Case Study

Wilbury Junior School

School No: 19

Reflections on 2005 Hertfordshire Schools' County Dance Festival

We all had a great time in the build up to the festival and the day was brilliant. The children having the opportunity to see other children of all ages and ability was such a bonus. To me it would have been the best possible INSET for any teacher!

The theme 'Heroes and Heroines' gave us all alot of scope but the Flash song by Queen is so powerful, with crescendos, a strong beat as well as changes of tempo which are full of pathos.

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The tune is immediately attractive to children and although I had ideas as to how I wanted to develop the dance I always start by just listening to the song or tune with the class. The children can then get a 'feel' for the music and have an understanding of the whole piece. They can hum or tap or sway or whatever they like during it. I then ask the children to move to the music in their own way. At this point I am looking for ideas as well as good execution; these may or may not be used later.

Encouragement to experiment and produce movement and balances of good quality is obviously important at this stage. I ask the children to watch their peers and comment, suggesting improvements or highlighting parts that they like. We performed several of the individual moves as a class; this gives a sense of togetherness and allows the children to see the power of synchronised movement and the discipline required. The children were then put into groups so that they had to co-operate to complete the task.

In working towards the final performance, we tried to ensure that we used the space available to optimum effect. Contrasting tight grouping with well spaced individuals, slow with fast movements and having the children work at a variety of levels all leads to an interesting final outcome. It is vital to ask the children for ideas and to give them the opportunity to suggest improvements, especially after watching each other perform. We then worked together on each part of the dance to produce quality finishes. The importance of strong gestures and movements in synchrony or canon is stressed at this point.

This all sounds very formal when written down but the class had great fun working on the dance. The lifts caused great hilarity at times as well as an amount of hard work and several readjustments of technique but the final out come was therefore even more appreciated.