Miss Drewry's Dance & Drama Blog : Portfolio Item 3 - The Body as the Instrument of Expression

During workshop three, we experimented safely with props to work within the space. We used choreography to explore identity.

Year Level: Year 1 (level 1), Year 2 (level 2), Year 3 (level 3), or Year 4 (level 4)

Using the space

Focus: Using creative movement to work in and use the space

Students used spatial and kin-esthetic awareness to see the space around them and fill it with paused shape and movement.

Students using the space

Students work in small groups, repetitively using the space with various body movements and shapes. They create a tableaux effect as they hold their shape for a couple of seconds before changing again.

Watch a group of students use their space effectively: Use the space

What's in a name?

Students are given props (colourful scarves) to safely explore their name using choreographic devices to generate a variety of movements that symbolise their name.
Some of the choregoraphic devices used, included:

addition
repition
inversion
accumulation
abstraction
distortion
insertion
embellishment
rearrangement
transposition
retrograde

According to Fleming, 'meaning, communication, intention and human expression are all central to the experience of dance' (2012, p. 106). Students use the dance to make meaning of their name.

Students then form a pair or small group and combine their individual name dances into one group performance. Most groups took the approach of learning other students names as well as their own and performing them consecutively.