Dance Professional Readings

Looking at Dance - An Exploration of Children's Reflections

Suzanne Renner
Presented at the 10th Dance and the Child Conference (DaCi) - Colouring Senses, The Hague July 2-8 2006.
Published in Wildshut, L ed. 2006. Proceedings of the Colouring Senses - daCi Conference. July 2-8 2006.

Abstract

Planned experiences in viewing and responding to dance performances are essential for developing students' dance literacy if they are to meet the aims of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum. In practice however, such experiences are not often carried out with the purpose of evaluating students' dance understanding or critiquing skills. This paper focuses on the collection and analysis of primary-age children's oral, written and drawn responses to a live dance performance in their school and the findings that provide information and targets for future teaching and learning.

Introduction

What do children see, feel and think about when they see a dance performance? What do they record of their experience and understanding?

Prior to the The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum, any talking and writing about dance would have been a rare thing in schools. In the Communicating and Interpreting Dance (CI)) Strand, experiences in viewing and responding to dance are considered essential towards developing dance literacy and enabling students to know and understand how dance communicates and is evaluated (Ministry of Education 2000 p.21).

While it is desirable that at all levels of schooling, students will practice making oral and/or written responses to their own and others' dance works, anecdotal evidence suggests that this is still not common practice except at senior levels. Since 2001, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) requires secondary students to articulate their knowledge and understanding of dance in writing, with diagrams and/ or drawings as optional supplementary evidence. With no or little history of analysing and making comprehensive responses to dance works, NCEA dance exams have presented a challenge for both teachers and students.

Surveys (McGee et al 2004; ERO report 2003) of schools' and teachers' readiness to and experiences in implementing The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum confirmed the lack of confidence and knowledge that generalist-classroom teachers have towards and about dance as an arts subject. As part of a national assessment strategy to enhance learning and achievement in Levels 1-5 of the curriculum, annotated dance exemplars have been created and used in the professional development of teachers. The lack of exemplars in the CI strand, suggested an area of exploration and investigation to obtain examples of primary-age students' oral, written and drawn reflections on dance.

Review

The symbolic and transitory nature of dance can make it difficult to describe and to communicate our responses to others. Even in its simplest presentation, the multi-dimensional interplay of the body and its parts, with changing relationships in space, time and energy is a complex event.

Whether a dance performance is by classroom peers or professionals, dance movement can seem very fast and hard to remember. This is especially so when the dance is seen in a live performance without the benefit of a repeated viewing, On the other hand, there is a richness of experience that comes with seeing, hearing, and feeling the movements, breath and rhythm of the dance simultaneously with the dancers which is not available when watching a videoed performance.

No-one will have the same response to any single dance or collection of dances. Interaction with and responses to any performance are affected by the performance context and content, the performers, the viewer's mood, expectations, attitudes and past experiences (Bannon and Sanderson, 2000; Preston-Dunlop 1998; Worton cited in Hong 2000).

Talking about dance is probably the most natural way for communicating responses and in a group situation, one can learn from the comments of others. For students, reflecting on dance in verbal, drawn and/or written ways can be useful for making an ephemeral experience more permanent. Writing and drawing dance responses can further reveal the scope of the different reactions among class members to the same experience (Davies 2003).

Learning to perceive the sensory, formal and expressive properties of dance begins to develop aesthetic literacy and potentially deepens the experience of dance (Broudy 1987 p.49; Wilshut 1997 p 34-35). In the normal class programme students develop their critical viewing skills by watching dance on video or by observing their own or others' dances. Videoed dance performances have been employed in studies of children's responses to examine the statements made and the vocabulary used, attitudes to and preferences for various styles of dance (Brown & Wernikkowski 1991; Fortin 1994; Harrington 1988; McSwain 2004).

Harrington (1988) concluded that 10-11 year old students needed guidelines and specific language skills in order to express their responses to a videoed dance work. The children were more at ease and proficient at verbalizing their responses than writing, such that discussions were an essential aspect of finding out how they perceived the work. Brown and Wernikkowski (1991) confirmed earlier research in their findings that the majority of verbal responses to a dance work by young dance students were in the objective category i.e. about the objective aspects of body, space, quality and relationships.

Emotional involvement during a performance is an important criterion on which an audience judges a performance. Using questionnaires, Wildshut (1997; 2003) looked at how children experience and respond to live dance performances from the viewpoints of gauging their kinaesthetic and emotional involvement, and comparing their interpretations of an abstract and narrative dance. She revealed differences between children with and without dance education experience in their kinaesthetic involvement and identification with the dancers.

"Did you like it?" is a common question posed following observations of an art work, including dance. Some dance educationalists contend that it is the most important question to ask (Smith-Autard, 1994); for others, this subjectivist approach places too much value on the emotional response versus a judgment that is arrived at from a systematic process of concentrated reflection. Lavender (1996) argues that liking/disliking a work and judging are two different concepts and therefore the essential question of critical evaluation is "What did you see in the dance?" This question solicits descriptive statements specifically about the dance, not accounts of the viewer's feelings. Descriptions can be elaborated upon, checked for relevance to the work itself and used as the basis for interpretations and judgments of the dance.

Method

In anticipation that this exploratory study would yield useful information and samples of children's work for future use in the professional development of teachers, an 'authentic' context i.e. a classroom setting and a formative evaluation perspective were chosen (Patton 2002).

An urban Years 1-6 primary school with classroom dance curriculum programmes taught by generalist teachers was approached for assistance. Ethical guidelines specified by the Dunedin College of Education for conducting research were followed.

A live dance performance was offered to the school and the teachers were asked to conduct and collect the data from a whole-class reflection activity, followed by the children responding on individual task sheets.

To aid eventual comparison across age-groups in the school, each class was to be given the same set of tasks, questions, instructions and materials. The range of open-ended and specific questions and instructional statements was designed and sequenced to lead the children in recalling, describing, analysing, interpreting and evaluating what they saw, felt and thought during and about the performance. The children were to make oral, written and drawing responses (Bond 1997; Davies 2003; Lavender 1996; Morgan and Saxton 1991; NZQA 2005; Patton 2002) to give them multiple opportunities to show what they remembered and could express.

The teachers were given guideline instructions for implementing the activities but were also advised that they could deliver in manner that was relevant or familiar for their class, if necessary. They also received written information about the upcoming performance that gave:

• the titles of the dance being performed with a sentence or two about its cultural origin, purpose/meaning and/or its choreography
• a script that could be used to prepare the children for what they would be doing after the performance.

The 30 min. dance performance-demonstration took place in the school hall mid-year, with the children sitting on the floor. The dance performers were nine female pre-service primary or early childhood teachers at the Dunedin College of Education who had enrolled in an optional dance module. Five dances, each 3-5 mins. long and from different cultural or historical contexts were performed. Each dance was introduced with spoken points of interest and occasional questions were directed at the audience to explore links of relevance and to maintain attentiveness. Immediately after the dance performance, the teachers and students returned to the classrooms to undertake the reflecting and responding activities, with no less than 20 mins. of on-task time for each activity.

Results and Analysis

Overall, this project collected data from 230 children in Years 1-6 classes. All children in attendance on the day participated in the reflection activities. Parental permission was granted for almost all individual responses to be collected, analysed and published. The volume and complexity of the data was such that this paper will focus only on the responses and significant findings from two Years 5-6 classes. This level has been selected because the children (9-10 years old) had more years of dance education in their classroom programmes and could make their own written responses.

1. Whole class reflection

   A whole-class oral reflection activity in which the children could share their responses to a collective experience was chosen because it is most like normal teaching practice. In this instance however, the strategy used was more in the nature of a structured interview rather than a discussion. Besides revealing what the children were able to say about the performance, it was hoped that this activity would stimulate the children's thinking for the individual task to follow.

   The teacher recorded all children's responses on A1 size chart pages, which were headed with a focus question. Teachers were also given alternative ways of asking to reinforce or clarify the main question.

   The responses were looked at for trends in:

   • the dance or performance features mentioned
   • the frequency with which a feature was mentioned
   • the language used to describe what was seen, heard or felt

   To "What did you see/notice in the performance?" , the children referred predominantly to the dancers, movements and/or choreography, using general vocabulary e.g. "energetic dances", "changing actions", "moving around while traveling"', " timing with music", "dancers looked focused".

   However, there were some examples of specific information that characterized this performance and showed the children's awareness of similarities and contrasts e.g. "jumping on the spot", "used props like bells and hankies to make a whoosh sound"' " they used levels high - jumps (Mayim dance), low level (Samoan dance)" , "hand work - sticks and sasa".

   Almost all of the responses to the question "How were the dancers dancing with each other?" gave valid examples of how the dancers were relating to each other in space and time - in simple words, or with some point of detail. The children gave specific examples of how the dancers had personal interactions or contact, of the ways in which they danced in a variety of group or pair formations and where there was sameness or difference. Terminology such as unison, shadowing or contrast was not used.

   From watching and listening to the performance, the children analysed and interpreted that there were skills, responsibilities and ideas to be demonstrated or communicated by the dancers, such as "teamwork" and "how people dance in different cultures". Also, as the dancers were training to be teachers, they "showed that everyone can dance". They noted that dances came from different cultures or historical eras, have different music/accompaniment, had names, conveyed ideas or stories, and could be created in different ways.

   The students experienced some personal involvement as audience members. They recognised that "It helped to know a bit about the dance"; and that "it's good to be able to see clearly". They empathised with and admired the dancers e.g. "appreciate work put in to learn these dances", "the dancers enjoyed it as much as the audience", "have to know the space".

   As many or all of the children saw a similar performance in 2004, they were able to refer to some familiar and unfamiliar movements, dances, and props. A few responses gave a supporting reason that linked with their personal or classroom experiences e.g. "Disco - had done this for our show ", "side-step kicks handholding done in other folk dances".

   Positive and negative judgments of the performance were for the most part unsupported. They liked the variety of dances, costumes, props, and particular movements e.g. "hip movements in the disco" and the "enthusiasm looked like the dancers were enjoying it". The children remarked on some deficiencies in the performance or choreography, with half of the comments referring to the performers e.g. "did not smile much", "not always looking at the audience", "it would be good to have some boys". The repetition and tempo of particular dances were thought by some children to be too much and too slow.

2. Individual task sheet

   To gather more concrete evidence of individual students' abilities to remember and express dance responses, individual task sheets were distributed. The A3 task sheets were printed with new instruction statements/questions and spaces for drawing. For early finishers, two more questions on a separate A4 page were offered as opportunities to express any personal enquiries, thoughts or opinions not serviced by the other questions.

   Individual task-sheets (with parental permission) were collected from 54 Years 5-6 students - 32 girls and 22 boys. The task sheets were scanned, photocopied, transcribed and the responses tabled, before the originals were returned to the school.

   For each question, the responses were grouped according to themes, clarity and detail of the information, with a view to finding trends in how and what the children recorded in their reflections. For Q1 and 2, the responses were further categorised according to what the information suggested as progressions in evidence of dance knowledge and understanding.

   The following features were used as a guide to assigning the responses into different levels:

   • Labels....phrases....sentences
   • A specific dance/performance detail....some details....several details
   • Personal preference....unsupported judgment....supported judgment
   • Not valid to the question....some degree of validity.......valid

   It was judged that five levels of response (a - e) were evident. There was no attempt to match the responses to curriculum levels

Q1. Draw a moment for the performance that you remember. I drew this to show..........

In all but one response, the drawings clearly depicted the dance selected, with 1 or more dancers. 59% children chose the first or last dance in the programme as their subject. Often the drawings added information that was not given in the accompanying comment. The name of the dance (66%) and the dancers (53%) were the aspects most mentioned in the comments.

At what was considered the simplest level (a), the written response was simply expressed and identified one specific thing about the picture or dance e.g. its name, an action, a feeling or a thought associated with the dance depicted. 30% of the responses were judged to be in this level. At the next level (b), children added slightly more detail and/or a general reason why the dance was selected for comment. 28% responses were in this level.

The remaining students offered progressively more detailed descriptions of a particular moment or sequence in the selected dance with references to one of more dance elements, the dancers, an idea/image, use of voice and/or props. Any judgments or personal reflections were supported with one or more reasons.

The examples shown above represent good and excellent responses. One student stood out for the length and complexity of his description, showing excellent recall, observation and awareness of the similarities and differences within a particular moment in the dance.

Four responses were of particular interest, varying from the norm by depicting and/or recalling unusual viewer perspectives. For instance, one child focused on a hand shaking bells; in another example, a child was apparently influenced by the cultural context of a dance by imagining something that didn't actually happen i.e. a dancer poking out her tongue in a Maori-inspired stick dance. One child drew a picture and made a comment to describe the fact that he was viewing the dance through the lens of a video camera.

Q2. Draw or describe in detail 2 different movements that you saw the dancers do.

Few children succeeded in identifying or describing two different movements. Most children drew pictures that showed two different body positions that came about because of movement. The majority of responses (46%) were drawings with or without labels to identify the dance or a prop i.e. there were no particular movements identified in words.

Some students attempted to identify or describe movements without drawings, but only a small number were successful in this. Written responses ranged from descriptions without identified movements to described sequences.

The next group of responses (22%) included a single word or an image to identify movements e.g."clap"; "stretch".

In responses without drawings, the dancers' group formation or ideas attached to movements being performed e.g. "when they did the yawn and then sleep movement ..." were used to identify the movements.

In the first example shown below, a child successfully identified two specific movements and their qualities. The words and drawings clearly indicate contrasting use of levels and energy in the movements.

A small number of children described one or more sequences of movement, with references to the body parts, actions, shape, imagery and props being used or portrayed e.g. "...in the Hustle...when they lift their hand in the air and then bring it back in...."; "when they held the sticks......in the position of a gun"

The second example shown was considered the most comprehensive and valid response to Q2 from this group of children.

Q3. What feelings/thoughts did you have while watching this performance?

The majority of feeling and thought responses were expressed as single words or unsupported statements, that complimented the dancers, the dances and the programme overall e.g. "happy to see the dancers"; "excited surprised interested". Not all children separated feeling from thinking.

Of particular interest were those statements that gave support for their reactions e.g. "excited because the next dance was coming" "great cause of all the smiling", "a wee bit bored to be honest but I was interested in the dances I have never seen before like the Morris dance and Mayim Mayim".

Q4. What would you have to be good at to do these dances?

Almost all children were aware that a variety of skills, knowledge and attitudes were needed to perform this programme. In most instances, more than one skill/attitude was listed in the response. They knew that dancers need:

• to be able to do the movements of the dances (in general and specific ways) e.g. "holding the sticks right", "jumping".
• to be fit, flexible and have good stamina e.g. "keeping my breath"
• to have commitment to the rehearsal and performance processes e.g. "practicing so as to know the moves", "working together and being self confident"
• a good memory and musicality "to be in time with each other".

Q5. If you had the chance what question would you like to ask the dancers?

Q6. What else would you like to say about this performance?

All but 1 child gave responses on the extra page of questions. Typical questions that the children would have asked the dancers concerned how long they had taken to learn or practice the dances. Q6. was used as an opportunity to express the children's judgment/evaluation of the choreography, the dancers or the costumes e.g. "It was very good and I'd like to see it again"; " It had great movement and good foot stepping. I also like the costumes and the props and the music and dances."; "I thought that it was very organized and the dancers were very good. The costumes weren't too over the top....."

Across the whole task sheet, most children varied in the comprehensiveness of their responses i.e. they gave informative, thoughtful or articulate responses in some questions and not in others. A small number of students were considered consistently unique or detailed in their responses.

Discussion

As strategies for exploring children's reflections and responses to a dance performance, the whole class and individual task sheet activities were able to provide a range of information about what these children could remember, communicate and interpret. It is acknowledged that the investigation context, the pre-determined structures and the resulting data have limitations in being able to demonstrate all that children can 'say' about a dance performance, but as Eisner (2002) posits, when children are given opportunities to describe, discuss and interpret what they see and feel, the task of trying to articulate what is before us, is also a way of discovering what is there.

The immediate value of the data lies in the insight it gives the classroom teachers of these children as to their dance preferences, their use of dance terminology and their awareness of dance as a creative and cultural expression. The whole-class reflection activity gave the children the opportunity to talk and to listen, although the recorded responses represent only those who actually spoke. As a group, the children were able to show that they had some appropriate dance-specific knowledge and language, and that they could see links between the dances, contextual origins and previous experience. Some of this information was transferred by some children into the individual task sheets, which generally revealed more interesting and original data. In particular, the drawings enabled the children to show what they had noticed in the performance in a more subtle way and their written words demonstrated more clearly the depth of thinking about dance within the class. This was borne out in the post-activity comments of the teachers as they made connections between particular children and their task sheet responses.

The children could reflect on the dances and the overall performance as well as on themselves as a viewer of dance. Most of their comments were focused on the dancers, the choreography, the props and the cultural references. There were comparatively few references to costumes, accompaniment or performance setting but this is understandable given that this performance was simply presented. These children were already familiar with seeing live performances in this setting.

The data received in this exploratory study also gives clues as to what aspects might be targeted for development in future teaching and learning. For instance, the children's' responses showed predominant references to the elements of space and relationships, but only slight mention of dynamic qualities in the performance. Descriptions or detailed statements were lacking in many responses and their opinions of the performance or about a dance were not always supported by a rationale. Fewer and more specific questions could be considered to promote in-depth responses and opportunities for the children to compare their classroom dance work to what they see being performed by trained dancers.

In the everyday classroom, a teacher is unlikely to implement these formative assessment strategies as carried out for the purposes of this project. In practice, generalist-classroom teachers tend to favour more informal and less time-consuming approaches to critiquing and reflecting on dance works. Talking about dance is more likely to be in the context of reviewing practical work, or in brief informal discussions. Writing in dance may be limited to reflecting on a practical dance experience but there will be on-going opportunities to question and discuss dance performances with the children, helping them to clarify and expand on their responses where necessary.

While the whole-class reflection activity as implemented in this study has limitations for making conclusions about individual children's knowledge and understanding, the task sheets have the advantage of being able to be retained for children's work portfolios and to be revisited at later stages. They have potential use as achievement indicators or benchmarks for other dance viewing and responding experiences. Comparisons can be made to the children's writing in other contexts

Conclusion

This research project has provided a starting point for future investigation into the responding aspect of the Communicating and Interpreting Dance strand, towards determining what is typical and desired achievement by primary-age children. Data from all the classes in the school will continue to be analysed and compared to determine trends in responses across the age-groups. The indicators of different levels of achievement proposed in the Years 5-6 individual task sheet responses will be tested and/or modified as they are applied to the data from the rest of the school and to other samples of children's work gathered in the future.

References

• Bannon, F.and Sanderson, P. 'Experience every moment: aesthetically significant dance education'. Research in Dance Education Vol 1, No. 1. (2000): pp. 9-26
• Broudy, H. S. The role of imagery in Learning. LA: Getty Centre for Education in the Arts. (1987)
• Bond, K. 'Eagles, reptiles and beyond'. Childhood Education. Vol 73, Issue 6. (1997): pp. 366-371. 14 May, 2005
• Davies, M. Movement and dance in early childhood. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. (2003).
• Education Review Office (ERO). 'Readiness of schools to implement The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum'. 13 March, 2005
• Eisner, E. 'Ten lessons the arts teach'. Learning and the Arts: Crossing Boundaries. ( 2000): 14 April, 2005
• Fortin, S. 'A description of high school students' verbal responses to a contemporary dance work'. Dance and the Child International Conference, Kindle the Fire. Sydney: Macquarie University. (1994): pp. 107-118
• Harrington, C. 'The potential of a dance work in primary education with reference to 'Hunter of Angels' (Cohan)'. Young People Dancing: an international perspective: 4th International dance and the conference. London. (1988)
• Hong, T. 'Developing dance literacy in the post-modern: an approach to curriculum'. Paper presented at Dancing in the Millennium Conference, Washington DC. (2000): 30 January, 2005.
• Kipling Brown, A. and Wernikkowski, C. M. 'What I want to say: the child speaks'. In S. Stinson (ed.) Salt Lake City: Proceedings of the 1991 Conference of Dance and the Child International (1991): pp. 151-158.
• Lavender, L. Dancers Talking Dance. Champaign: Human Kinetics. (1996)
• McGee, C., Harlow, A., Miller, T., Cowie, B., Hill, M., Jones, A., Donaghy, A. Curriculum stocktake: national school sampling study. Teachers' experiences in curriculum implementation: general curriculum, the arts, and health and physical education. New Zealand: Ministry of Education. (2004)
• McSwain, L. 'An investigation of attitudes towards dance among Sydney high school students'. Dance and the Child International Conference, Kindle the Fire. Sydney:Macquarie University. (2004): pp. 253-260.
• Ministry of Education. The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington: Learning Media. (2000)
• Ministry of Education. Dance Exemplars. 13 March, 2005.
• New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). NCEA Dance - exams and exemplars. 13 March, 2005
• Morgan, N & Saxton, J. Teaching, questioning and learning. London: Routledge. (1991)
• Patton, M. Quantitative research and evaluation methods. Thousand Oaks, CA:Sage. (2002)
• Preston-Dunlop, V. Looking at dances - a choreological perspective on choreography. Ightham:Verve. (1998 )
• Smith-Autard, J. The art of dance in education. London: A. & C. Black. (1994 )
• Wildschut, L. 'How children experience watching dance'. Proceedings of the 9th Dance and the Child International Conference. Bahia, Brazil. (2003): pp 247-253.
• Wildschut, L. 'Moving and being moved: theoretical and empirical research into how children experience theatre dance performances'. In E. Antilla (ed). The 7th International Dance and the Child Conference: the Call of Forests and Lakes. Kuopio, Finland. (1997): pp 396-399.