If you’ve shied away from teaching dance-related movement skills in your class because you’re unfamiliar with the subject or think your class won’t be interested, consider this: Creative movement exercises help young people develop important learning skills, such as group dynamics, listening, problem solving, and language. Plus, creative movement skills are a fun way to introduce students to using movement as a form of expression.
Now there’s a resource that makes it easy for you to include creative movement exercises in your class so that your students can learn these valuable skills. Perpetual Motion: Creative Movement Exercises for Dance and Dramatic Arts helps you get both female and male students excited about dance, build essential skills, and improve educational outcomes—even if you’ve never taught movement exercises before.
Perpetual Motion introduces more than 100 movement exercises organized around six themes: rules, recipes, props, poetry and prose, objects and images, and integrated arts.
Everything you need is here to inspire students to step out of their movement comfort zones and develop their own potential. Each chapter identifies a theme, specific learning skills, recommended exercises, and a strategy for stimulating class discussion about the exercises. Plus, teachers have the convenience of being able to select exercises from 12 categories of learning skills.
You can adapt these versatile exercises with ease and success to challenge beginners as well as skilled dance students. Within each exercise you’ll find variations you can use to increase the difficulty, add variety, and create more than 90 entirely new exercises.
The book includes other features to make the movements easy to teach:
A 15-minute warm-up routine builds teachers’ confidence.
A glossary of movement terms ensures clear communication when integrating projects.
A handy “finder” chart lets you quickly identify exercises that meet the learning skills you want.
Perpetual Motion will enable any teacher to successfully integrate creative movement exercises into general classroom, physical education, dramatic arts, and language arts classes. There is no better reference for overcoming students’ fears about dance and helping them develop vital learning skills that will pay off in any educational setting.
Learning Skills Reference Chart
How to Use This Book
Chapter 1: Rules
The Concept Behind the Rules
Back to Front
Five Times Five
Walk on the Wild Side
Is the Hand Faster Than the Eye?
Add Water and Stir
Chapter 2: Recipes
The Concept Behind the Recipes
Recipes for Novice Dancers: Solos
Recipes for Novice Dancers: Ensembles
Recipes for Elementary- and Intermediate-Level Dancers: Solos
Recipe for Elementary- and Intermediate-Level Dancers: Ensembles
Recipe Exploring Dramatic Potential of Movement and Voice
Recipe for Intermediate- and Advanced-Level Dancers: Solo
Recipe for Intermediate- and Advanced-Level Dancers: Ensembles
Chapter 3: Props
The Concept Behind Props
Tube Cloth “Body Bags”
Lots More Props
Chapter 4: Poetry and Prose
The Concept Behind Poetry and Prose
Five By Five With Sound
Sound and Body Isolations
EMphasis, EmPHASis, EmphasIS
Strange but True Phrases
Chapter 5: Objects and Images
The Concept Behind Objects and Images
Snakes and Ladders
Chapter 6: Dancescape Projects
The Concept Behind Dancescapes
Movement and Environmental Studies: Beachscape Project
Beachscape Project in Action
Dramatic Movement, Self, and Society: Urbanscape
Urbanscape in Action
Movement and Computer Sciences: Dance Into the Picture
Dance Into the Picture in Action
Movement, Music, and Visual Art: Art Through Art
Art Through Art in Action
Appendix A: Random Factor Variations Appendix B: Warm-Up Ideas Appendix C: Discography Appendix D: Assessment Strategy Appendix E: Stage Picture
Glossary of Movement Terms
Reference for grades 3-12 physical educators, dance and dramatic arts educators, and arts education administrators; supplemental text for teaching methods courses.
Janice Pomer has been teaching and performing in the fields of dance, theatre, and music since 1976. She has been a guest artist in schools, universities, international education conferences, dance studios, and art centers in communities throughout North America. Janice has introduced thousands of elementary and high school students to creative movement and choreography in a variety of special projects that integrate dance with visual art, music, theatre, architecture, nature, and urban studies. She has taught and created programs for the Canadian Children's Dance Theatre (1983-1995), the National Ballet of Canada's education department (1990-1997), the Children's Dance Project (1993-2000), and the Toronto Urban Studies Centre, Through the Arts Studio (1996-2001). Janice teaches modern dance at Pegasus Children's Dance Centre in Toronto, Onario, Canada.