Unit 1 focuses on the topic 'Who am I?' Dance expert, Claire Pring, works with a Year 1 class and their teacher to create dances exploring moods and feelings and using juggling scarves as props.
Unit 1 also explores how the teacher can create the 'climate of possibility' necessary to develop creativity.
Go to the Teachers' Notes for full details of how to use the CPD film (for teachers) and the Dance Challenge and Final Performance films below (for teachers and pupils).
Who am I? - CPD film for teachers
Claire Pring joins a Year 1 class to work on their dances, which use juggling scarves to explore mood and feeling words.
Caption: Developing Creativity
Claire Pring: I’m here in Leeds where I’ve been working with a wonderful Year 1 class.
Teacher: I like yours balancing on your arm there Samuel.
Claire: They’re exploring the senses in their dance lessons, inspired by the theme, ‘Who am I?’
Claire: Good morning, everybody.
Children: Good morning!
Claire: Lovely to see you, and what beautiful moves you’re doing. What a great balance we’ve got there. And I notice some people are balancing the material either on their shoulders, I saw somebody else doing it on their foot. How can you use your material in a really interesting and creative way? Let’s see what you can do.
Caption: Warm Up ~ Actions & Feelings
Claire: I love what you were just doing there, and I saw a few other people were doing it, finding different ways of pulling their material tight. Sometimes over their heads. I saw some people doing it front of them, behind them, low to the floor. So different ways of pulling your material. But how does that make you feel, when you’re tight?
Child: Strong.
Claire: Strong, that’s a great word - makes you feel strong. Let’s see if we can make some wonderful shapes that are strong. Keep finding different ways of doing it.
Claire: Using the phrase, ‘find a way of’ encourages the children to find a range of responses. Give them the opportunity to experiment throughout the lesson so they don’t perceive that there is a single right way to respond.
Caption: Warm Up ~ Safety
Teacher: How can we make sure that we are safe? Lola.
Child: Not putting it round your neck.
Teacher: Good girl. We mustn’t put our material round our neck. If you’re sitting down, sitting on it, that might be OK, but if you’re standing on it what might happen? Does anybody know?
Children: You might slip.
Teacher: It might slip, you might lose your balance. Well done.
Caption: Creative Exploration ~ Confidence
Teacher: So, Claire we’ve been using the props and I’ve noticed that the children are becoming a lot more expressive.
Claire: Well, the children who maybe lack confidence in their performance, it can really enable them to extend their range of movement. It makes it feel like the prop is doing the dancing, rather than them themselves.
Teaching Assistant: Stretch, using our toes to stretch.
Caption: Context ~ Words & Feelings
Teacher: So could you show me how you would move your material if you’re feeling miserable maybe?
Teacher: Very slow. And then how would you show the feeling happy with your material? Very good, very nice.
Claire: So, did you notice the difference there between the happy and the miserable? The happy was quite a big action, it was flowing. Whereas the miserable action, that was a smaller action, it was just going up and down, wasn’t it? So, we can think about the size of our actions, but also the energy of our actions, the dynamics that it shows us.
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Teacher: Do you remember in our last lesson when we thought of our feeling words? Can anybody remember any?
Child: Happy.
Teacher: Happy, brilliant. Millie, have you got one for us?
Child: Sad.
Teacher: Sad. So that’s something to think about when you’re moving your material.
Caption: Creative Exploration ~ Dynamics & Projection
Claire: What about proud. What actions would you do for proud?
Claire: That’s a lovely big action for proud. Well done.
Claire: Excited.
Claire: Oh, we’ve got a side-to-side motion going on there. Like running on the spot.
Claire: Calm, what could you do for calm?
Claire: We’ve got some swaying actions. We’ve got some smooth movements.
Claire: What about sad? What would sad be like?
Claire: Ooh quite still you are there with your sadness.
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Claire: It might take some time. Your role is to get those ideas flowing and guide by observing, describing and sometimes echoing the movements the children produce.
Teacher:I like the way how MacCauley is scrunching his material up, makes me think you’re feeling quite secretive, like you’re trying to hide your material. Can we have a go? I like that Emily.
Teacher: I like how Lucy is really stretching her material high. What are you feeling?
Child: Brave.
Teacher: Brave.
Claire: Expect the unexpected. Just because their response is different from what you had anticipated doesn’t mean it’s inappropriate – time to open up a conversation and get them to explain.
Teacher: How do you think that is making you feel, as you’re folding your material?
Child: Happy.
Teacher: Is it making you feel happy? What’s making you feel happy Kevin?
Child: That way that I fold it.
Teacher: The way that you fold it. So, the shapes of the material?
Child: Yeah.
Claire: The next part of the lesson explores how to use their body only, without the material.
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Teacher: What about the word powerful with your material? Oh, I like that Lola and you’re balancing, fantastic. You look nice and powerful there, Leila, good.
Claire:There’s a lovely big stretch, look at that one that shows me proud. Taking up lots of space, beautifully big.
Claire: How are you feeling?
Child: Happy.
Claire: Happy, so that’s a happy spin. Do you want to show me that happy spin once more? Beautiful, you’ve got a big smile on your face.
Caption: Performance ~ Actions & Analysis
Claire: So, what we’re about to do now is we are going to work with a partner. One of you is going to be the dancer and the other person is going to be the teacher. So if you are the teacher, your job is going to be to say one of the words that we have been working on and your dancer has got to come up with an action for that word.
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Claire: What word do you want him to do?
Child: Strong.
Claire: Strong! Can you show something strong please? Oh yes that’s definitely strong, beautiful.
Claire: Can you think of another word for him now? Can you see the list of words on there that might help you? What about scared, what do you think he’d do?
Claire: Scared. Oh, gone small, shrinking in small. Oh, even his knees are knocked together. Brilliant.
Teacher: So, who is the teacher now? Ok, you need to give your partner a word. A feeling word. You choose one from the list? Happy, fantastic do you think you might move your body for happy? That’s it, good girl.
Caption: Performance ~ Awareness of Partner
Claire: Each pair is going to have one piece of material.
Claire: This time one of the children in each pair is given a piece of material again. The dancer with the material thinks of the emotion they are going to show and the dancer without is asked to identify what it is and then respond to their actions with the same feeling.
Claire: So, what we’re doing now is if there are two people dancing together, it’s called a duet.
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Teacher: Does it feel soft when you put it on your arm? Fantastic. Do you think you could do that Sienna? Yeah? So can you pretend you’ve got your material in your hand and do what Amelia’s doing? Nice and soft on her arm, fantastic.
Teacher: Oh, I like that Freya for secretive. And do you think you can copy then Suzanna, with yours? Fantastic. Do you think you’d stand up if you were feeling a bit secretive Freya? Or do you think you might…
Child: Bend down.
Teacher: …go at a low level, good girl. And can we copy? Brilliant. That was lovely girls.
Claire: You might want to swop over now. The other person has the turn with the material.
Teacher: So, what are we looking for with the duets?
Claire: Well, we’re hoping that they will challenge one another. That by working together they might move out of their normal movement range, get ideas from the other child, be inspired. Maybe they will mirror them, maybe there will be complementary actions but doing something beyond what they would normally do.
Teaching Assistant: If you were shy MacCauley, how would you demonstrate being shy? Do you want to take the material and show Tyrese your shy face and your shyness? Oh fantastic.
Caption: Cool Down ~ Dynamics
Claire: So, to finish off, to cool us down, we’re going to think about just two words now. Calm and relaxed. What actions could you do that show me calm and relaxed?
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Who am I? - Dance Challenge
Year 1 pupils working in pairs create and perform their dances exploring mood and feeling words. Experts Laura Nicholson and Claire Pring will decide at the end which pairs will take part in the Dance Performance.
TITLE: Dance Challenge
Caption: Who Am I?
Presenter: In today’s Dance Challenge the theme chosen is 'Who Am I?' Deciding which group is the most expressive are dance experts Laura Nicholson and Claire Pring.
Laura: How are we all doing today?
Children: Good.
Laura:I’m really excited about your topic of 'Who Am I?' It’s a fantastic topic for dance because we get to think about lots of different feelings and emotions and that really helps us with dance ideas.
Claire:So, in a moment we are going to ask you to work in your pairs to create a dance. So you’re going to get to use your material to really see if you can communicate to us, different moods, and feelings through movement. So, you’re going to have 5 minutes to create a dance together and then we are going to show them one pair at a time, so are you ready?
Children: Yes.
Claire: Let’s get all that we need and get moving.
Laura: This looks like a group that’s hard at work, what’s your group name?
Child: The Senses.
Caption: THE SENSES
Claire: And what words or emotions have you been thinking about in your dance?
Child: Secretive.
Laura: I saw you do a movement where you held the material in your hands and then what happens next?
Claire: And are we going to see that in your dance in a minute? I’m looking forward to that.
Laura: Can you show us some of those strong, brave shapes that you were doing?
I like the way in this one, you’re not doing the exact same thing but those two shapes are quite similar to each other, so it works really well together.
Claire: What’s the name of your team?
Child: Moods.
Caption: MOODS
Claire: Moods, that’s excellent.
Laura: Oh, I love the way you put your foreheads together like that.
Claire: Now what are you showing us with that, I know what I think it is but what is the word you were thinking of with that?
Child: Scared.
Claire: Scared, well done you two that’s a lovely start.
What’s the name of your group?
Children: The Emotions.
Caption: THE EMOTIONS
Claire: The Emotions, that’s lovely.
Laura: Right, I think we should leave you to have a practise, don’t you?
Claire: Everybody you’ve got just one more minute!
Laura: Do you think that looks effective, because you’ve been doing the filming haven’t you?
Child: I was telling him to go a little bit faster or slower.
Claire: What’s the name you your team?
Children: Feelings.
Caption: FEELINGS
Claire: Feelings, I wonder what else they’ll have in their dance?
Child: Strong.
Claire: Strong, looking forward to it.
Claire: Everybody, time’s up!
Presenter: So, now’s the time to see their dances – who will impress the judges the most?
First up it’s Moods.
Caption: Moods
(Dance)
Presenter: Fantastic.
Next it’s The Senses.
Caption: The Senses
(Dance)
Presenter: Scarily creative.
Now it’s time for Feelings.
Caption: Feelings
(Dance)
Presenter: Very impressive work.
Time for the final group, it’s Emotions.
Caption: Emotions
(Dance)
Presenter: Well done to all our dancers. Now, it’s time to decide.
Laura: I really loved the way that every group had done something really, really different. I could see lots of different emotions, so well done everybody. I loved watching those dances.
Claire: But we now have a difficult job to do.
Laura: So, we’re gonna choose two groups, two dances that we would like to see again, and I think we’ve come to a conclusion about which ones they are. So, I think the groups we would like to see again are our red group, our Feelings group, let’s give them a little round of applause and The Emotions. Well done those two groups.
Presenter: So, The Feelings and Emotions dance duets it is. Their final dance performances are coming next.
END.
Who am I? - Dance Performance
Two of the Year 1 pairs perform their final dances.
Resources
Teachers' Notes for Step-by-Step: Dance in Schools
The Notes offer a comprehensive guide to using the content in the series (pdf).
Download audio
Download the audio session for the 'Who am I?' unit (mp3)
Unit 1: Who am I? - Slideshow. image
Still images from the 'Who am I?' session showing planning, creating, performing and assessing.
Dance frameworks for Unit 1: 'Who am I?'
Use the additional frameworks to extend your exploration of the theme 'Who am I?'
Framework: Who am I? - Touch
Print / download the framework (pdf)
Framework: Who am I? - Feel
Print / download the framework (pdf)
Framework: Who am I? - Connect
Print / download the framework (pdf)
