CREATIVE MOVEMENT
PRE-CREATIVE MOVEMENT & CREATIVE MOVEMENT
The Pre-School Dance Curriculum develops basic movement skills, musical awareness, expression and creativity. Themed classes encourage class participation, focus and confidence that prepare students for entry to the Pre-Primary levels. This curriculum is appropriate for students between the ages of two and five years.
What to expect When the Preschooler Dances
Life is most exciting for the preschooler. These young ones are proud of their movement skills. They love to be challenged and practice hard at accomplishing the task. Physical activities, thinking (intellectual) activities and feeling (emotional) activities are not separate entities but are deemed as one. In their eyes, a physical failure is viewed as a complete failure of themselves. In fact, along with the anatomical limitations of the preschooler, determines our approach to dance.
How do we begin to build the dancer at the preschool age level? In addition to having excellent technique, the greatest dancers are also extremely musical, have exquisite interpretative skills and utilize stage space. The dancer, as artist, encompasses all these elements – the technique merely provides the tools for the expression. All dance forms have four elements: Body awareness, time, space and energy.
Body Awareness:
The preschooler is still learning body parts. Many do not know the difference between their shoulders/elbows, shoulder girdle/shoulder joint, pelvis/hip socket. This is the age that children become quite fascinated with the workings of their bodies. In class, we will spend time learning about how the body works, how body parts move, and developing coordination and locomotion skills. The movements generally involve gross motor responses.
Most preschoolers have wonderful little potbellies. No fear – this is not a weight problem – it is just that their insides are too big for their pint size. They will grow into their intestines just as they grew into their oversized baby heads. Unfortunately for the preschooler, the key to dance technique is control of the abdominal muscles. The preschooler has little muscle feedback – never mind any control of this vital group of muscles. As a consequence, building a solid technical foundation at this stage of development requires unique approaches.
The advancements in sports medicine has forced dance professionals to re-examine traditional methods of teaching ballet technique. This scientific knowledge has provided tools to analyze technical efficiency and age appropriate exercises. The dance teacher of the twenty first century now has the knowledge for injury prevention. Some of our basic ballet exercises, such as standing at the barre in various ballet positions, requires very complicated neuromuscular patterning in order to be completed correctly. By prematurely requiring the preschooler to attempt exercises beyond her physical capabilities, an incorrect series of muscular patterning is being established. These patterns must be reconditioned when older to prevent injuries.
The challenge for the teacher is to present age appropriate exercises to your child, carefully building the foundation for future dance performance. Your child will participate in a series of carefully sequenced exercises designed for her age level that will build the proper base for the more complicated demands of formal dance technique. Sometimes, when you view a class, your child will appear to be just “dancing and playing”, however this “dancing and playing” is building important kinesthetic patterning. You will notice that many of the warm-up exercises are performed seated or lying down. Without the complexity of gravity, the child is better able to feel the movement of the joint resulting in a better understanding of the concept. The exercises performed frequently involve songs and rhymes. In addition to building musicality, they aid your child in her concentration and focus.
Time:
The preschooler is at a perfect age for developing musicality which is an essential component for the dance artist. Developing listening skills and developing ‘inner hearing’, the ability to hear the music inside one’s head, leads to musical understanding.
Preschoolers learn to feel the difference between the beat, the heartbeat in music and the rhythm, the way the words go in music. They learn to feel the space between the sounds. A sense of anticipation is developed. You will observe us performing songs, rhymes, finger plays, and using percussion instruments. All these activities lead to developing this sense of musicality. These activities demand accuracy and develop thought processes that perform a vital role for musical understanding.
Space:
Your preschooler will be exploring and visually documenting their use of vertical and horizontal space, drawing their dances. These scribbles have meaning and form the most basic forms of iconic representation. If you think about it, the alphabet is just a bunch of scribbles that society has attached a meaning to. Take time with your child to learn about the activity pages of her dances. In the next couple of years, these scribbles will become much more sophisticated and stylized which, in turn, lead to an understanding of form and development of choreographic skills.
Energy:
Energy involves qualitative, interpretive skills and the dynamics of movement. Dance events are planned into the lessons to build these skills. We imagine, create, discuss, sometimes document (write down our dances) and often accompany our dances with rhythm instruments. The child’s awareness of what her body is actually doing is heightened and she can make more sophisticated movement decisions. The child is given the tools to analyze, assess and decide – creating order out of chaos, success from the challenge and communication from feelings.
Bonnie Papadopoulos B.F.A., M.A.
Summer Dance Classes 2012
Check out our schedule for fun in the sun summer dance classes!!!!
Click here for more information…
Kindermusik®
NEW Kindermusik class sessions. Classes are for newborn to age seven & and their parents. Click here for details.
Daytime Classes Available
If you are a stay-at-home Mom (or Dad) looking for daytime activities, ask us about daytime music and movement classes for your little son or daughter. Click here for details.