Dance Workshop #4

Dance Workshop #4 - Week 8 with Jacqui Dreessens

“Aboriginal & African Dance”

Thursday 30^th August 2012

This week was all about African and Aboriginal dance. We began with Jacqui talking about these types of dance and how they were a dance style that belongs to a certain culture, a body of knowledge, a history, a reaction to something, a moment in time.

We discussed the different animals that are represented in dance, such as cheetahs, zebras, lions, elephants and so on. Jacqui explained that Africans often ‘chop and change’ their dance movements and put different parts together to form a new dance. Jacqui also talked briefly about the abolishment of apartheid dance and how this could be tied in with peace education.

The first dance we did was as kingfishers. We used props and dressed up in blue and green material to represent the colour of the kingfisher. We learnt the ‘Kingfisher Boogie’ that included:

- Vibrations with hands to represent the wings

- Balancing on perches (swaying from front to back)

- Cleaning beaks (swishing our hands in front of our nose)

- Swooping (darting forward and running)

- Stomping

- Shake up with hands/arms

- Calling to other kingfishers (voice percussion)

Once we’d practiced the boogie Jacqui got everyone to get into groups of around 4. We had to create a kingfisher nest. Our group decided to link arms with each other to make a circle and then held one leg off the ground pointing out to represent sticks and twigs. After creating our nest we ‘flew’ around and did the boogie once more, then flew back to our group and created the nest once more.

Our next activity was to represent a snake. We were given chiffon material first and got into groups and simply experimented with the material; we made it flow up and down through different levels, twirled it around, made it dart through the air etc. Then we had to nominate a leader to be the head of the snake and placed the chiffon over our left shoulder. We then walked/shuffled around in groups then formed one big snake by joining the chiffon together. We walked around for a little bit, moving the snake in and around different spaces of the room.

We then finished as a spiral shape and placed the chiffon on the ground and stood back so we could see the shape we’d created. Jacqui asked where in nature might we see a similar shape - I thought of shells, others thought of earwigs!

The next activity we did was a female African dance of fertility. We all formed a line and held onto each other’s elbows. We followed the leader and moved in different levels, from side to side - moving arms up and down etc. We all had to work as one big group so that everyone would be evenly spaced and able to hold onto the person in front’s elbows.

Once we did this, we all laid on the ground and spooned each other. This activity was all about women protecting and looking out for each other.

The next dance we did was an elephant dance. Firstly, we formed 2 lines facing each other. Then we linked arms and began to stomp our feet with our knees bent. This was a war dance and we were battling the other line. Both lines stomped towards each other and once we came face-to-face with the other line we had to puff out our chests and ‘scare’ the other line.

Then we got into smaller ‘warrior groups’ and practiced our war dance. The leader was in the middle of the line and was in charge of which direction the warriors went in and how they danced. The leader had to also lead a warrior chant. Once we’d practiced our war dance each group performed one at a time.

After a war dances we did some stretches. These included:

- downward dog

- star fish

- happy/angry/disco cat,

Next was Aboriginal dance. We moved around the space on different levels chanting ‘sakisa’ over and over again. Every time we chanted we moved a step forward and both arms were moving up and down – sort of like when someone is running but in slow motion. As we took each step we had to stomp our feet on the ground. The whole class was moving in different directions on different pathways and dancing through different levels. The movements in this dance were suspended and percussive, as every time we said ‘sakisa’ we held a brief pose and then continued on in quick, jerky movements.

Then we pretended to be a crocodile. In this dance we would stop moving around the space, clap our hands together as they were reached out in front of us and then move the right hand in a fluid movement towards our backs and then return to the front for another clap. The clap was the crocodile’s mouth snapping shut and the hand moving along our bodies was the tail, and also the movement that a crocodile creates when swimming.

We also danced like an emu. Here our right hand was held high above our heads with our fingertips touching our thumb. This was the emu’s head. We moved around, elongating our stride and occasionally changing the tempo with which we moved around the space.

The final thing we did this week was to get dressed up in animal print material. We then followed Jacqui’s moves in single file. We rolled our shoulders, puffed out our chests, accented our steps and sometimes did a jump-step as well as moving our head to the movements. We then formed a circle and continued the previous movements, this time adding kicks to the movements. We did this for a little bit then faced a partner and danced the movements with them.

The main points learned from this lesson include:

- representing animals and their habitat through movements (swooping, swaying, balancing, stomping, prancing, running)

- stretching like animals

- using our voice to communicate like animals (voice percussion)

- learning about different cultures

Links to VELS:

There are many different links you could make from these dances to VELS.

One link is to the Civics & Citizenship domain for Level 4 as students at this stage can “consider the experiences of diverse cultural groups, including ATSI communities, and their contributions to Australian identity. They consider the values important in a multicultural society such as respect and tolerance.” (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, [VCAA], 2009) Throughout this workshop I learnt many new things about African and Aboriginal culture and I found it very interesting to be a part of a dance that a different culture does. It would be great to talk about diversity from these dances and I believe students would benefit from actually dancing and being a part of the culture – even just for the workshop.

Personal Reflection

I really enjoyed this workshop as I got to learn about different cultures. The direct-teaching method this week was a nice change as we didn't have to be so inventive and could focus more on dancing rather than worrying about making up moves. Once again I felt comfortable dancing in the space because we danced as a whole group.

References:

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2009, Civics and Citizenship - Level 4, State Government of Victoria, retrieved 5 September 2012, <http://vels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vels/civics.html>.