Continuing our theme on the blog this month celebrating dance, Jenny Smith, class teacher and Arts Award adviser at Hawthorn Tree School in Boston, Lincolnshire tells us how Arts Award Discover is embedded in the curriculum as part of PE lessons, and how Bronze is offered as an extra-curricular activity where the children raise money to help fund their trip to the theatre.
As a little girl, I dreamt of being a ballerina but unfortunately this was not to be. However, my dream of dancing at the Royal Ballet almost came true when I got to work with the Royal Ballet and Opera (RBO). I took part in fantastic Continuing Professional Development (CPD) with them linked to The Nutcracker.
At this CPD session, I was introduced to Arts Award Discover, and it inspired me to investigate it further. Although I have been a dancer for many years and led an after-school dance club, I learnt that Discover provides a truly inclusive approach, allowing every child to participate and achieve; irrespective of their academic attainment or economic circumstances.
Embedding Discover
I saw the potential of embedding Discover within the curriculum and using simple, inclusive log books. We have used both the RBO logbook specifically designed to link to the RBO’s Create and Dance programme and we’ve used the free downloadable Arts Award Discover logbook templates when we followed the Alice in Wonderland Create and Dance, previously.
School life is busy and embedding Discover into the curriculum made it more manageable. I worked closely with our PE subject leader to map out enhanced provision for Year 4 where the children would complete Discover during their PE lessons through Dance.
Creating the dance
Focussing on The Nutcracker, for Part A (Discover) the children create and choreograph their own dance over a series of lessons. All the Year 4 children are involved. The children start as individuals to create their motifs and then build up their motifs each week, moving to small groups to share their individual work and build on it. In the groups they use the moves they’d developed individually to start to create their dance. At this stage they take on either the role of soldier or mouse, thinking about the different movements each would make.
Completing the dance
The music from the Nutcracker ballet is used with various tempos to help the children experiment. The children collectively decide which piece of music they would like to use for their final piece. Once each group has completed their dance, they perform to the other Year 4 class and gather feedback from the children who watch. The pupils then perform their dance ‘battle’ together and a Teaching Assistant watches it and gives feedback to them. This all contributes towards Part C (Share).
The artists
For Part B (Find out) the children use the RBO videos based on The Nutcracker. In the videos the children find out about the artists who work at the RBO. The children learn about what the principal dancers do, where they work and perform and about the children who train at the RBO.
Impact
The Year 4 children enjoy taking part in Arts Award Discover.
‘I learnt to move like the characters, and I enjoyed acting them out.’ Amelia
Amaia added, ‘I learnt to think about different levels when creating dances’.
Hattie said, ‘I enjoyed doing The Nutcracker. I learnt the story and it made me feel confident in choreographing.’
Bronze Arts Award
We deliver Bronze Arts Award at the school as an extra-curricular activity. It is lovely to see the joy in the children’s faces when they choreograph their dances (Part A - Explore the arts as a participant) and share the skills they’ve learnt with others (Part D – Arts skills share). It is always very exciting for them to visit a theatre to watch a show (Part B – Explore the arts as an audience member). For Part C (Arts inspiration), they research the principal dancers at the RBO such as Marcelino Sambe and Anna Rose O’Sullivan.
Evelyn, one of the Year 6 children doing Bronze said,
‘I really liked going on the trip to see The Wizard of Oz. It was such a good show.’
She also commented on how much the show provided inspiration for her own choreography when she was planning her arts skill share for Part D. The choreography work for Part A is completed at an after-school club, and they have time to work on their portfolios at a lunchtime club.
The children who are Arts Ambassadors at our school (many of whom are also in the dance club) raise money running after school workshops to help fund their trip to the theatre for Part B, and the certificates. The children who attend the workshops pay a fee to attend. At the workshops, the Arts Ambassadors do craft activities with the children who attend, which they take home with them. In the past they have made pinecone bats, Easter egg wreaths and plastic milk bottle butterflies. We try to upcycle where possible to keep costs low.
There is an enthusiasm from all the children who take part in both Discover and Bronze. It brings them a magic they don’t find elsewhere and perhaps it will spark a dream of being a dancer in the future.
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