What we did today
Bush dancing
Choosing the content- power to adapt the ‘skeleton’ of curriculum and
delivering it in the most engaging way possible.
We know the history of our culture- the invasion, the settlement came
cross cultural fusion- multiculturalism
Make sure that it is relevant to the students you can teaching…make it
meaningful.
Politics- Folk Dancing- if not pitched well, they won’t understand it.
Racism/exclusive if they don’t want to hold hands
Dance brings up a lot of political issues and you need to be aware of
that as a teacher.
Talk about it…why are we doing this activity- go back to the domains
and address cognitive (brain) and metacognition (thinking about thinking) In
order to understand the content they need to work in a group context.
Dance- you need to be a part of a team (effective domain) as well as
being disciplined and focus individually.
When teaching bush dance…consider all students (muslims, English,
indigenous, disabled, unfit??) when choosing a dance style. Make sure it is
inclusive, everyone can be engaged!
Dance Styles- Body of Knowledge Cultural framework
While taking part in the
workshop and learn the dance, we had to think as a student how we are coping
physically and then as an educator how can we teach this in an inclusive way.
Gender Issues
Rules and Regs- boys dance with girls. You to impart this information
to the students.
The Stockyards
We learnt the dance section by section starting with the curtsey. We
practiced the boys and the girls they moved onto the do-se-do. We practiced
these parts until everyone felt comfortable to move onto the next part. We then
formed partners (some girls had to be boys) and learnt the final parts of the
dance. The men were then asked to lead the girls in the circle and the final
part was the waltz or polka which was quite difficult to wrap our heads around
but was fun to learn. Once we had learnt the whole dance we practiced. Jacqui
ensured we were supported by calling out key words to remind us what was coming
up. She also counted for us to keep us all in time. 
We then watched a number of videos that showed a range of different folk
dances from all over the world. We also watched the same dance we learnt
performed by smaller students. 
We reflected on the space used and how the teachers organized the
children. We noticed how the teachers was constantly calling out locomotive
terms to remind students what was coming up (just like Jacqui did today). We
also reflected on the approaches Jacqui took in teaching the folk dance-
breaking down each step by practicing skipping, walking, hopping, doing this
backwards etc and gradually adapt these locomotive movement until we are ready
to learn the dance.
How can you say ‘hello’ without speaking?
How can you greet them through touch?
In the stockyard dance, how did we greet each other? Curtsey
We moved around the room, using our limbs to greet everyone.
We got into groups, and discuss how the group with move in term of
spatial arrangement and movement vocabulary. Everyone paired up and
experimented with greeting movements before choosing two movements…then
practice those!
Time to make up our own dance…
Jacqui allowed time for us to create our own meet and greet dance
ensuring that we include different lines and different ways of greeting through
movement, while using the space effectively.
Applying it to a mainstream classroom
Different Levels
Early Years (Level 1 & 2): This dance could be easily taught to the
younger levels but students would need a lot of support. I would not teach this
particular dance to students in prep but certainly to Grade 1, slowly and
explicitly, using appropriate language and taking more time to explore each
movement and section of the dance. I would be sure to consider each students’
physical ability and their cultural backgrounds to ensure inclusivity and
engagement.
Level 4: While I did explain that I felt that the folk dance suited the
younger students better, I do believe that if taught well and students have
already formed positive relationships with peers this lesson could quite fun
and engaging. More time would be spent explains the cultures and histories of
folk dance as well as the political and gender issues involved rather than
spending time working on the explicit movements. I would again be sure to
consider each students’ physical ability and their cultural backgrounds to
ensure inclusivity and engagement.Planning my own approaches to teaching folk dance
I think it highly valuable and important to
break down each movement if students are younger and may need more support in
learning the movements. Like Jacqui did today, I would be sure to start the
lesson by getting students moving and practicing simple movements like walking,
jogging, skipping etc and gradually move on from there.
I also would encourage students to
participate but not force students to do anything. Because the lesson was quite
physically tiring, I would allow plenty of time for breaks for water and rest.
While students were doing this, I would encourage discussion and reflection on
the history and political impacts of folk dance.
If I was to teach this myself I think I would
ask more questions. Questions like:
How are we all feeling?
Are we ok to move on?
I really enjoyed today's lesson, found it engaging and could imagine it working fantastically in the classroom (especially if you could integrate it into a history/culture unit.
Jacqui Dressens (2012) Dance Workshop 7- Telling Stories: Bush Dance, ECL410 Primary Arts Education, Deakin University, Burwood.
Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority (2012) Victorian Essential Learning Standards, Victorian Curriculum Assessment Authority, Victoria
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