Week 14: Dance

Today was the final dance lecture/workshop for the semester. Within the lecture, we revisited various ideas and concepts that had been explored previously (e.g. defining ‘dance’), then progressed to examining the variety of available resources for teaching dance in our schools. Below is a list of where some of these can be attained.

- AUSDANCE - http://ausdance.org.au/

- Bangarra Dance Theatre - http://www.bangarra.com.au/

- Dance Educators Professional Association (DEPA) – 02 9886 7594- National

- Aboriginal and Islander Skill Development Association (NAISDA) - http://www.naisda.com.au/

- Sydney Dance Company, Walsh Bay - http://www.sydneydancecompany.com/

- Scootle  (Provides 8,000 digital curriculum resources from The Le@rning Federation. Teachers can find interactive learning objects, images, audio files and movie clips) - http://www.scootle.edu.au/ec/search?topic=%22Arts%22

- Quantum Leaps, NSW Department of Education and Training

- Cool Cates Resources, Bushfire Press

As emphasised in our dance lectures, it is crucial that, as teachers, we strive to effectively teach dance to the best of our ability. The following link explicitly lists a range of methods and practices that will assist teachers in their goal of creating lessons that embrace this art strand to its full potential.

http://ausdance.org.au/articles/details/effective-dance-teaching-methods

Today’s workshop examined how the use of stimuli can be utilized in dance as the starting point or incentive for creative movement. Stimuli can be categorised into 5 groups: visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile, ideational. Various ideas or concepts that are brought to the surface by the stimuli could be translated to dynamic qualities, timing, spatial floor patterns, body shapes, relationships and other aspects of dance composition.

The group I was in for today’s workshop received a photograph of the beautiful Australian outback. We were instructed to create a commercial that incorporated dance, which reflected a message the photograph was attempting to convey. Within the limited time frame, we did our very best to create an engaging advertisement, but it proved to be a very difficult task! Nonetheless, it was a fun task indeed, and students, who would have several lessons to actually complete the task, would find this fun and appealing without a doubt.

The other groups had different forms of stimuli, such as a shell (tactile) or sculpture (visual), to prompt ideas for a dance composition. They presented very advanced and inspiring pieces!

What a wonderful learning experience this unit of study has been, I have genuinely enjoyed every workshop and believe that I have gained a lot of valuable pedagogical knowledge and skills toward my future profession. Over the course of this semester, I have grown to appreciate the arts on an even deeper level and feel more encouraged than ever to ensure that this will be passed on to my future students. Whilst I have always believed strongly in regards to the importance of the arts within and across our schools (esp with working for the Regional Arts Coordinator at DET), this unit of study has allowed an even greater insight as to how the arts can be delivered and appreciated within the mode of lessons.

To conclude with a quote that opens the introduction to Gibson & Ewing’s ‘Transforming the Curriculum through the Arts’:

The arts are the window to the soul.

- George Bernard Shaw

And to officially complete this entry, below is a video from America’s ‘So you Think You Can Dance’ (season seven) - Allison & Robert’s incredibly moving contemporary piece, “Fix You”.

Week 13: Music (2)

Each and every one of our music workshops have been so great, and today marked our final time together. We examined the musical concepts*, listening for appreciation.   

• Duration

What is the tempo? Does it change?

How many bars does the solo last?

How long or short are the sounds? Are there silences?

What rhythm patterns feature? Are the rhythms syncopated?

• Pitch

What is the pitch of the solo voice or instrument?

What is the melodic contour (shape) of the improvised solo? Does it move by steps or leaps, does it move up or down?

Is the tonality major, minor, modal? Is there a change of key?

• Dynamics and expressive techniques

How loud or soft is the music? Does the dynamic level change?

What techniques does the soloist use to add to the expressive quality of the music? For example, are notes played legato or staccato, or accented; does the music slow down or pause; is the melody line ornamented?

• Tone colour

Which instrument plays the solo and what other instruments are heard?

Does the soloist use techniques to modify the tone colour?

Are the sounds acoustic, electric or electronic?

• Texture

What other layers of sounds are heard during the solo and what role/s do they serve (for example, melody, countermelody, harmony, bass line)?

• Structure

How is the material of the solo organised?

What musical ideas or motifs feature?

Is there repetition and contrast within the solo?

Does the solo include riffs or ostinatos?

(NSW DET 2011)

We spent the duration of the workshop listening to various pieces and analysing them together according to the six concepts of music.  The first piece we listened to was Carnival of the Animals – The Swan, by Camille Saint Saens. I absolutely love this beautiful and tender song, which was originally written for two pianos and a cello back in 1886. Listening to this piece brought back a series of emotions and memories, took me back to when I first heard a student teacher perform this piece in my Year 8 class. Even back then I had been swept away at how delicate the piece was, and have dreamt of learning the cello one-day ever since. I was also reminded of the introductory piece to the musical suite – Royal March of the Lion, as I have taught this on piano to a number of my students. I find it so interesting how music, emotion and memory are strongly linked.

Listening to this piece a number of times over this week has reminded me of something that I recently read in “Is Beauty the Making One of Opposites?”, where Eli Siegel asks:

“Is there a logic to be found in…every work of art, a design pleasurably acceptable to the intelligence, details gathered unerringly, in a coherent, rounded arrangement?—and is there that which moves a person, stirs him in no confined way, pervades him with the serenity and discontent of reality, brings emotion to him and causes it to be in him?”

Hearing this music, it is hard not to be stirred, and in “no confined way.” What we hear and what we see in our minds are made one: a swan (depicted by the cello) glides gracefully through water (represented by the piano), its long, elegant neck yearningly reaching for the sky, and bowing down with modesty.  It is both graceful and strong. Here is Saint-Saens’ stirring music.

The other pieces that we also analysed throughout the workshop included Grieg’s ‘In the Hall of the Mountain King’, Elfman’s ‘The Ice Dance’ and Williams’ ‘Harry Potter – Hedwig’s Theme’. I really loved listening and analysing all these pieces; oh how appreciating music can be such a wonderful and emotional experience.   

To wrap up my music blog entries, I want to share my favourite classical piece, Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’. I learnt this piece on piano while in high school and absolutely adored it. Somehow, it is such an indescribable experience to play it, it is just so beautiful and full of emotion… Below is a video of ‘Canon in D’ using the original instruments that Pachelbel wrote it for.

And finally, below is a ‘modernised’ version of ‘Canon in D’ – it is very amusing but simultaneously reveals the incredible talent of these musicians!