Sharing my Skills
On Monday 13th April, I went back to my old Primary School the Holy Family to teach a dance workshop with some of the pupils. This was the first time I have been back to my old school and I was very excited to go back and see everyone. I took a class of 10 children, a mixture of 5 boys and 5 girls from year 3 in key stage 2.
Preparation for the Workshop
Before I went back to my old school, I started my preparation for the workshop, by selecting the music that I was going to choreograph the routine to, after spending a few hours listening to lots of different styles of music, I chose Bang Bang By Jessie Jay, I love this song as it is upbeat, and most of the children I was going to teach would know it and the rhythm was easy to dance to. I prepared a warm up as it is the most important part of a class, I wanted to make sure that the children taking part in the workshop, had all their muscle groups warm so that they were ready to learn the routine that I had been working on. The music I chose to do my warm up to was Uptown Funk By Bruno Mars and after working on the warm up, I choreographed the routine that I was going to teach the children, I made the dance quite simple with lots of repetitive moves as I was unsure of the children's experience in learning dance moves, so I made sure it was lively and fun and that the children would enjoy it.
The Day Of the Workshop
I went into my old school, it was the first day back after the Easter holidays and it was an in service day for me. I was very nervous but quite excited, this would be the first time that I have taken a class on my own. The children were waiting for me in the school hall, Most of them I knew from my time at school so this made it easier for me as I knew most of their names. We started with the warm up, we started with running around the school hall to get everyone's hearts pumping, it is essential to warm up all parts of the body. We started with the head, moving to the neck, arms, moving down to the body and finally working on warming the legs up, after that we all had red faces and we were all warm.
The children all listened to my instructions and they were all singing along to the track !
The Routine
I choreographed the routine using the chorus of the song as the main body of the dance, and as it repeats quite often. Once the children had got the dance, they could repeat it and then we added some more movement, I split the group so they were performing on the 2 sides of the hall. The children in year 3, were very easy to teach, they picked up the moves very easily and when we performed the routine at the end of the workshop they really danced it well and they all had great big smiles on their faces and that made me feel really good. I enjoyed teaching them, and because they picked it up so easily they felt good that they had a cool dance to that track.
The Feedback from the children
At the end of the class all the children begged me to stay and teach them all another routine, they had really enjoyed it and they wanted me to come back and teach them every week! This made me very happy and I was pleased that the boys enjoyed the class as much as the girls and this workshop has given me the insight into being a dance teacher or choreographer and it is something that I hope I will do again and maybe make a career out of it.
Preparation for the Workshop
Before I went back to my old school, I started my preparation for the workshop, by selecting the music that I was going to choreograph the routine to, after spending a few hours listening to lots of different styles of music, I chose Bang Bang By Jessie Jay, I love this song as it is upbeat, and most of the children I was going to teach would know it and the rhythm was easy to dance to. I prepared a warm up as it is the most important part of a class, I wanted to make sure that the children taking part in the workshop, had all their muscle groups warm so that they were ready to learn the routine that I had been working on. The music I chose to do my warm up to was Uptown Funk By Bruno Mars and after working on the warm up, I choreographed the routine that I was going to teach the children, I made the dance quite simple with lots of repetitive moves as I was unsure of the children's experience in learning dance moves, so I made sure it was lively and fun and that the children would enjoy it.
The Day Of the Workshop
I went into my old school, it was the first day back after the Easter holidays and it was an in service day for me. I was very nervous but quite excited, this would be the first time that I have taken a class on my own. The children were waiting for me in the school hall, Most of them I knew from my time at school so this made it easier for me as I knew most of their names. We started with the warm up, we started with running around the school hall to get everyone's hearts pumping, it is essential to warm up all parts of the body. We started with the head, moving to the neck, arms, moving down to the body and finally working on warming the legs up, after that we all had red faces and we were all warm.
The children all listened to my instructions and they were all singing along to the track !
The Routine
I choreographed the routine using the chorus of the song as the main body of the dance, and as it repeats quite often. Once the children had got the dance, they could repeat it and then we added some more movement, I split the group so they were performing on the 2 sides of the hall. The children in year 3, were very easy to teach, they picked up the moves very easily and when we performed the routine at the end of the workshop they really danced it well and they all had great big smiles on their faces and that made me feel really good. I enjoyed teaching them, and because they picked it up so easily they felt good that they had a cool dance to that track.
The Feedback from the children
At the end of the class all the children begged me to stay and teach them all another routine, they had really enjoyed it and they wanted me to come back and teach them every week! This made me very happy and I was pleased that the boys enjoyed the class as much as the girls and this workshop has given me the insight into being a dance teacher or choreographer and it is something that I hope I will do again and maybe make a career out of it.