Jamie-Lee's Dance ePortfolio 

The activity of producing a phrase using GLEFTS would be covered over a number of lessons to allow sufficient time for engaging students in the expressive intention, giving them time to select movements, choreograph their phrase, rehearse and then perform their piece.

Through the progression of year levels in Dance according to AusVELS, students move from imitation like movements to more personal, emotive movements. In level 3 and 4 Level 3 and 4 “students create a movement sequence based on ideas and feelings suggested by one or more images viewed in class, then modify their work in response to feedback from other students in the class”. The activity surrounding emotions that we did in class would be acceptable to students in the middle years as they can begin to make a connection between movements and emotions. As the teacher I would want to assist students in the process of improvisation by providing contrasting examples of various movements that illustrate or portray a particular emotion eg. Curled up in a ball may reflect loneliness whereas doing a jumping jack may portray joy.

 For the purpose of discussion about how I would apply this activity in my dance classroom, I have chosen a focus on Level 2 where AusVELS suggest students “use the whole body or body parts to improvise movements matching sounds or the movement characteristics of particular animals”. They are working towards a Level 3 Standard where they will be able to “use ideas and concepts taken from themes, scenarios, narratives and visual stimuli, they experiment with ways of expressing and communicating ideas and feelings to particular audiences for particular purposes”.

I believe to engage students in the expressive intention (why) using a visual stimuli assists in the improvisation of movements. I have chosen to use The Tale of Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle Duck by Beatrix Potter as a visual stimulus to prompt students to, as AusVELS suggests, improvise movements that correlate to particular animals. In this story it pictures three kittens getting up to mischief with three ducks that they come into contact with as well as a another story of Jemima Puddle Duck and a sneaky fox.

I would use this video to discuss with students the various characteristics of the three animals and how they move. Together we could formulate describing words such as what Beatrix Potter uses at the start -“tumbled about” to get students thinking about the ways they can imitate the animals.

I would spend a few lessons on improvisation of movements using the video and prior discussions before setting the task of creating a phrase to ensure students have a plethora of movements they will be able to choose from during the selection stage of the dance creation process. The expressive intention would be to create a phrase using GLEFTS using movements and characteristics of either a kitten, duck or fox. I would use the music by David Ellis used in the clip to further emphasis the connection between the movements the students choose to the movements of the cartoon.

When students come to the arrangement step of ISARE, I would observe their initial ideas and then work alongside the students to develop and refine each small group’s arrangement. I would allow a couple of lessons on refinement and get students to view each other’s dance and give feedback on how they may refine it further.

AusVELS states that at Level 2 students “begin to use arts language to identify characteristics such as similarities and differences” in response to their own and other people’s art works. I would model the correct dance language during this time so students begin to learn the correct terminology.