Demiree Eastman Dance 367 December 1, 2013 Final Philosophy Paper

Creative dance is an experience for participants to discover who they truly are as individuals as they submerge themselves into the integration of mind, body, and spirit. They will master and discover the balance of technical skill while igniting a creative spark. Students will be challenged to test the depths of their personal imagination through movement while exploring the elements of time, space, and energy with their own bodies. Going through this whole process of learning about childrens creative dance has changed my perspective on so many things. The way I view and treat people, the creative possibilities that havent been created yet, and the influence a person can have no matter what age and whatever stage of their life they may be in. From class, one of the biggest things that stood out to me was a scale Kathleen, my professor, drew on the board. It symbolized the importance of focusing and harmonizing the technical with the creative expression. Sometimes students will excel in one area while struggling in another. One specific example I can remember was when I was teaching 8-9 year olds. I had girls who could point their toes and have the straightest backs, but when asked to come up with a creative shape, they would stare like a deer in the headlights. However, I had a student who found the technique of tondues anything but thrilling, but when asked to think of an image behind it, her eyes lit up and she excitedly babbled out interesting idea after interesting idea.

I believe that the goal of creative dance is to bring imagination, creativity, and expression into technique for a fuller understanding, and then taking that technical skill and embellishing creative dance even more. It will push students and expand their whole skill level. One excerpt I loved and completely agreed with was written by Colla J. MacDonald. He stated: This art form emphasizes creativity, problem solving, and the expressions of thoughts and feelings. It involves participants physically, emotionally, and intellectually, uses techniques from other dance forms, and is non-threatening and non-competitive, recognizing and encouraging individual differences while challenging participants to improve physical skill and aesthetic expression (MacDonald). Which leads me to my next point. One of the biggest things to remember in creative childrens dance is that everyone is different. And those individual differences are wonderful. Everyone, no matter what age, is going through a developmental milestone. They are in a different stage in their life progressing through different things. So much can happen in a matter of months. Children are growing and changing at rapid rates, and are soaking in so much information. They may go from barely understanding the difference between up and down at three years old to being able to move forward, backwards, upside down, upwards, left, right, diagonal, and everything in between at twelve years old. The important thing to remember is to look at every student individually and realize that they are all at a different stage developmentally. While they may be excelling emotionally with their stance as an individual, they may be struggling socially or in other aspects. It is vital to take a look at the developmental processes and teach and explore with material that is suited for that certain age group. Pushing them too hard, not enough, or anything else may cause roadblocks between teacher and student. While, concerning childrens creative dance, those students should

be able to trust their teacher with their creative processes and ideas for their appropriate developmental stance in order to fully grow to their potential properly. Students can not only learn about themselves, but they can learn about other students ideas through social growth and inclusion. Giguere observed that children experience dance as both a social phenomenon and a personal transformative activity. Students will not only learn about their own personal ideas and movements, but they will experience multiple ideas as they observe other students creative and technical growth. Students will learn to expand socially as they work with others along the way. All of this will create a new outlet for students to express themselves physically, emotionally, and mentally. In conclusion, childrens creative dance is something that can be beneficial for any child. The more time that has passed through the years, I have discovered that dance teachers are not just dance teachers, they are life coaches. Childrens creative dance can unveil things that may be difficult to otherwise discover. These students are not exploring something strictly intellectual like a vocabulary list. They are immersing themselves into a whole world of physical exploration, creative exploration, emotional exploration, intellectual exploration, and every crevice in between. Childrens creative dance can make the unimaginable possibilities of life become existent. It can help create an atmosphere that may be unattainable to some live right at the dancers fingertips, or toes, or head for that matter! I collects the elements of mind, body, and spirit into one. Students can explore something that is so out of their self, yet so internal all at once. If I could, I would have every human, no matter what age, plunge into the enchanting world of dance and creativity.

Works Cited Mac Donald, Colla J. "Creative dance in elementary schools: A theoretical and practical justification." Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'education (1991): 434-441.

Giguere, Miriam. "Dancing Thoughts: An Examination Of Children's Cognition And Creative Process In Dance." Research In Dance Education 12.1 (2011): 5-28. International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. Web. 7 Dec. 2013.