Unit 26 - Choreographing dance

Wednesday 4^th October

Today I spent the lesson working on the choreography which I have been creating and will be teaching to primary school children next week.

To start off the session, I carried out a warmup. The warmup that I carried out is the warmup which I will be taking the children through. I have decided to roughly choreograph this warmup as it will make it easier for me to remember it on the day and not forget to warm up any muscles in the body. I made this decision after I had practiced leading my session with Laura and in her feedback she said that I missed out the neck and head in the warmup. Therefore, if I roughly choreograph the warmup then I will not miss out any of the muscles. The song which I will be using for the warmup is called ‘Places’ and is by Martin Solveig. Specific moves that I will include in the warmup include head rolls, shoulder, elbow and arm rolls, hip rolls and leg stretches. The rest of the warmup is quite free flowing and I haven’t choreographed it entirely so if I think of a stretch that I want to put in, I can just put it in.

After warming up, I moved onto creating more choreography as this was the brief that I was given by my dance lecturer, Laura. Last week I spent some of my own time choreographing 4 lots of 8 counts to the song ‘Like I can’ by Sam Smith. I had a discussion earlier today with my dance teacher and we both agreed that it would be a good idea to create some more choreography just in case I have a lot of time with the children to teach them the dance and they learn it quickly. Here are some notes of which I have made when choreographing the next part of the routine. These feed on from the notes that I made last week:

·     Roll the right shoulder back, then the left then the right arm then the left arm.

·     Contract in with the arms and the left leg and then step out the left facing the right.

·     Lunge forward and clasp the hands in a clap bringing the legs together.

·     Release the left leg and walk towards the back for 4 counts.

·     Reach up with both arms and then drop down to a crouching position.

·     Roll to the right to end up facing the left diagonal.

·     Push the right knee down then the left and then pull the right knee up and then the left. Circle the head round for 4 counts.

·     Reach to the right, then to the left and then clap above the head.

·     Mini scissor kick to stand up.

·     A step to the side where the arms rap around the waist and then back to neutral.

I think this session was very useful and practical because I managed to get a lot done. It took me a lot less time to choreograph the same amount of material as before and I think this was because I have got the feel for what the song is like now, the age of the children and now I roughly know their ability.