Overview:
Dance is an expressive art form that appeals to all children. It is complementary to music as a non-verbal means of communication, stimulates all the senses, and aids in the development of kinesthetic intelligence and self-expression. In this class, dance and music serve as the conduit for creating integrated movement experiences that illustrate and interpret music
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
- Articulate teaching approaches for preparing students to take part in dance activities.
- Identify effective age-appropriate introductory dance activities.
- Identify ways in which dance can teach music elements.
- Compare and contrast different types of movement activities.
- Describe the best practices for leading action songs and formal dance.
- Identify and describe the assessment of dance activities.
Teaching Dance with Musical Concepts (Continued)
Form
Forms—phrases, AB, ABA, rondo—can be illustrated kinesthetically. The teacher can help students decide on a different movement, activity, prop, or instrument for contrasting sections, keeping the same movement for the recurring section(s). Some suggested activities to depict form kinesthetically include:
- Using a variety of non-locomotor movements—bending-stretching, pushing-pulling, twisting-turning, swinging, bouncing, and shaking
- Using locomotor movements—running, walking, skipping, or sliding
- Creating a movement activity with props—scarves, streamers, hats
- Developing creative movements or dramas to tell the story or convey the mood(s) of the contrasting sections
- Playing instruments—accompanying with instruments of differing timbre
In songs, the phrase usually matches a line of text. Lower case letters describe the phrases. Phrases can be repeated, similar, or contrasting.
Expression
Dynamics (the loudness and softness of music), tempo (speed), and articulation are easy for elementary students to hear and identify. A physical response to music through movement helps to make the concept concrete and leads students towards a better understanding of the subtle nuances possible in the contrasts of these sub-concepts.
Before beginning a movement or dance activity, the teacher should examine the piece of music to determine which elements are the most useful for portraying imagery or conveying a sense of mood.
Classroom activities for the study of expression naturally combine with listening to music and kinesthetic activities.
The following are suggested activities that focus on instruction in dynamics. The students can:
- Develop movement portrayals of crescendo and decrescendo
- Conduct patterns and gestures to follow dynamic changes
- Find objects in the room that would make soft sounds and loud sounds
To study the concept of music becoming gradually softer or louder, students can clap the beat or step to the beat, responding to the increase and decrease in volume with their movements. This musical selection can be coordinated with Gene Baer’s story Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat (Harper Trophy, 1989), a picture story about an approaching band. The students can join in on the repeated lines of Thump, Thump, Rat-a-Tat-Tat using the appropriate vocal dynamics.
The sudden dynamic contrast supplied by the loud chord in Haydn's Surprise Symphony is a favorite listening experience for elementary music classes. What movements would be evocative or expressive of these dynamic changes?
Franz Joseph Haydn - Surprise Symphony
Learning activities for articulation include having the student:
- Imitate animals that move in smooth or in disconnected manners
- Select movements or activities that portray a smooth, connected manner or movements, or activities that portray a disconnected manner
Students can listen and move to musical compositions that are performed in connected (legato) or disconnected (staccato) style. For example, selections with contrasting articulation can be played: "Barcarolle" from Tales of Hoffman by Jacques Offenbach (legato).
Other music that can be used for the teaching of articulation markings includes the following:
- Grieg, "March of the Dwarfs" (disconnected)
- Grofé, "Sunrise" from Grand Canyon Suite (connected)
- Prokofiev, March (disconnected)
- Saint-Saëns, Dance Macabre (connected and disconnected)
- Saint-Saëns, "Kangaroos" from Carnival of the Animals (connected and disconnected)
- Saint-Saëns, "The Swan" from Carnival of the Animals (connected)
- Tchaikovsky, "Dance of the Toy Flutes" from Nutcracker Suite (disconnected)