Throughout my professional practice, I have used and explored with props within a community dance session when my students have had limited vocabulary or have been between ages 3-6. “Props can also be great fun and encourage a climate of exploration and playfulness, but always remember that props should enhance movement, not mask it” (Hills, 2003, p.81). For me, I have found that this method encourages students to listen to the relationship of the music and the props to explore their own movements. Hills (2003) suggests ideas of working in a non-verbal way and the method of ‘body talk’ and many ways to incorporate music as a way of communication with people with limited movement. Peppy Hills has helped me improve my teaching methods and guided me through alternative ways of teaching in a non-verbal way. By this, I learnt that dancers with disabilities can explore movement using qualities of touch and the use of choreographic devises to develop work and understanding of choreography knowledge. I have learnt to incorporate music within the sessions to encourage emotional expression. For example, using Jazz music, the students have been more energetic whereas Hip hop music helps them express character.
This is my first blog being a Module three student. I begin to stress on how lost I feel right now in my studies, but with the induction Skype blog last week I felt a lot more at ease. Unfortunately, due to work commitments, I was only on the Skype call for 30 mins which is half of the session but thank you to my class friend Marianella I was able to catch up via the recording I was sent. The induction was very helpful as it allowed the MAPP dance community to come together and share ideas with new students on module 1 up to present students in module 3. Adesola guided us through the importance of communication with our peers and class friends through Skype sessions and blogs and also the importance of UniHub. Adesola helpfully shared her screen and lead us through UniHub where we could find our module handbooks and other important information regarding the course e.g library resources and class timetables and calendars. One thi...
Thank you Tara for your lovely blog! I have had the opportinuty on various occassions to work with students who have disabilities, be it visual, auditory or physical and i have always found that props and music create a pathway to emote freely. It is almost as though music allows them to 'release' the emotion of the movement.
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