Dance Reflection 1:

Dance in Education Part 1: Lets Get Moving! 

Agenda - Lessons to Improve our Understanding of Dance: 

• “Yes, Let’s!”
• Body Shapes & Levels
• Lead With…

Theory - Laban's Movement: 

 • We spoke about how Laban looked upon movement as a two way language process through which the body could communicate by giving and receiving messages.

• He believed that movement stems from the inter-dependence of body, mind and spirit and he understood that our inner life relates to the outer world.

• Laban created a theoretical language in order to help the observer understand and record movement objectively. 

• This is still widely used in many fields of the movement/dance and therapy worlds. 

We use Laban’s Movement Analysis as a way to:
• Observe
• Describe
• Notate/describe

All types of body movement, in our case here, DANCE
• Detailed analysis
• Give students vocabulary to describe, create and analyze

4 Main Categories 

BODY

- Describes structural and physical characteristics of the body while moving
- Which BODY parts are moving? Which parts are connected?
- Which parts are influenced by others?

EFFORT

- How a movement is done 

- Subtle characteristics about the way a movement is done - inner intention 

1. Sub-categories: Space: Direct / Indirect
2. Weight: Strong / Light
3. Time: Sudden (or Quick) / Sustained
4. Flow: Bound / Free

SHAPE

- The way the body changes shape during movement

SPACE

- Involves motion in connection with the environment, and with spatial patterns, pathways

Element and form of Focus: 

• We focused today on the elements of body, in which we identified Leader vs. Follower lines
• This lesson allowed us to be creative, and to be both spatially and bodily aware

Thoughts: 

• This was a great beginner dance class that allows for inclusive learning, and the creativeness of the lesson allowed us to have a lot of fun with the movements!