Caption: Developing Creativity
Claire Pring: I’m here in Leeds where I’ve been working with a wonderful Year 1 class.
Teacher: I like yours balancing on your arm there Samuel.
Claire: They’re exploring the senses in their dance lessons, inspired by the theme, ‘Who am I?’
Claire: Good morning, everybody.
Children: Good morning!
Claire: Lovely to see you, and what beautiful moves you’re doing. What a great balance we’ve got there. And I notice some people are balancing the material either on their shoulders, I saw somebody else doing it on their foot. How can you use your material in a really interesting and creative way? Let’s see what you can do.
Caption: Warm Up ~ Actions & Feelings
Claire: I love what you were just doing there, and I saw a few other people were doing it, finding different ways of pulling their material tight. Sometimes over their heads. I saw some people doing it front of them, behind them, low to the floor. So different ways of pulling your material. But how does that make you feel, when you’re tight?
Child: Strong.
Claire: Strong, that’s a great word - makes you feel strong. Let’s see if we can make some wonderful shapes that are strong. Keep finding different ways of doing it.
Claire: Using the phrase, ‘find a way of’ encourages the children to find a range of responses. Give them the opportunity to experiment throughout the lesson so they don’t perceive that there is a single right way to respond.
Caption: Warm Up ~ Safety
Teacher: How can we make sure that we are safe? Lola.
Child: Not putting it round your neck.
Teacher: Good girl. We mustn’t put our material round our neck. If you’re sitting down, sitting on it, that might be OK, but if you’re standing on it what might happen? Does anybody know?
Children: You might slip.
Teacher: It might slip, you might lose your balance. Well done.
Caption: Creative Exploration ~ Confidence
Teacher: So, Claire we’ve been using the props and I’ve noticed that the children are becoming a lot more expressive.
Claire: Well, the children who maybe lack confidence in their performance, it can really enable them to extend their range of movement. It makes it feel like the prop is doing the dancing, rather than them themselves.
Teaching Assistant: Stretch, using our toes to stretch.
Caption: Context ~ Words & Feelings
Teacher: So could you show me how you would move your material if you’re feeling miserable maybe?
Teacher: Very slow. And then how would you show the feeling happy with your material? Very good, very nice.
Claire: So, did you notice the difference there between the happy and the miserable? The happy was quite a big action, it was flowing. Whereas the miserable action, that was a smaller action, it was just going up and down, wasn’t it? So, we can think about the size of our actions, but also the energy of our actions, the dynamics that it shows us.
White out
Teacher: Do you remember in our last lesson when we thought of our feeling words? Can anybody remember any?
Child: Happy.
Teacher: Happy, brilliant. Millie, have you got one for us?
Child: Sad.
Teacher: Sad. So that’s something to think about when you’re moving your material.
Caption: Creative Exploration ~ Dynamics & Projection
Claire: What about proud. What actions would you do for proud?
Claire: That’s a lovely big action for proud. Well done.
Claire: Excited.
Claire: Oh, we’ve got a side-to-side motion going on there. Like running on the spot.
Claire: Calm, what could you do for calm?
Claire: We’ve got some swaying actions. We’ve got some smooth movements.
Claire: What about sad? What would sad be like?
Claire: Ooh quite still you are there with your sadness.
White out
Claire: It might take some time. Your role is to get those ideas flowing and guide by observing, describing and sometimes echoing the movements the children produce.
Teacher:I like the way how MacCauley is scrunching his material up, makes me think you’re feeling quite secretive, like you’re trying to hide your material. Can we have a go? I like that Emily.
Teacher: I like how Lucy is really stretching her material high. What are you feeling?
Child: Brave.
Teacher: Brave.
Claire: Expect the unexpected. Just because their response is different from what you had anticipated doesn’t mean it’s inappropriate – time to open up a conversation and get them to explain.
Teacher: How do you think that is making you feel, as you’re folding your material?
Child: Happy.
Teacher: Is it making you feel happy? What’s making you feel happy Kevin?
Child: That way that I fold it.
Teacher: The way that you fold it. So, the shapes of the material?
Child: Yeah.
Claire: The next part of the lesson explores how to use their body only, without the material.
White out
Teacher: What about the word powerful with your material? Oh, I like that Lola and you’re balancing, fantastic. You look nice and powerful there, Leila, good.
Claire:There’s a lovely big stretch, look at that one that shows me proud. Taking up lots of space, beautifully big.
Claire: How are you feeling?
Child: Happy.
Claire: Happy, so that’s a happy spin. Do you want to show me that happy spin once more? Beautiful, you’ve got a big smile on your face.
Caption: Performance ~ Actions & Analysis
Claire: So, what we’re about to do now is we are going to work with a partner. One of you is going to be the dancer and the other person is going to be the teacher. So if you are the teacher, your job is going to be to say one of the words that we have been working on and your dancer has got to come up with an action for that word.
White out
Claire: What word do you want him to do?
Child: Strong.
Claire: Strong! Can you show something strong please? Oh yes that’s definitely strong, beautiful.
Claire: Can you think of another word for him now? Can you see the list of words on there that might help you? What about scared, what do you think he’d do?
Claire: Scared. Oh, gone small, shrinking in small. Oh, even his knees are knocked together. Brilliant.
Teacher: So, who is the teacher now? Ok, you need to give your partner a word. A feeling word. You choose one from the list? Happy, fantastic do you think you might move your body for happy? That’s it, good girl.
Caption: Performance ~ Awareness of Partner
Claire: Each pair is going to have one piece of material.
Claire: This time one of the children in each pair is given a piece of material again. The dancer with the material thinks of the emotion they are going to show and the dancer without is asked to identify what it is and then respond to their actions with the same feeling.
Claire: So, what we’re doing now is if there are two people dancing together, it’s called a duet.
White out
Teacher: Does it feel soft when you put it on your arm? Fantastic. Do you think you could do that Sienna? Yeah? So can you pretend you’ve got your material in your hand and do what Amelia’s doing? Nice and soft on her arm, fantastic.
Teacher: Oh, I like that Freya for secretive. And do you think you can copy then Suzanna, with yours? Fantastic. Do you think you’d stand up if you were feeling a bit secretive Freya? Or do you think you might…
Child: Bend down.
Teacher: …go at a low level, good girl. And can we copy? Brilliant. That was lovely girls.
Claire: You might want to swop over now. The other person has the turn with the material.
Teacher: So, what are we looking for with the duets?
Claire: Well, we’re hoping that they will challenge one another. That by working together they might move out of their normal movement range, get ideas from the other child, be inspired. Maybe they will mirror them, maybe there will be complementary actions but doing something beyond what they would normally do.
Teaching Assistant: If you were shy MacCauley, how would you demonstrate being shy? Do you want to take the material and show Tyrese your shy face and your shyness? Oh fantastic.
Caption: Cool Down ~ Dynamics
Claire: So, to finish off, to cool us down, we’re going to think about just two words now. Calm and relaxed. What actions could you do that show me calm and relaxed?
White out