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.
Unfortunately I had to miss this Skype call but thankfully my classmate filled me in on the dicussion and from what it seems there were many conversions between voice and communication. My classmate had said the call was directed to finding your own voice in different mediums and example of this would be ‘your writing voice’. I wanted to speak more on communication within an inclusive dance class. For me this is something I sometimes find difficult within my own professional practice. Although I have previously wrote a blog on my communication with disabled dancers I feel like my knowledge has developed and my critical thinking and analyses has improved. Finding my voice to me is challenging when working with all ages and abilities and this is something I have been challenged with on a day to day basis. A teachers voice is so important within a classroom but how is your voice acknowledged to someone who has an hearing impairment ? Last week Monday, I taught an open dan...
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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