprof.fr/blog/enseigner-des-choregraphies/.