1.3 Dance: positive and negative feelings

Arts and culture

Grade 8

Personal and social skills

Module 4

Positive and negative feelings

DANCE / MOVEMENT

Dance can supplement and complement the other components (visual arts, music and drama).

Warming up

• Warming-up exercises should be increased and done regularly. Warming up should protect the body against injuries, make it more flexible, keep it in good shape and contribute towards the development of technical skills. Movement combinations and sequences should form part of warming-up exercises.
• Follow the guidance given by the educator when a series of warming-up exercises is introduced to you. Remember that the repetition of sequences and the correct positioning of the body are always important for the conditioning of the body, to make it more flexible and to develop certain skills.
• You will also be given the opportunity to create your own combinations and sequences that will include design elements for choreography such as fast, slow, light, flowing, jerking, high, low and quiet or calm.
• Warming-up and other dance exercises, if done regularly and purposefully, can also prepare and strengthen your body for your favourite sport.

Activity 1

• In your journal prepare a list of positive as well as negative words concerning feelings and emotions, e.g. happy, alone, love, hate, strong, etc.

• Find a colour that expresses each of these emotions or feelings, e.g.:Does yellow make you feel happy , do you feel like moving fast or slowly, do you feel like jumping or does it make you feel lazy?Does blue make you feel strong , do you feel like shrinking or stretching, despondent, crazy, exuberant or reserved? Explore and experience the colours by means of movement .

• Learners can take turns to share different words that give expression to feelings or emotion .Learners must react immediately and spontaneously to the word – without thinking too much – with appropriate movement.Repeat several times. Learners can even move into each other’s personal space and make contact (without hurting each other) in order to express the feeling of the word.

• Work as a group or pair, create an own story and have a “movement discussion”. Explore various types of movement, such as locomotor and non-locomotor movements.

General research task

• Launch an investigation into career possibilities in the various art disciplines, namely Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts.

Concentrate on the following aspects:

• Available possibilities for training
• Employment opportunities and accessibility (locally and abroad)
• Financial implications
• Possibilities for promotion

The above information can be obtained from:

• libraries
• the Internet
• interviews and discussions with practising artists
• television programmes

The completed research task must be presented to the educator for assessment.

• The information that has been assembled can form the basis of a class debate. The class can be divided into four groups, with each group presenting and defending a single discipline.

SELF ASSESSMENT/REFLECTION (make notes in your diary or journal)

1. Were you able to use your imagination without inhibitions? What was easy and what did you find difficult?
2. Did you make use of locomotor and non-locomotor movements?
3. Were you afraid to think creatively, or not?
4. Did you make use of the various design elements in your attempt to create?
5. Which design elements did you not use?
6. Were you willing to take chances in order to live up to your imagination?