Knowing your SPACE : Dance Theory for 3-6 year olds
This post is relevant for students in Creative Dance on Mondays, Pre-ballet on Tuesdays, Creative Dance on Wednesdays, Combination Class on Wednesdays:
Greetings parents! Each month your little dancers learn different dance theory concepts. These are just as important as any steps that they learn in class, if not more so. If they continue dancing, as they get older, these concepts will remain the same and, therefore, be useful to know!
This month we are learning about spatial awareness, or recognizing where you are in the room, or on stage, in relation to the audience. I began by telling every class this story.
Have you ever been on/seen a stage? The floor is flat like this room, right? Well in olden days a long, long time ago stages were tilted, or raked. (I show them my teaching binder to illustrate this) If you were standing down towards the audience, you'd be standing at the lower part of the stage, like a hill. If you were standing far away from the audience, you'd be standing upstage.
We still use the same words today! Even though stages are flat!
If you'd like a little more historical info on raked stages check out the entry at Wikipedia.
Here's what your little dancer's know so far; They know that the space near the audience is downstage, they know that the space far away from the audience is upstage, they know that the space in between the two is center.
FUN AT HOME!: Help your dancers review the terms downstage, center and upstage at home. Pick out some music that they like and ask them if they'd like to do a free dance. In dance class downstage is the front of the room/audience and upstage is the back of the room. Sit downstage as their audience and start the music. They can dance while the music is on. Turn the music off and they should freeze in their spot. Ask them to tell you whether they are upstage, downstage or in the center of the room.
Review of terms:
Upstage: The space furthest from the audience
Downstage: The space closest to the audience
Center: The space in the center of the room
Free Dance: A dance exercise where the young dancers can move however they like within the boundaries of what they are learning that day. There is always a beginning pose, dancing to music and an ending pose.
Have fun and take care,
S.E.C.
Greetings parents! Each month your little dancers learn different dance theory concepts. These are just as important as any steps that they learn in class, if not more so. If they continue dancing, as they get older, these concepts will remain the same and, therefore, be useful to know!
This month we are learning about spatial awareness, or recognizing where you are in the room, or on stage, in relation to the audience. I began by telling every class this story.
Have you ever been on/seen a stage? The floor is flat like this room, right? Well in olden days a long, long time ago stages were tilted, or raked. (I show them my teaching binder to illustrate this) If you were standing down towards the audience, you'd be standing at the lower part of the stage, like a hill. If you were standing far away from the audience, you'd be standing upstage.
We still use the same words today! Even though stages are flat!
If you'd like a little more historical info on raked stages check out the entry at Wikipedia.
Here's what your little dancer's know so far; They know that the space near the audience is downstage, they know that the space far away from the audience is upstage, they know that the space in between the two is center.
FUN AT HOME!: Help your dancers review the terms downstage, center and upstage at home. Pick out some music that they like and ask them if they'd like to do a free dance. In dance class downstage is the front of the room/audience and upstage is the back of the room. Sit downstage as their audience and start the music. They can dance while the music is on. Turn the music off and they should freeze in their spot. Ask them to tell you whether they are upstage, downstage or in the center of the room.
Review of terms:
Upstage: The space furthest from the audience
Downstage: The space closest to the audience
Center: The space in the center of the room
Free Dance: A dance exercise where the young dancers can move however they like within the boundaries of what they are learning that day. There is always a beginning pose, dancing to music and an ending pose.
Have fun and take care,
S.E.C.
Posted by S.E. Cost at
9:29 PM
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