Dance : Exploring shapes

What is dance?-my version

Our tutor asked us to define what dance is and the answer I have come up with is as follows. To me dance is a way of expressing myself in the chaos in and around my world through expressions and movements, allowing me to losing myself in the moment and  in doing so finding the stillness and silence from within  me thereby discovering  a part of my real self.

What is creative dance?

Creative dance involves using the body to express and enhance inner thoughts and feelings using different techniques and sometimes incorporating aspects of different art forms. It requires the involvement of physical, emotional, intellectual and aesthetical aspects of self (Gibson & Ewing,2011, p.35).

Why creative dance?

It would enable the children to

·       Enjoy creative movement

·       Understand their bodies, feel comfortable with it and confident in their own skin

·       Express ideas and feelings through individual and collaborative movements

·       Apply artistic elements like time, shape, energy and structure to their movement.

-(Gibson & Ewing,p.38)

In today’s tutorial we examined the following videos:

Dance like your ol’ man – Chunky Move, Hyundai car advertisement – Pilobolus dance company, Rock Lobster – school performance. And we went through the following questions to analyse the dance elements in it.

·       How were the elements of Dance used in each piece?

·       What was the style and purpose?

·       How would you describe the quality of the movement of the female dancer?

·       What shapes did the dancers use?

·       What is the intent of the piece?

Today we did warm up exercises( to physically prepare the body and focus the mind on the upcoming lesson) and experimented with concept of musical statues with guided improvisation, an action created from stimulus- with two feet no hands, 2 hands one foot, no hands no feet, and making free letter shapes using the body. This had a focus on the element of SPACE, in particular –shape i.e., shape of the group and the individual dancer. We discussed whether the movements were light and effortless? Or whether it included pushing, swinging, turning or rolling actions?

Ideas for teaching

Taken further the lesson of exploring shapes can be extended to explore geometrical shapes, levels, contrasts etc.

References

Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave MacMillan: Melbourne.

 

Drama: Story Telling

In the art of storytelling, the story teller is unconstrained by the narrative text of the book and free to speak directly and spontaneously with the audience and watch for their response (Ewing & Simons, 2004, p.72). Effective oral story telling is reliant on expressive use of voice (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.65).  The non-verbal aspects of storytelling (gesture, facial expression and body language) are also essential for breathing life into a story (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.66).

In the story telling workshop, as a warm up activity we did vocal tennis in pairs where we played with our voice-its tone (angry, cheerful etc.) ,pitch(high ,low), volume(loud, soft) by throwing whatever name of the fruits, vegetables, names of boys and names of girls at our partners that came to our mind. This warm up activity encourage the students to explore the nuances of volume, pitch and tone (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.65). A teacher can structure this activity by giving students categories to choose from and the vocal quality that need to be experimented with.

Image of a selkie

After this we started to experiment with the process of linear story telling (7 parts-orientation or setting which outlines the problem/suggested solution for the problem/what happens next/unexpected scenario/tension(critical moment)/climax/resolution) by developing the story of selkie between the pairs by following the two basic commands ‘advance’ and ‘detail’. One person would start off with the story, and with advance command would go forward  or proceed with the story, but with detail command  would pause with the story and describe whatever was asked to describe like the skin, selkie, their dancing, chest, house, fisherman etc.(eg, fisher man- What did he look like? What was his hair/eye/skin colour? What kind of skin/face/hands did he have? Was he tall/kind faced/bald/handsome/old/young? etc.). By thinking about details, (colour, shape, size, sounds, smells, taste, touch, emotional qualities of a character, atmosphere mood etc) we make our own personal connections with the story.

We made up our own endings for the story. My ending to the story was that the selkie returns to the sea on finding the skin, but comes back to her mortal family with her husband’s apology and promise to never again interfere with her decision to return to the sea to visit with her sisters whenever she felt like it. Victoria recalled some of the story endings that the children came up with in her workshops. One ending I really liked was of the one where the selkie hangs up the skin alongside the jackets and announcing it was going to stay there to use whenever the she felt like it. Another ending I found thought provoking was the one in which the children would find their food all set out on the table like it used to be when they came back from the school every day and find the bed turned down before sleep every night even though they couldn’t see their mother.  Victoria made a remark that in these endings we could see a glimpse of the children’s experiences and I found that to be true. Anything that we express out there in the form of art always reveals a portion of ourselves.

Victoria talked about the importance of developing the oracy skills of children as a means to express themselves rather than bottling their feelings and thoughts which may end up being expressed in a physical manner later on. The development of oracy skills has the potential to be converted to excellent writing skills. This kind of use of drama in the class room exposes the children to different points of view which expands their thinking and imagination.

Tandem story telling

Here we had to recall an anecdote from our childhood and tell it to our partners, who would then own the story by adding/subtracting his/ her own elements to the story. Then we had to get up in front of the class and take turns in retelling the story to the audience convincingly. The audience would then guess whose anecdote it was by filtering the performance through a set of criteria like

• voice-tone/pitch/volume
• gesture
• facial expression
• senses evoked through the portrayal of story by invoking in the audience the images, smell, touch, taste, emotions, responses etc.
• pauses
• development of a relationship between storyteller and listener
• eye contact

To get the children engaged and develop their literacy skills I can see the art of storytelling as a valuable tool in my arsenal. Victoria suggested keeping a file of these named personal stories to use in the lessons in a future term which has the added advantage of capturing the immediate interest of the children and making them feel valued. Combined with still images, sculpting, readers theatre, improvisation etc. this is another strategy we can use to develop the outcomes of various KLA’s.

Ideas for teaching

Story telling can be used as a tool to explore important themes and issues. Various drama strategies can be used to facilitate critical thinking, problem solving and literacy development (Gibson & Ewing, 2011, p.69). Oral storytelling and subsequent discussions helps the participants to explore their thoughts, perspectives and perceptions through interaction, questioning and interpretation of different perspectives.

References

Ewing,R. & Simons, J.(2004). Beyond the Script-drama in the class room.PETA:Newtown,Australia.
Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave MacMillan: Melbourne
Selkie image from Google images

 

 

 

 

 

 

Visual Arts: Art Appreciation

Does art lend me wings to fly?

In and out, in a world of plight

Does art make my heart light?

Does it take me on a flight?

For a feast of senses that sets my imagination alight;

To  a world that swirls with colours,rainbows  and flowers bright.

Today’s class was on learning how to appreciate an artwork through  the four steps of Feldman’s Inquiry method, describing , analysing, interpreting and evaluating. We used it to study an artwork “Self portrait as a dreaming man by Douglas Prince”.

Self portrait as a dreaming man by Douglas Prince,1979

Describing-First we had to look at the photograph and list all the things we could explicitly see in the work. This tends to engage the observer’s attention to really look at all the elements of the image. We looked at the picture and listed the things we could see like a partially submerged naked man, rocks, water, house etc.

 

Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• Describe what you see.
• Describe the artist's use of colour. How many colours have been used?
• How has the artist applied the paint?
• Describe the texture.
• Describe the lines in the work

 

Analysing- Then each table group was given the task of describing each of these components. Our group had to describe the expression on the face of the man and we came up with words like” a pale young man with a tranquil expression “. This process involved collecting evidence to make a judgement on what we saw.

 

Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• Is your eye drawn to any particular area of the painting?
• Is there an element that stands out in the composition?
• Is the composition balanced?
• Does the work make you think of movement? How does the artist show movement?
• Does the painting look flat or does it give a feeling of depth or space?
• Where might the artist have stood while painting this picture?

Interpreting- This involved asking questions like “why is the man submerged in the water?”, “How did he get there?”, “Did he achieve this end on his own?” or “Was someone else responsible for his state”?  and putting together a story about the picture or discovering the meaning behind the work. We came up with scenarios like he was indulging in a religious baptism, doing water meditation, bomb victim etc. Questions that can be considered (Mulder-Slater,2011):

• What kind of mood or feeling do you get from the painting?
• If you could imagine yourself within the painting, how would you feel?
• What sounds would you hear?
• Why do you think the artist choose this particular subject to paint?

• What part of the landscape, building, person, animal etc. most interested the artist? Why do you think so?

Evaluating – In this last and final step we had to make a qualitative judgement. This involved each person asking questions, did I like it? What did I like about it? Is it giving a valuable message?

 

After this exercise, we looked at the above picture and compared it to the first one, based on various elements such as background, clothing, play on light, setting and so on to find contrasts and similarities.

Claes Oldenburg. Pastry Case, I. 1961¬62.
Enamel paint on nine plaster sculptures in glass showcase.
20 3/4 x 30 1/8 x 14 3/4". The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection. ©Claes Oldenburg
 

Next we had to analyse an artwork by Claes Oldenburg “ The Pastry case” (given above) using the following Art map compass (courtesy of the Ministry of Education, Victoria).

Feldman's Art Map Compass for artistic criticism

We had to write something about the art work answering the questions in the compass and arranging our answers based on the alphabet A..Z. Eg. A-assemblage, B-banana split, C-Claes Oldenburg, D-desert, E- everyday  objects, F- fake food etc.

 

This art appreciation workshop has given me a new perspective of looking at artworks and given me confidence to introduce the same in a classroom.

 

References

Art Map Compass. Art Map: Ministry of Education (Schools Division) Victoria

Mulder-Slater, A.(2011) How to look at art. Retrieved from http://www.kinderart.com/artspeak/artart3.shtml

 

Drama: Readers’ theatre

Readers’ theatre is a way of working collaboratively in order to interpret a story and present that interpretation to an audience. It includes more than reading, more than talking but brings together multiple modes in the dramatic form of group story telling (Ewing & Simons, 2004, p.83). In Readers’ theatre, with a script developed from a very familiar story students can focus on their voice, limited gestures and audience rather than other characters (Ewing as cited in Gibson& Ewing, 2011).

Today we did Readers theatre with the script of Mark and the wild things. We split our group into teams with 2 people playing Mark, the remaining team playing the rest of the voices in the script. We had to use our voices and body to portray the essence of the characters. Our tutor encouraged us to use our body language as well as voices to engage the audience with the characters we were playing.

 

                                                               

Mark and the Wild Things

 

(The two marks are sitting in the middle , the two people playing Marks’s mother are flanking the Marks’s on both sides, the rest are the wild things.)

Ideas for teaching

Reader’s theatre gives students a chance to read aloud for a purpose. It combines reading practice and performing. By using Readers theatre students can gain confidence in reading as it helps them to practice their reading skills in meaningful context (Ewing & Simons, 2004,p.83). With Readers’ theatre students infuse expression, fluency and comprehension to their reading and this helps them get more involved in the reading process.

References

Ewing. & Simons, J.(2004). Beyond the Script-drama in the class room. PETA:Newtown,Australia.
Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave MacMillan: Melbourne

Visual Arts: Working with Clay

 

Noisy fun-Clay creations

 

In the afternoon workshop we explored the medium of clay which was ‘noisy but fun’. I was really stressed today and working with clay allowed me to concentrate on the moment and let go of my worries for a while. It was my first time working with clay and I was surprised at how much strength it took to pound the clay to squeeze out the air bubbles. Then I spread it out with a roller to the height of a finger as per the instructions. After tracing the design (of a heart shaped frame) out on the clay with a sharp tool, I cut out the unwanted parts of clay from the design. I thought of making a lotus flower initially but dropped the idea for fear of lack of time. We had to cover the 4 stages, slab (Pounding clay into a sheet having a height of a finger), incising (cutting out pieces of clay to make (in our case) a frame) , coiling and scoring(attaching a piece of clay to another) in transforming a lump of clay to a work of art. After making it and scratching my initials on to its back I left it on a rack to air dry along with those made by my mates (see above).

Once dry they are fired in kilns and later on painted with bright and colourful acrylic paints appealing to the young children.

In the lecture today Robyn, discussed the various forms for expressing Visual Arts, Drawings(includes collage-called drawing with scissors, painting, sculpture, printing, photography, fibre crafts(sewing, weaving, paper crafts(as paper is considered a fibre),ceramics, digital electronic media. She also discussed the subject matter for visual arts like people, living things, objects, spaces and places and events.

References

Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave MacMillan: Melbourne.

 

Drama: Sculpting the voices in the park

 

Today in the drama workshop we explored the literary text “The voices in the park” by Anthony Browne.  We explored the voices of the characters Mother, Charles, Smudge and Smudge’s Father and their personalities through the text and the illustrations in the book. Using drama as a learning tool we tried to decode the characters, their personalities and perspectives.

Sculptures of the overbearing mother

Adjectives wall for the character of the mother

Some adjectives used to describe the mother

scary, narrow minded, embarrassing, pompous, cold, posh, stiff, prejudiced, stern, snobby, controlling

Questions that can be explored with students

• What kind of situation could the mother have grown up in to make her so?
• What are the repercussions of the mother's attitude on her son Charles?

 

 

                                           Expressions for the suppressed boy on the wall

Examples of expressions used to describe the boy

As timid as a mouse, a timid lion, as trapped as a lion in the cage, as stunted as a sprouted seedling under a tree, a bird with its wings clipped

Ideas for Teaching

Sculpting- using bodies to create an image. Working on still images can help students to convert their thoughts or ideas or analytical situations into a tangible form that can be open for discussion. It has the added advantage that it can be remade if required (Ewing &Simons, 2004).

The above portrayed activities (sculpting, role on the wall etc.) are excellent ways to explore the characters in a literary text and decode their personalities to gain an insight into the narrative. These activities can be used to explore the concept of social status, relationships, vocabulary, expressive phrases etc. Teachers can utilise the above tools in the development of the characters (by exploring body language, facial expressions, and gestures), their interactions and their relationships in the narrative text writing. Properly utilised, students with this activity can learn to add depth and voice to their characters. Sculpting can be used to mould characters and if a variety of sculptures are included, some students acting as curators from museums can try to select the best sculpted characters- which can lead to further discussion of the desired traits that prompted the choice. It can be a stimulus for writing a persuasive letter to the curators on why they should select a particular statue (qualities).

References

Browne, A. (1999). Voices in the park. Corgi Childrens: London.
Ewing,R. & Simons, J.(2004). Beyond the Script-drama in the class room.PETA:Newtown,Australia.
 

Visual Arts: Analysing children’s drawings

 

Stages in art development

In the Visual Arts lecture today, we discussed the various stages in art development i.e., Manipulation or Scribble stage, Symbolism stage and Realism stage.

1) Manipulation or Scribble stage (usual age 18 months-3 yrs)- starts to make marks. May remain longer  at this stage due to lack of fine motor skills, lack of opportunity or practice)
2) Symbolism (from 3 yrs up to7/8yrs)-tries to draw representation of the world around and of themselves. Eg. Just head of a tadpole before it develops legs, smiling sun, Hansel and Gretel House.
3) Realism (usually starts from 10 yrs)-wants the drawing to look real. Accepts inputs from teacher to develop skills in drawing.

Ideas for engaging students in drawing.

Before getting the students to draw, engage their senses through touch, photographs, direct experiences like drawing animals at the zoo etc.  Students should be asked to draw things they find engaging or are relevant in some way to them (Eg. Buzz light year). Get them to notice details of the objects they are supposed to draw like matching colours.

Wilson’s Graphic principles

Today I was introduced to the Wilson’s Graphic principles with which a drawing can be analysed (Why young children’s drawing look the way they do?). The seven principles we looked into were

1) Simplicity principle-  (draws the easiest way they can)
2) Perpendicular Principle- (shows a birds’ eye view of something, but with interpretation of things that can’t be explained by physics e.g. A tennis court surrounded by trees that seem to be slanting by showing an inclination of 45 degrees from the floor)
3) Territorial Imperative Principle- (each item in the drawing stands on its own and has a specific area)
4) Fill the format principle-(draws extra things to fill in the space in a page, eg adding more fingers in a hand)
5) Conservation and Multiple Application Principle-(Reuse things in a drawing at every opportunity like same type of flowers on both sides of a person)
6) Draw everything principle- (tries to draw both the inside and outside of things like transport.)
7) Plastic principle-(tries to exaggerate important features through colour, size etc. eg. Head lice drawn in big size)

 

 

Principles in action

 

children’s work with the name of the principles

 

References

Gibson, R., & Ewing, R. (2011). Transforming the curriculum through the arts. Palgrave MacMillan: Melbourne.