It has been exciting teaching students in these residencies! The students are curious, and working in different types of space, such as classrooms, cafeterias, gyms, and stages, has challenged us to think outside the box. We always adapt to our surroundings and let our environment inform our movement!
I started teaching creative movement to students by introducing them to ways to create postures and movement relationships, starting small and building to full phrases. This informed their way of creating elements for a dance, developing their skills as classes progressed. My class requires students to be creators, explorers, leaders, choreographers, and teachers. They teach me rather than just learning from me! My goal is always to have fun dancing with them, which I have been sharing since I first met them.
Cultural dancers like Chinese dance, Mongolian dance, and K-pop dance are important for school kids’ multicultural dance experiences and their cultural development. While some students sometimes feel uncomfortable at first and don’t know how to engage with the new information, I work to keep the energy high and engaging. I also use my study of social emotional learning development for school adolescents to try to connect with more reserved students.
For example, for the Chinese dance unit I worked on simple language learning, showing very simple Chinese characters at the beginning of class and how they related to dance materials, including the word “dance” in Chinese, basic directions in Chinese, and introducing myself in Chinese. In this way I aimed to build cultural understanding and connection. Learning language is a good way to make them mimic unknown things, helping them get comfortable and start having fun.
For class, I often separate kids into at least three different groups based on three different notions I draw on the while board. These shapes include lines, squares, and circles so students can use their imagination to make movement based on the patterns. When working in groups, students often watch and share feedback, telling me what the next phrase can look like. They get to be the judge as well as the creator, which is good for them to stay involved while watching other dancers work and present. It has been rewarding working with these students and I am proud of their development over the last few months!
Jiali Wang is one of the amazing performers that is on our roster of Teaching Artists!