Friday, April 15, 2016

Where do choreographers get their inspiration?

Ever wonder how a dance is created? Students at PS 176 have been working hard on creating their own dances with inspiration coming from...

Music-

Kindergarten and first grade are exploring movement invention based on the excitement of music. From the tempo to the rhythm and mood, students are finding ways to create their own movement to match the music!

Stories-

Second graders are creating movement sentences with a partner to tell the story of Gerald from the book Giraffes Can't Dance. We found lots of action words and emotions throughout the story to use as inspiration!


Other Choreographers-

Third graders are studying the elements of dance like pathways, directions and formations. Their inspiration is from the choreographer Paul Taylor. They are busy making plans for a group dance based on his famous piece Esplanade.


The Elements-

Fourth graders are taking their inspiration from nature and the four elements of Fire, Water, Earth, and Air. We took some time to study each element to see how they move, how they feel and what they do to come up with action words. Next, we added some efforts/qualities to really communicate the element through movement. 

Famous Dances-

Fifth graders are looking at the famous dance created by Alvin Ailey, Revelations. Through observation and exploration, students create movement related to themes seen throughout Revelations. From wanting to fly away to wading in the water, students will analyze how choreographers communicate emotional and abstract themes through use of space, shape, movement qualities, color, and sound.



Thursday, March 17, 2016

Asian Lunar New Year 2016!

Third grade students helped PS 176 welcome in the New Year with a performance for students and parents. Students spent most of January and February analyzing three dances that are used to help celebrate in China: The Lion Dance, The Dragon Dance and The Ribbon Dance. We then created our own!


Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Unique & Interesting

We've started the new year off in very unique and interesting ways! Students throughout the grade have been asking the question~ "How can we make our movement more unique and interesting?"

Using the Laban Movement Analysis Chart or L.M.A. chart for short, students have been exploring all the ways you can make something as simple as a walk completely different!



Check out the after school dance club who created a dance completely on their own using three different ideas from the L.M.A. chart :  Levels, Directions, and Pathways.


Untitled from Megan Schenk on Vimeo.