Part 4: Tailored Business Plan
Vision Statement
Great dancers are not great because of their technique, they are great because of their passion.- Martha Graham
Dance…
as a way of living confirms our humanity
requires technique but also connection and curiosity
needs emotion and interpretation to create pathways to discovery
requires patience and attention.
When we are intentional we notice the fine details in the world, which allows us to mirror our experiences while innovating.
Process…
allows us access to learning in new ways.
acknowledges and enhances kinesthetic intelligence, dormant during much learning in other subjects
can reignite engagement.
Reflect and...
allow time to deconstruct our learning, we uncover rewired connections made through dance.
George Balanchine said, ”Dance is music made visible.”
observe process’ imperative demanding attention
“Dance, dance, otherwise all is dead.” Pina Bausch
confirm that dance as a process, and uses play in that process
become open to the invitation to play as adult learners
“If the structure does not permit dialogue the structure must be changed” - Paulo Freire
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Learning Objectives
As a result of participation students will be able to:
Approach assignments through collaborative work as an ensemble.
Design a short choreography or dramatic scene to express collective understandings.
Articulate personal narratives, through the dramatization of words in a text.
Communicate an understanding of words in a text by performing with personal connection.
Assess self and peers through applying rubric designed to summarize understanding.
Learning Outcomes
At the center of my practice an intentionality to teaching skills and concepts and how that may help sustain a lifelong interest in the performing arts. Children as young as 3 years old can better appreciate what it takes to be a skillful performer by viewing, imitating, creating, and evaluating. As a dance and theater educator, the elements I learned as an artist of theater and dance are invaluable to me as a teacher as well as critical for all learners including:
1. Exploring elements of body, action, space, time and energy (BASTE)
This includes an ability to identify while viewing dance, which enables us to choreograph or create in dance.
2. Mastering increasingly complex movements such as box step and grapevine
Though technique should and isn’t addressed until about age 7 or 8, critical to the future of any young dancer is to have a progression of steps and “enchainment” that become part of muscle memory. Therefore, I introduce the most elementary of these types of combination steps including those mentioned above.
3. Translating stories into movement through choreographic principles
As students begin to master embodiment of movement, an idea that mime, or pantomime, can and often is part of dance as an expressive art form. Therefore, early on I use dance as a tool to tell stories and expose younger students to the most obvious of those including Nutcracker, Firebird and Midsummer Night’s Dream.
4. Cooperating and working effectively in an ensemble in class and onstage
Though I hate to call ensemble work, “team work” the act of collaborating and creating together does nurture the type of camaraderie that exhibits many of the same ideals as a team sport and supports social emotional learning.
5. Learning, rehearsing and interpreting choreography; musicality
When students are learning a sequence of steps, they are accessing parts of their brains that have superseded reason and theory. We learn to become better at absorbing information, to keep us as focused individuals, and to practice mastery in all we do when we approach learning kinesthetically.
6. Increasing and maintaining the flexibility and strength needed for performance
Wellness, and fitness are inextricably intertwined in dance. To be a proficient dance student, there is a required amount of dedicated time and energy to develop strong and flexible bodies that are resilient to injury and help keep the focus on healthy dancers.
These concepts need to be assessed yearly and throughout the students’ academic career on a consistent basis. Teaching skills in the performing arts includes an open-ended approach that will vary based on skills, maturity and cognitive development. Sequential skill based learning can complete the assessment snapshot.
Arts Integration
At the center of my work, is a belief in both art for arts sake and dance a vehicle for learning in other subjects. There is a pushback from many artists who teach that teaching through the arts is not quality arts education. There needs to be a balance between art technique and the arts as a vehicle. Learning through the arts has been a focus of my work since 1998, when I participated in a forum through Kennedy Center for the Arts, “Artists as Teachers”.
Student and Educator Assessment
As an arts educator in a public school, I am required to quantify both my progress as an educator and what the growth of the students has been through the year. Our yearly progress is assessed by in class observations, setting of goals that both align with the Arts Department and the School District’s goals and objectives. After we create actionable steps, we upload artifacts to validate what we have been trying to show in our students work.
Most of my current assessments are performance based, but I also do peer and self-assessment with students. This year my grade band is only the Early Childhood (K0-1st) and so my assessments are verbal and those that are written have a distinct literacy component.
