Lesson video

Hi, my name is Ms. Curtis, and I'm going to be taking you for your dance lesson today.

First of all, we need to talk about how to keep safe in this lesson.

So if you are unsure about doing any of the activities in this lesson, make sure you have a trusted adult nearby when you start them.

This lesson should ideally take place indoors, but you can work outside if it is warm and dry enough and it's safe to do so.

Ensure there is space for you to work safely.

And that includes overhead.

Please dance in bare feet.

Please don't wear socks, especially if your floor is a slippery surface.

And make sure that you're wearing comfortable clothing, put your hair up if it's long, and please remove any jewellery.

Pause the video now if you need time to get ready to do those things.

In this lesson, you will need to make sure you have the correct clothing.

You might need a pen and paper to write with.

And you need to check that you've got a safe space to work in.

Once again, if you need to grab anything, pause the video now.

So the plan for today is that we're going to do a warm up.

I'm then going to lead you through a technical session which is going to focus on travelling.

And the second technical session, we're going to focus on creating gestures.

And then finally, you will do your exit quiz.

We're going to look at some key words to start off with.

These are things that you might need to use when you're doing your warm up.

So the first thing is parallel.

So this is a positioning of the feet and legs, which is hip-width distance apart.

The next one is plie, which is a bending of the knee.

And then finally, we're going to look at the word extend.

So this means to lengthen a limb or body part.

So we're going to start with a warm up.

What I'd like you to do first of all is to think about what you're going to include.

So we know that our warmup needs to have a pulse raiser, so something that increases our heart rate and breathing rate, makes that blood circulate around our body.

We then need to make sure that we mobilise our joints to get some movement and flexibility into them.

And then secondly, we need to think about some stretches of our big muscle groups.

So the first thing I'd like you to do is to give me some examples of pulse raising activities.

So you can either jot them down on a piece of paper, or you can call them out to me right now.

Have a little pause, and then come back to me.

Great, so if you gave me examples such as starting with walking, gentle jogging, or star jumps, then they're brilliant examples of things that you could do.

The next thing we're going to the at is things that can mobilise our joints.

So once again, jot them down or call them out.

Off you go.

Excellent, so if you gave things like shoulder rolls, rolling down through the spine, arm circles.

They're great examples.

Finally, we're going to look at some things that we could do for stretching.

So once again, either jot them down on a piece of paper or call them out.

Off you go.

Great, so in this one, we're looking for examples such as lunges, twists, anything like that will be brilliant.

What I'm going to do now is I'm just going to show you a few examples of things that I would include in my warmup.

And you can use these ideas if you get stuck.

So we've got things like take your head to the side, looking up and down.

You've got things like shoulder circles.

You can take that to your elbows.

You can take that into your arms. Rolling down through the spine.

You can take something like a big lunge forwards.

If you wanted to make that more dynamic, you could take it into a walking lunge.

You could do something where you have twists.

Anything that's going to make those joints nice and warm and nice and supple.

So what I'd like you to do here is to pause your video, pop your music on, and spend about three minutes working through your warmup.

Once you've done that, come back to me, and we'll move on to our next task.

So our learning focus today is we're going to be learning a travelling phrase and a gestural phrase.

These phrases are going to help us understand how to link movement ideas together when we begin our own choreography.

So the key words we're going to need for our technical phrase are technical skills.

And this is including accuracy of action, space, and dynamic content and reproduction of movement in a stylistically accurate way.

We're going to learn a travelling phrase all together.

Travelling phrases are important in dance because they help us to shift dynamically through the space to create pathways, floor patterns, and changes of direction.

Please watch the video on the next slide.

This is the finished version of the phrase that we will learn.

So our first technical exercise is a travelling phrase.

If you need to make any adaptations in terms of the amount of space that you use or any physical limitations, then that is absolutely fine.

What I'm going to do first is show you what the finished phrase is going to like.

And then we're going to break it down into small sections.

So you can always go back to this version in the video if you want to just do a bit of a quality control check for yourself and make sure that what you're doing is accurate.

So I'm going to move back into the space and show you what the finished phrase is going to look like.

Six, seven, eight.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one.

Six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, and five, six, seven, eight, and one.

So we're going to move on to learning that in little sections.

So after each section, you'll be able to pause the video and practise that and then chunk each section together.

So don't panic if one bit's harder than the other.

You can spend more time working on that.

Let's go.

So section one travels in a diagonal pathway, and it's a galloping step.

So if you mirror me with starting with our right hand side of our body, and we're stepping on right foot forward.

So you've got step.

The feet join together in the end, and we circle our shoulders backwards, and then you step out of it.

Again, we go from a high level to a low level.

So we've got one and two.

Let's do that one more time.

So we've got one and two.

Great, we're going to add a tiny bit more on, and then you've got time to rehearse those two parts together.

So we've got one and two.

From there, we're going to transfer our weight into our right foot.

And we're going to lift our body up towards the ceiling.

So you've got one and two, and we lift up.

So our left leg is pulling up, and we're using our core to pull up.

And then we land.

One more time.

So we go one, two, three, four.

So pause your video here.

Spend a couple of minutes practising putting those two actions together, and then come back to me once you feel that you've got it.

You may wish to spend two to three minutes working on this section.

And remember, you're focusing on the accuracy of your actions.

So try and make them replicate exactly what I showed you on that task video.

If you want to play some music in the background while you do that, then you can.

You can also use a metronome beat just so that you've got a rhythm to help you with timing.

Section two, we start from here, and we landed after our rise.

This is a big opening and expansive movement.

So I want you to transfer and shift your weight into your right leg and make yourself as wide as you can.

So you've got open, and then we close in.

So everything then becomes really compact.

So we're here.

We expand, and then we come in.

And everything's going to come in, in, in as if you're trying to hide away.

So you were here, three, four at the end of the last section.

We open five, in six.

So it's quite fast in terms of the counts.

Let's try it again.

So you rise up, you come down.

Open five, in six.

And again, think about being big and then suddenly being really small.

Have a little pause, work through that section, and then come back to me Pause your video again, have another go at putting that little section together, once more looking at the accuracy of your movements.

Think about trying to get those directions and the energy the same as I did on the video.

And once more, if you want to put a piece of music on in the background to help you with timing, that's absolutely fine.

Just finish here.

The next section is a turn and travels, again, towards that first diagonal corner that we looked at.

This is probably the trickiest bit because we need to coordinate our balance and rotate.

So you're going to step onto your left foot.

And as you step onto your left foot, your arms are going to swing open, and then they're going to step forward.

It doesn't matter which arm is high or low, the arms are going to give you the momentum to help you get round.

So in this corner, looking down, we're going to use our heads to whip around and spot so that we can get around without wobbling.

So you step onto your left leg, use your arms to spin you around, and then step out.

One more time.

So you've got step, turn, step.

Let's do that again, so you're here.

In, we get that head up, and look.

We go to step, turn, step, and our hands punch down, and that helps to reground us.

So you're tucked in.

We go step, turn, step.

Pause your video here, have a little practise of that turn until you feel really comfortable with it.

Then come back to me, and we're going to put it all together.

Once more, spend a couple of minutes working on that section and focus on your accuracy of your actions.

Once more, you can use music to help you with time.

Hopefully, now you've practised all of the sections separately, we can have a look at now putting that whole thing together so that we can have a sense of the flow of the whole travelling phrase.

So let's move back into our corners again.

We're going to go through it slowly once all together, and then we're going to use some time to practise the whole phrase.

So we've got one and two, up, three, four, open, five, close six, spin seven, eight, and one.

Pause your video, have a little practise, and then come back to me.

You're going to spend about two to three minutes now putting that all together.

See if you can perform it on both sides of your body for an extra challenge.

I've given you a suggestion for a track that you can use.

So you can put that on your phone and have a practise.

Have fun.

Now we've performed that phrase, We're going to evaluate how successful we thought we were.

So the first question I would like you to answer is, how can we check for accuracy in our own work? I'd like you to write down one suggestion.

Excellent, so some examples of ways that we can check our work are we can film it and watch it back, and then we can compare it to the original, and that way we can check to see if we've got any errors.

And then we can focus on rehearsing on those.

Another way that we can check for accuracy in our work is to get somebody else to watch it for us.

They can have a closer eye on what you're performing, and then they can give you some feedback, and you can use that feedback to then help you improve.

Write down two ways that you were successful at demonstrating your accuracy.

So have a real think about the choreography and where you thought you did really really well at getting those movements the same as how I performed them.

Jot them down for me.

Brilliant, so, hopefully, you've been able to pick out two examples.

So for example, it might have been when you did the rise up, it might've been the jump and turn.

If you've got two down, brilliant.

Now I'd like you to write down one way that you could make your work more accurate.

So think really carefully about a particular part of the choreography where perhaps it wasn't as clear, and write that down.

Excellent, so it might be something like your timing, or it might be that your directions weren't as accurate, and they're really useful to think about because they help us to set us targets to improve for next time.

So we're going to learn some more key words now.

The first one we're going to look at is gesture, which is a body action that does not carry any weight.

Can you write down two examples of actions that you think are gestures? Which one of these is not to gesture, a roll on the floor or an arm swing? Have a think and call out the answer.

Or if you prefer, you can write it down.

So the answer is a roll on the floor is not a gesture.

A roll on the floor involves you transferring your body weight between different limbs.

An arm swing can be performed without changing your body weight.

Therefore, an arm swing is a gesture.

We're now going to move on to our second technical session.

So we're going to learn a gestural phrase.

Arm gestures can be used in our choreography to help communicate feelings, emotions, and ideas.

We can also draw the audience focus to particular body part, for example, our hands, by creating shape, pattern, and detail.

Once again, please watch the video to see the final version of the phrase.

We'll then break it down into chunks and then your task is to piece it back together.

So we're now going to move on to a section where we look at arm gestures.

Now, this is something that features quite a lot in the piece in through which we're going to be looking at later on in this unit.

So gestures are actions which don't carry any body weight.

So what I'd like you to do quickly is to either jot down or call out some actions that you think might be gestures.

So just pause your video here, and then come back to me once you've done that.

Great, so things like, a wave, a shoulder shrug, a knee swivel, an elbow can all be gestures that we can use in our dance.

And we can use them to help show character, feeling, and emotions.

I'm going to teach you a phrase that has a lot of gestures in it.

The same as we did with our travelling phrase.

I'm going to show you the finished version first.

And then what we're going to do is to break it down into smaller chunks so that we can learn bit by bit.

So here's what the finished version will look like.

We go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Let's just do that one more time.

So we go one, two, three, four, and five, six, seven, eight.

And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

The first section of our gestural phrase is a pulling of the arm.

So imagine someone's got a piece of string on your elbow and it's pulling it out.

And at the same time, there's another piece of string attached to our t-shirt or top here.

And it's pulling it this way.

So we've got the body moving in one direction and the arm in the opposite.

So you pull one, and our head looks to the side as we do that.

So we've got one.

Your left hand pulls down, two.

Comes across, three, four.

And that's a bit like a clock hand ticking around.

So you've got a one, two, three, four, five, knuckles down by your side.

One more time.

You go one, two, three, four, five.

Pause the video here, and have a little practise of that.

So you've got that idea of pulling and the sharp ticking.

And then come back to me once you're.

So once again, pause your video.

, spend a couple of minutes working through this exercise, focusing on the accuracy of your actions.

You can use the track that I gave you an example for earlier, or you can choose your own.

Have fun.

So we finish with our arm here.

That arm is then going to push down across your body.

So we've got a twist in our torso, pushing down.

You're going to take your left foot behind you as you're spinning around and your hands are going to pull up sharply.

So if you're here.

Comes down six, seven, eight, push, and one.

So your hands are here.

They push down.

It makes the foot step out.

One more time.

So you're here.

Push across, turn, and up.

Push it out.

So pause the video there.

Have a little practise of that little section.

Once you've got it and you're confident, come back to me.

Spend some time working through this section of the exercise.

Once again, focusing on your accuracy of actions.

And if you want to, you can use my music suggestion or your own should you choose to.

So we finished here.

From there, you're going to twist your right foot in, and you're going to pull your arms across your chest.

And it's like you're trying to shield yourself from something or someone.

So you push down one, two, three, four.

Your right leg's going to push out with your hand pushing your leg.

So it's like, again, this idea of the strings.

You make contact with that body part, and then that hand manipulates the leg to kick.

So you push.

We bend in.

The leg kicks and starts to pull your body round.

Push, bend, push round.

And then finally, your hands come in to your head here.

So pause the video, work through that little section, and then come back to me once you're ready.

So once more, spend a couple of minutes working through that.

Once again, checking for accuracy.

So things, especially in this section, with your directions, and then come back once you've finished.

Hopefully, you've practised all of those little sections and are feeling really confident with the movement material.

Now what we're going to do is to put it all together.

So let's have a go.

Six, seven, eight.

We go one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Push, one, two, and three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One more time.

We go one, two, three, four, and five, six, seven, eight.

And one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

Great.

Pause the video there.

Have a couple of run throughs of that with some music, make sure that you're really confident.

And if you want to, you can film yourself and have a look back and make some notes on areas that you want to improve and try and make more accurate.

Off you go.

So with your five minutes, as I said, spend some time being really accurate in your movement and video yourself so that you can review it.

And also if you want to share it with us later, then you can.

I've suggested a piece of music to help you, but you can also choose your own if you wish.

Have fun.

So now's the time to cool down at the end of the lesson I'm going to give you some advice on ways to do that effectively in the next video Great work today.

Hopefully, you've enjoyed learning those phrases.

They are going to become part of our work that we're going to do over the next few lessons.

So don't forget them, keep practising them and thinking about them between now and your next time you log in.

Now is the time to do a bit of a cool down.

So thinking about reducing our breathing rate back to a normal level, things that you can do to do that.

So taking from a gentle jog down down into a walk, and some stretches where we hold those poses for a little bit longer.

I will see you again soon.

Thank you very much for taking part, bye.