What is the Game?
Keeping creativity in your lessons is so important for a child’s personal development. Let them explore ideas and come up with their own movement solutions. Being creative is our default trait. You too are creative as a dance teacher and so are your students. What if you just brought in a prop and let them explore ideas themselves. Are we giving our young people the space to truly need to be creative? Do we allow them to play? It is during play that children learn. Every dance lesson I teach always starts with a game. Every topic you want to teach can be a game. My question to start my lesson is ‘What is the game’? Eg GCSE Dance A Linha Curva - I would get students to create their own hopscotch with chalk or tape. Then find their own way to interact with it. That’s it - that’s the lesson. Please give me a topic or idea and let’s start the ‘what’s the game’ revolution! Where every dance class starts with a game that means students are thinking, solving, interacting, exploring, moving and more.
Photograph by Tiene Carlier taken at Open Up To Dance, Teacher CPD in Brussels organised by Danspunt.
Dance Improvisation
Dance improvisation is about discovery, taking risks, allowing yourself to come up with a variety of movement answers in the moment and without judgment.
Sometimes when making a dance piece it can be difficult to picture what the final piece will look like, what shape it will take, what the emphasis will be. These improvisations will give you the keys to unlock ideas that you will find useful on your choreographic journey. They can be used to collect movements that can be used in a whole dance composition or in their basic form be used to warm-up, shake off the day and to train yourself to challenge your dance skills and ideas.
All art starts from nothing, from an idea, a seed, a thought, something found, something that sparks interest. These games, tasks, ideas, stimuli, and developments are here to give you or your students a little push to find a creative vision, to explore movement and to then discover how these ideas can be developed, adapted, and structured.
Clapping
Creating a phrase from a hand clapping game.
Making Connections
Create a map of three places on a partner that can then be used to move them safely.
Thanks to Vikki Mead and Ella Fleetwood
Dance Improvisation tools to download
Here are a few resources to use in the classroom with young dancers.
More coming soon......
The Choreospinner
Inspired by chance based choreography techniques this is the only choreographic spinner you will ever need. It’s a fun chance based tool that can turn choreography into a quick reaction dance improvisation game. A game where you have control of the aspects you select but no control over where the spinner will land.
Developed by Dance Educationalist, Teacher, Performer and Choreographer Justine Reeve who's love of spontaneous movement inspired her to write 'Dance Improvisations' and 'More Dance Improvisations' published by Human Kinetics.
The body is a creative tool with limitless possibilities but sometimes the brain needs a little push in the right direction to start on an innovative dance journey. Hopefully this tool will help inspire some wonderful choreographies.
Justine Reeve
Unboxing the mini choreospinner
The dance improvisation resource with a never ending use, create a game, choreograph, explore and get inspired.