January 2024 Parenta magazine_website

Child
development
Gina Bale
Dance and movement - part 1
This is a two-part article on
dance and movement with
information, simple guides,
and questions to help you
include this valuable activity
in your setting.
Dance and movement
Dance and movement allow children to
use their whole body as they explore
movement and develop an awareness
of their physical abilities. It is also unique
as it is both very physical and expressive
all at the same time. Movement is the
fundamental means of human expression.
It doesn’t cost anything to do as no
equipment is needed apart from their
own body (the instrument) and the area
or space (the medium) in which they can
move. This is incredible when you think
of all the skills movement and dance
promote in developing personal, social,
and emotional development, critical
thinking skills, and movement memory,
that will help them in school and life.
Movement memory: is the ability to copy,
repeat and remember actions, phrases,
and patterns. This starts with actions and
rhymes with babies and progresses to a
movement phrase or dance that lasts for
several minutes.
Sadly, despite this, movement and dance
are almost invisible if you compare them to
the volume of music and other visual arts
that are all around us through the medium
of social media, TV, radio, art galleries,
cinemas, magazines, advertisements and
books.
Question: Have you researched the
age-appropriate, opportunities in your
local community for children to dance and
watch dance?
The art of expression
Dance and movement are the universal
language of communication. The way
the body expresses our emotions and
thoughts is critical as we read body
language before we hear and listen to
what is being said. This is known as the
‘Communication Rule Theory’ (created by
Professor Mehrabian and Morton Wiener
in 1967). The 3 C’s of communication are
divided into spoken words, tone of voice,
and body language.
The chart below shows how much we
express our thoughts and emotions with
our bodies.
Question: Have you thought about how
you express your emotions of happiness,
excitement, anger, and sadness in your
body movements?
Body
language
55%
Dance and movement is
for ALL!
Everyone can move and dance no matter
their needs and physical abilities. The
biggest hindrance to children’s movement
is adults. Adults, unconsciously, bring in
their assumptions to the class of children’s
abilities and potential. In our diverse
population, it is also important to be
sensitive to varied beliefs and attitudes
about movement and dance as an activity
in your setting.
Question: What are the obstacles to
incorporating movement and dance
in your setting and how can they be
overcome?
With movement, some children may be
anxious, or resistant and find it easier to
work with adult support and guidance,
while others are confident and selfassured.
Our role is to facilitate and
engage them in the activity.
Spoken word
7%
Tone of
voice
38%
If you are enthusiastic, having fun, and
confident in your movement, this will
encourage your children to become
involved. When they are involved, you are
helping to nurture their physical, creative,
imaginative, emotional, and cognitive
skills.
By incorporating movement and dance in
your setting, you are helping to prepare
them to lead healthy, active lives and feel
confident with the activities within the PE
National Curriculum when they transition
to primary school.
Cultural exploration
All dance has a cultural context and can
be explored with your children. Dance
defines communities but can also bring
them together through the universal nonverbal
communication that is the language
of dance and movement.
Question: Have you explored dance from
different cultures and countries with your
children?
What can our bodies
do?
✨ Actions
Our bodies can travel, turn, jump, gesture
and be still. All children can join in all
these activities with your assistance and
adaption to their physical needs.
Travelling: The transfer of weight to move
across space either by using our feet or
other body parts.
Turning: The body rotates around an axis.
It can be varied by the body shape, size of
the rotation, use of feet, level, and speed.
Jumping: Leaving and landing on the
floor and this can be done with different
types of jumps.
Types of Jumps
One foot to the same foot, one foot to the
other foot, both feet to both feet, one foot
to both feet and both feet to one foot.
Gesture: Moving a part of a body that
does not involve a transfer of or bearing of
weight. This is used to communicate the
meaning of the movement.
Stillness: The ability to control or stop a
movement.
✨ Dynamics
The qualities of movement and dance
are known as the dynamics and how the
body moves. This provides the colour and
textures of a movement. Laban’s analysis
of movement has given us four elements.
Weight, space, time, and flow as every
action the body does has energy, speed,
and continuity.
✨ Space
Where the body moves provides the visual
design of dance. The use of space helps to
communicate the meanings using shape,
level, and air patterns.
✨ Relationships
How we move and dance with each other
varies from the simplest relationship of
leading, following, copying, and mirroring
to the complex use of counterpoint.
Now we know what the body is capable
of, we are ready to create and move and
dance together.
In part 2 of this article, I will cover
movement and dance as an ‘Art’
model and how you can incorporate
this in your setting for ALL children.
Scan here for
more resources
from Gina:
38 January 2024 | parenta.com
parenta.com | January 2024 39