Dance skills

TL_DANCE1

Dance skills

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Dance skills

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Dance skills

Contents
 Introduction

 Learning outcomes

 1 Safe dance practice

 1.1 Safety and dance

 1.2 The warm up

 1.3 Warm-up activities

 1.4 Myths and facts

 2 Posture, alignment and balance

 3 Dance combinations

 4 Performance skills

 5 Giving feedback

 Conclusion

 Keep on learning

 References

 Acknowledgements

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Dance skills

Introduction
Dance communicates ideas through movement and is an
expressive art form. Students need to learn how to use their body
in a safe and healthy way, whilst developing a wide-ranging
movement vocabulary. This unit introduces some key skills and
suggestions for how to develop these skills with students.

The use of different dance techniques can be an effective way of

building vocabulary and developing different kinds of skills and
abilities. Technical dance skills can form the foundation on which
to develop and enhance each individual's performance.

As dance teachers, we may have a range of skills, but it isn't

always possible to possess expertise in every type of dance style
and technique.

Find out more about studying with The Open University by visiting
our online prospectus.

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Learning outcomes
After studying this course, you should be able to:

 understand and have practical experience of creating

opportunities for learners to develop dance skills
 understand safe dance practice
 understand and have practical experience of giving
feedback
 promote discussion and debate about dance issues
throughout the dance curriculum.

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Dance skills

1 Safe dance practice

1.1 Safety and dance
Interactive content is not available in this format.

As with other physical activities, consideration must be given to

aspects of safety when teaching dance. Safety is paramount and
should underpin all dance education.

Here is a checklist of basic safety procedures that dance teachers

frequently endorse. Can you identify others for your particular
teaching situation or context?

 The body should be free of all jewellery and watches,

including navel piercings.
 Bare feet are required to prevent slipping.

 Appropriate clothing should be worn that allows

freedom of movement and which is free from zips,
buttons or buckles that could cause harm.

 Long hair should be tied back from the face to prevent

it falling into the eyes whilst moving.

1.2 The warm up

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Dance skills

The importance of an effective warm up to prepare the body for

physical exertion cannot be emphasised enough.

Warm-up activities for dance should:

 mobilise the joints;

 increase the internal temperature of the body;

 increase the heart rate and blood flow to the muscles;

 make the muscles warm and pliable;

 increase the range of movement around the joints;

 increase the speed of transmission of nerve impulses;

 prepare the mind, as well as the body, by focusing on

oneself.

1.3 Warm-up activities

A variety of actions might be included in warm-up activities, and
there is good reason for keeping these simple and repetitive. If the
brain and muscles have to concentrate on learning new and
complex patterns of movement, then this takes attention away
from raising the core body temperature by 1 or 2 degrees and
increasing the heart rate enough to perspire.

Movements might include:

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Dance skills

 walks gradually increasing in speed to a small run;

 shoulder rolls, arm circles and simple stretches of the
torso and arms;

 gentle flexions (extreme flexions should be avoided in

warm-up activities), extensions and rotation of the
joints, including knee bends (plié);

 movement of the torso in all directions, swings and

sitting rolls;

 simple continuous patterns of movement to increase

the pulse rate and warm the body.

The benefits of an effective warm up are that:

 The body will be prepared for movements needing

speed, strength and more complex neuromuscular co-
ordination.
 Oxygen will reach muscles more efficiently and this will
aid muscle contraction and relaxation.

 The body and mind will be prepared to concentrate.

All of the above help to minimise the risk of injury.

1.4 Myths and facts

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 Myth – Warming up and being warm are the same

thing.
 Fact – Warming up the body requires physical
movement that should gradually increase in speed
and intensity over a period of around 15 minutes.

 Myth – It has to hurt to be doing any good.

 Fact – Pain can often be a warning sign that the body

has gone too far – students should learn to listen to
their bodies and interpret the signs in order to avoid
pushing themselves too far.

 Myth – Dancers can never be too flexible.

 Fact – Too much flexibility in the joints can lead to

injury if dancers do not have adequate strength in the
muscles surrounding the joints.

Activity 1
Identify the similarities and differences between what is
recommended in the main narrative above and your own practice
in the teaching of dance. Then design an effective sequence of
warm-up activities in an appropriate dance style.

Try this sequence out in class and ask for feedback from the
students on aspects that you will be able to evaluate, for example

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on whether it has increased their heart rate or made them feel

warm.

For further information about health and safety for dance, click on
‘view document’ below to read Warming Up and Cooling Down and
visit the Dance UK website.

view document

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Dance skills

2 Posture, alignment and balance

Posture and alignment are the key to balance and moving through
space. It can be tempting to overlook such things when faced with
25 students, of whom a third want to do a routine to their favourite
chart song, another third want to have a go at breakdance, and the
other third would rather sit and watch everyone else!

Posture and alignment are fundamental to dancing, just as they

are to other kinds of physical activities, such as martial arts.
Learning how to hold and move the body in alignment is something
that is beneficial throughout life, and not just in a dance class.

Students need to become aware of their alignment through feeling

and not just through looking, although being able to see the
changes in the body through the use of mirrors is helpful to start
with.

As teachers, we need to guide the students' alignment through the

use of general and individual verbal prompts, imagery and, where
appropriate, the use of touch. A light touch, for example using the
fingertips to demonstrate lengthening in the lower back or to
prevent the shoulders from dropping behind the line of the hip
bones, can make all the difference to some students.

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Dance skills

Developing this kind of body awareness will help students to

balance, to recover safely from off balance, and to move the body
through space.

Balance is all about holding the body still and using opposing
muscular energies to achieve this. But, if the head, upper torso
and pelvis are out of alignment, then this places unequal stress on
muscles, ligaments and joints. The body will tire easily and it will
become difficult to maintain balance.

The centre of gravity for a dancer is in the pelvis, just below the
navel. It is important to try to keep the line of gravity within the
base of the support to help the body's stability.

The body is more stable when the centre of gravity is lower and
the base of support larger. However, dancers usually want to
balance on precariously small supports, such as the ball of one
foot, and so the body will be less stable in this position. This is why
body awareness is crucial.

When we are maintaining a balanced state we are using our:

 eyes for visual clues;

 middle ear for our sense of equilibrium;

 receptors in our joints and muscles.

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Balance is a skill that can be developed and needs body

awareness, practice, muscular tension, control, concentration,
focus, strength and stamina.

Activity 2
Click ‘view document’ below to read the article ‘Dance Science’ by
Rachel Rist (1991). Identify the points that you are familiar with
and the developments that you were unaware of. Reflect on
whether any of this information will impact upon your practice and,
if so, in what way(s).

view document

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3 Dance combinations
Movement and dance combinations enable students to make
physical sense of the exercises and movement material that they
are given in class on a regular basis. In dance, repetition and
recapitulation are vital ingredients in the learning process, and so
being presented with phrases of movement that progress and
develop in complexity will allow the individual to progress and
develop too.

Did you know that it takes around 180 repetitions of a movement

for the muscle memory to retain that particular pattern?

The purposes of dance combinations are:

 to increase and develop movement vocabulary;

 to develop movement and muscle memory;

 to increase the range of movement;

 to increase and develop understanding of physical

capabilities;

 to develop an awareness of anatomical principles;

 to increase mobility in the body;

 to improve co-ordination and performance skills.

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Activity 3
Create a simple dance combination based on movements and
exercises that you have taught in class.

Keep it short, around 16 counts, to start with, and then add more
movements that expand on what has gone before and that will
develop specific aspects of your students’ abilities.

Teach this combination over a period of 4–6 weeks, adding more

movements each time. Keep a progress log to evaluate any
developments made.

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4 Performance skills
Performance skills are those aspects that set dancing apart from
mechanical movement. Often, our attention is drawn to the dancer
who is using a range of performance skills effectively, because
they stand out from the rest.

Performance skills are aspects such as:

 focus;
 projection;

 musicality;

 timing;

 emphasis;

 expression.

All of these aspects are connected to the way in which a dancer

interprets the movements and the meaning of a dance. Some of
these may be prescribed by the choreographer, for example where
the focus should be at a given moment.

These skills can be taught in class through the medium of the

simple dance combination. If students understand from the outset
that dancing combinations of movements is the process through

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which they learn how to perform, then their performance skills are
less likely to be elements that are added on once the movements
have been learnt.

Activity 4
Watch the video sequence, taken from White Man Sleeps, several
times and make a note of the performance skills that are
identifiable.

Video content is not available in this format.

Use a similar activity in class with your students. Select an extract

from an appropriate professional dance work and ask the students
to identify any performance skills that they might have focused on
in practical lessons.

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5 Giving feedback
In order to develop and improve dance skills, students should also
be involved in evaluating one another's, and their own, work.

Performing for one another in class as part of an evaluation and

feedback process can be beneficial to both the students and
teacher.

When done on a regular basis, students can become less self-

conscious about performing in front of others; this is important in
terms of building confidence in young performers.

Feedback is an important part of the improvement process

because it can provide statements and questions that enable the
students to see their own work with an outside eye.

Once engaged in the evaluation and feedback process, students

will be developing skills in observing, listening and applying
comments to their work – in the same way that they do in the
choreographic process.

Feedback can come from the teacher or fellow students – and

through the use of a video camera.

Giving written feedback can be done in a variety of ways, ranging

from using a simple blank piece of paper to a more complex pro

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forma. It all depends on what you want to focus on at that point in

time.

Activity 5
Click ‘view document’ below to download your own printable blank
performance skills feedback sheet.

view document

Use this document as a starting point to design your own feedback

sheet, addressing the elements of performance skills for a
particular group you are working with.

Click 'view document' below to read

Giving helpful feedback: performance

view document

To see a completed example performance skills feedback sheet of

the kind you could use with your students, click ‘view document’
below.

view document

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Conclusion
This unit has highlighted some of the fundamental aspects of
dance skills, and given you ideas as to what to include and
possible approaches to developing such skills in class. It has also
looked at the development of performance skills and the use of
feedback. You might like to use the Unit Forum to discuss and
debate any dance-related issues, share ideas or ask questions.

Further reading

Dance UK, ‘Warming Up and Cooling Down’, Information Sheet 3,

Articles by Caroline Marsh.

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References
Davies, S. White Man Sleeps, performed by Siobhan Davies Dance
Company.

Rist, R. (1991) ‘Dance Science’, The Dancing Times, December

1991, p. 243.

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Acknowledgements
Amanda Burrows is a graduate of Laban and gained an MA in
Education from The Open University. She has taught dance in
secondary schools, FE colleges, universities and in community
settings. Amanda is currently Head of Curriculum for Visual,
Performing Arts and Media at Grantham College, and has
produced materials for the Open Univerity's Teachandlearn.net,
repurposed here for openlearn.

Except for third party materials and otherwise stated (see terms and
conditions), this content is made available under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources for

permission to reproduce material in this unit:

All photos by Fausto Dorelli, from Cohan, R. ‘The Dance

Workshop’, 1986. Gaia Books Ltd., Octopus Publishing, Hamlyn.

Rist, R. ‘Dance Science’, Dancing Times, December 1991.

Every effort has been made to contact copyright owners. If any

have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased
to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Don't miss out:

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