MA Dance Pedagogy

I've just been having a look at David Kolb's learning style. It's taken me a while to really get to grips with it but think I've got it now. I'm trying to liken it to experiencing using a new muscle in class and afterwards having a good think about how you can keep using that muscle in future classes. Then thinking about how much better your leaps and turns will be when you develop that muscle! Then the following class thinking and experimenting during exercises and routines to try and use the muscle again! I also like the idea of looking at this learning cycle from the point of view of my students. It would be great to really get to grips with the system and then apply it to see how my students learn best and use different teaching approaches for this.

Just a thought I was having, and then I stumbled across this really interesting article.... https://thepsychologist.bps.org.uk/volume-24/edition-2/media I don't know how other professional dancers feel about this but.... I LOVE Strictly Come Dancing. I prefer to stay in and watch it than go out because I can't bear to have to wait until the next day to watch it. I know a lot of people have very strong opinions either way on it but I find it really inspiring. The music, the live band, the costumes, the choreography - it all gets me thinking how I could put that move into my class or use that song. I like commenting on a dance then seeing if the judges agree with me. But also what I really enjoy is the idea that the show is making dancing more accessible to people. I really believe you have to stay active and keep fit to be healthy and happy. Obviously there are many different ways to do that to suit different people's needs, but I just think dancing releases so much te

I was just reading reader 2 and the section on Kottcamp's idea of on-line and off-line engagement. I like the idea of reflection in action. I use it during my workout classes; if my class are over exerting themselves I will perform a speech test (usually means I get them to whoop) and if they can't, I immediately know I have to make the next song a lot slower to give them a chance to get their breath back. Also it's the same for if I noticed they were finding the class too easy and weren't sweating I would make the next few songs killer! But essentially it's about recognising the needs of my class and acting on that and adapting immediately, rather than going home and thinking 'maybe that class was too easy/hard? ' because ultimately by then I may have lost a client due to them not enjoying my class. After this section the reader asks for a few ideas I like and to do a bit of critical thinking on them. I may not be at my most critical at this time but I

I wanted to take a look at some of the dance origins of Zumba dancing. Being an instructor I get a wealth of music sent to me each month in many different styles to create dances too. The amazing thing is that although when you first go to a Zumba class you may only remember dancing/jumping around and whooping for an hour, the instructor has (hopefully) put in a good amount of work to create that class for you. A Zumba class is specified by having a mix of lots of different world rhythms to dance to; so you can't just do 12 salsa tracks - because you'd be teaching a salsa class unfortunately. And in your training you learn the basic steps to these world rhythms which you then add into your choreography. So although some of these dances originated from the late 17th century - we are still using the same dance moves today! In your Zumba Basic Training you are taught 4 rhythms; Merengue, Salsa, Cumbia and Reggaeton. Of course there are plenty more to talk about (Calypso, Samba,