seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Netherlands
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Pakistan
seen from Estonia
seen from Germany
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Slovenia
seen from China
seen from Morocco
seen from Bosnia & Herzegovina
seen from Russia
Dance Curriculum in India: Time to decolonise and redesign
The following appeared as a report in Current Science as part of the section Current Science Reports. For the uninitiated, Current Science is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It was established in 1932 and is published by the Current Science Association along with the Indian Academy of Sciences. The report contained a writeup on a recent publication about Dance curriculum in…
DAY SEVEN [plan]
-free dance
-self stretching/practicing choreography (while 2 at a time I adjust their personal choreography)
-across the floor (touch improv with the command variation)
-break [5 min]
-circle up - assign roles for the day (camera crew, lighting/sound managers, stage managers, room cleansers)
-assign each person a verse, bridge, tag, or chorus to direct (talk through it, try to come to quick decisions so we can start blocking and changing)
-block [1 hour]
-film 4-5 times
-assignment - email me by 8 o'clock the 2 shots of personal choreography with the new beginning
DAY SIX [actual]
(i didn't end up recording what we actually did that day step by step, but here is a list of the things that we did do, and in effect why the following days became so much more cramped)
-free dancing/stretching/conditioning on their own [30 min] while i had individual meetings about their personal dances
-across the floor jazz walks and jazz walk combinations
-across the floor partner eyes closed exercises
-break [10 min]
-small groups - experimenting with 2 different angles (25 minutes)
-circle-up - have them copy down the large storyboard/sectioning off of parts
-discuss different ideas of how to execute our story (our story is a group of wheaton academy students learning how to make a music video during winterim with multiple ipads and in a confined space)
-
(note: because i've never actually 1) storyboarded a music video myself nor, 2) figured out a system to collaboratively distribute and organize the music video planning process...this was definitely a learning experience. we spent the rest of class trying to brainstorm what would be best and i tried my best to get everyone's ideas down and voices heard, but it became a lot of noise and a lot of ideas. also, the class was terrible at listening - an effect of some of them already being good friends. this resulted in the last hour of class only blocking about a third of the video which left us with finish in class the next day - day 7 - the intended filming day. the end of class ended up being pretty stressful and i could tell that they were frustrated. but i was hopeful about being able to block it by tomorrow)
-assignment: film your 20 second video, practice choreography
DAY SIX [ plan]
-improv dance
-stretching/conditioning [20 minutes stretch on their own while I take 2 students at a time and work on their personal dances]
-Across the floor - [jazz walks, free arms, jazz walk jazz walk chanay chase step leap...etc]
-improv across the floor - partners: person 1 eyes closed, person 2 tapping person two and give directions "squirm, float, expand, melt...etc" (for round 2, ask about how to make a variation and do it differently)
-break [10 min]
-small groups: experiment with 1 angle
-small groups: experiment with another angle
-circle-up - discuss large group vision - decide chorus angles
-work on blocking the music video
-work on specific choreography (cleaning)
-set up iPads
-break [7 min]
-small group angle discussion
-film for 15 min (practice)
-show groups films
-talk about transitions
-rough block walk through
-break [7 min]
-use the rest of the time to work out filming small sections
-talk about costumes?
-assignment: film do 4 takes of personal dance and practice choreography
DAY FIVE [actual]
-free dance to one song
-stretching/conditioning [15 min]
-ATF [ jazz walks - free arms, combination: jazz walk jazz walk shanay chase step leap step leap step leap...etc., improv: body letters- round 1: make DIVA with your body, round 2: think of the letters as 3D and you have to move around them and describe them with your body, round 3: same idea, but with partners and you have to stay in contact the whole time (note: - this was extremely frustrating to them and i could tell, so afte that round i asked them why it was frustrating - "we couldn't communicate and it got very confusing and frustrating, you didn't know what the other person wanted to do. i didn't like it at all". so i asked them what would make it easier - we suggested switching off leaders, better eye contact, and being able to not be in contact as much) round 4 revised.]
-move to the center of the floor - partner off - do negative space carving exercise (they liked this better)
-break [10 min] (i drew the storyboard on the mirror and our main camera angles)
-break into V, B, T groups (Verse, Bridge, Tag) and solidify choreo (4 8-counts)
-show choreo to everyone from the ipad
-circle up - notebooks - have them copy down the blank square storyboard map of the song i drew on the mirror - then had them copied the sketches of the main angles we are doing (i drew 5 and left a 6th square open to keep the option open of another angle if someone feels so inspired)
-explain the overall story - "we are making a music video with a group of high school students in a little dance studio during a class"
-groups pick one angle (of the main angles) to try and adapt their choreo to [10 min]
-show
-pick another angle [10 min]
-show
-assignment: solidify 20 sec choreo (not 40 sec anymore) to show to me tomorrow; think about locations and camera angles; draw mock up angles for your sections and for the main chorus sections
DAY FIVE [plan]
-free dance for one song (lights off)
-stretching/conditioning [20 min]
-ATF [jazz walks - free arms, shanays, leaps, improv (spell DIVA in partners, touching and then carving)
-break [7 min]
-get into groups to finish choreography [20 min]
-show Feist "1234" video
-group exercise - formations - collect nouns and split class into 2 groups. call out the nouns and have one person from each group arrange the group into that shape in 30 seconds. switch leaders.
-have the groups pick their favorite formation and mold the whole class into it (without talking)
-group exercise - have class walk around the classroom and call out instructions (i.e. run, walk, saunter, slither...etc) then call out a number signaling how many people should get together in one group and form a shape with a certain required number of body parts in contact with each other
-break [5 min]
-groups - choreography [20 min]
-everyone watch each other's choreo
-critique (5 min each)
-explain big group structure - show storyboard structure
- ask "what's our story?"
-choose angles - for verse, bridge, tag
-work on the group mirror choreography
-talk about transitions
-assignment: (show my choreography study) and talk about using the frame of a camera, have choreography solidified by wednesday to show me individually (change from 40 sec to 20 sec)
DAY FOUR [actual]
-free dance for one sang (lights off)
-stretching/conditioning - [20 min]
-across the floor [jazz walks - faster, shanays - faster, leaps, partner improv - one person closes their eyes, the person behind them touches different parts of their body to move and respond to. after the first time, we talked about how to make the communication between the partners better)
-break [8 min]
-Circle-up - ask about the improv exercise - "i liked it. it was harder to be the one tapping because you had an idea of what you wanted them to do and then they did something else. // (more liked being the one who had their eyes closed) // there was a freedom in not being able to see yourself, so you weren't critical of yourself"
-exercise - gave 5 minutes for them to come with an 8 count that came from some of the moves they have created in their choreography studies. We then circled up and one after the other, with music on, did our 8 counts.
-Added the variation of changing the very first move of our 8 counts to match the very last move of the person in front of us.
-DId another variation where your first move in your 8 count interacted with the last move of the person in front of you. (note: - it was good to give them limited time to choreograph and to hold them to a higher expectation that they would be able to do the 8 counts in a well-paced manner. my instructions for the interaction after having them just change the first move previously turned out to be confusing)
-break [10 min]
-Circle up - notebooks - write down the timings to "love on top" (i.e. 1st verse - 0:20-0:40...etc)
-split into same groups as day 3 - instructions to just focus on choreographing to fill 4 8-counts until the end of class (note: i emphasized them not getting too attached to it because we're going to adapt it)
-assignment: listen to "love on top" and draw out a physical representation of the dynamics in the song; do 3 variations of your choreography (i,e, reverse the choreo, do it the opposite of how you normally do it)
-
