Community Dance
For someone who works in community dance, it is very interesting to me to watch and learn how people react to being in a community dance environment. Dance in the community can help to raise self esteem, build friendships with others and create a network of people where a person can feel safe to explore moving their bodies freely without judgement.
I think dance in the community is very important to society but also that how a person can be affected by it differs greatly depending on a teaching style. Creating a safe and relaxed environment is essential to my personal role as a dance and exercise teacher and this seems to work for my students. Perhaps others find this environment unhelpful and prefer to not have any connection with other class members - this may allow them not not worry so much about what they are doing because they don't have any friends watching them, it may make it easier to concentrate or it may just be they want to work on their own.
It would be interesting to me to explore how I could better enable my students to get the most out of their dance class. By this I refer to their well being rather than the class content, which varies week to week. There is a clear connection between exercise and feeling happier in yourself, it would be interesting to look at dance as the exercise and if this can create even greater well being due to dance being a form of art and expression.
There is plenty of Community Dance literature already available to view and hopefully this will give a broader understanding of the subject and help to start shape a plan for an inquiry.
(Taken from Sara Houston's 'Participation in Community Dance: a road to Empowerment and Transformation?')
"Oliver Bennett characterizes such statements as ‘heroic visions’ fitting neatly into the long-held European notion that the arts perform a service in developing civilization."
Another quote that stood out from the same article was....
"the notion that art transcends the mundane"
Perhaps this is the reason that dance could possibly lead to creating a greater 'feel good' experience than other types of exercise... because dance transforms the exercise into art, leading people to maybe feel as if they are part of something bigger than if they were for example exercising using machines at a gym or cycling or running. Again this leads us to explore the person doing the exercise as they will have personal ideas of what they enjoy - if the idea of a dance class makes them feel ill they probably won't get any enjoyment out of the class!
A later paragraph talks of dance "healing psychological wounds". Something very prominent in my teaching style is, as mentioned above, creating a safe space for people in class. Some class participants join for the first time with lower self esteem due to issues outside of class, and its important that in one hour a week they can feel some pure enjoyment and that they have made a special effort for themselves.
A yoga teacher mentioned during a class once that at the end of the class you should think about the "special time you have taken for yourself to do this practice" and this is something that could be incorporated into other classes too. The person in class knowing they have made a positive impact on their day by sparing the time/making the effort to go to class.
" And Tessa Jowell.....transforming potential of the arts when she writes that personal happiness and fulfilment ‘give us a key to real transformation in society.'"
Another quote perhaps indicating more that not only can dance and art forms have an impact on an individual, but also a wider impact in the community as a whole.
I think dance in the community is very important to society but also that how a person can be affected by it differs greatly depending on a teaching style. Creating a safe and relaxed environment is essential to my personal role as a dance and exercise teacher and this seems to work for my students. Perhaps others find this environment unhelpful and prefer to not have any connection with other class members - this may allow them not not worry so much about what they are doing because they don't have any friends watching them, it may make it easier to concentrate or it may just be they want to work on their own.
It would be interesting to me to explore how I could better enable my students to get the most out of their dance class. By this I refer to their well being rather than the class content, which varies week to week. There is a clear connection between exercise and feeling happier in yourself, it would be interesting to look at dance as the exercise and if this can create even greater well being due to dance being a form of art and expression.
There is plenty of Community Dance literature already available to view and hopefully this will give a broader understanding of the subject and help to start shape a plan for an inquiry.
(Taken from Sara Houston's 'Participation in Community Dance: a road to Empowerment and Transformation?')
"Oliver Bennett characterizes such statements as ‘heroic visions’ fitting neatly into the long-held European notion that the arts perform a service in developing civilization."
Another quote that stood out from the same article was....
"the notion that art transcends the mundane"
Perhaps this is the reason that dance could possibly lead to creating a greater 'feel good' experience than other types of exercise... because dance transforms the exercise into art, leading people to maybe feel as if they are part of something bigger than if they were for example exercising using machines at a gym or cycling or running. Again this leads us to explore the person doing the exercise as they will have personal ideas of what they enjoy - if the idea of a dance class makes them feel ill they probably won't get any enjoyment out of the class!
A later paragraph talks of dance "healing psychological wounds". Something very prominent in my teaching style is, as mentioned above, creating a safe space for people in class. Some class participants join for the first time with lower self esteem due to issues outside of class, and its important that in one hour a week they can feel some pure enjoyment and that they have made a special effort for themselves.
A yoga teacher mentioned during a class once that at the end of the class you should think about the "special time you have taken for yourself to do this practice" and this is something that could be incorporated into other classes too. The person in class knowing they have made a positive impact on their day by sparing the time/making the effort to go to class.
" And Tessa Jowell.....transforming potential of the arts when she writes that personal happiness and fulfilment ‘give us a key to real transformation in society.'"
Another quote perhaps indicating more that not only can dance and art forms have an impact on an individual, but also a wider impact in the community as a whole.
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