Dance Resume/Headshot Workshop

            One aspect of dance that is completely forgotten about in the classroom is the creation of headshots and resumés. Constructing a resumé online is an example of technology integration because all dance resumes for auditions are created and submitted through online programs and can be somewhat tricky. This would be a great lesson for high school seniors that are studying dance because the students will have to send headshots and resumés to college dance programs and if they are planning on skipping the college route and heading straight to auditioning for dance jobs they will absolutely need headshots and resumés. I would show the senior students the best websites to use as well as popular templates that are used in the world of dance resumés. 

           For example students need to know that they must use an 8x10 size template with a 1inch margin border around the information. This could be difficult to format on their own, however with this online workshop, my students will be more prepared to take the audition world by storm. Also when auditioning, a dancer’s headshot is considered the most important part of their audition. That being said, educating students about what cameras to use for taking headshots, and how lighting is key to highlighting their best features is necessary for them to produce well taken and acceptable headshots. As a dancer I have a background in taking successful headshots but my knowledge is somewhat limited. I would ask the school board if we could possibly bring in a dance photographer that knows the business and educate the students on the new technologies used when taking headshots. If that would be considered too expensive maybe the dance department could do a collaboration with the photography teacher/department and we could educate each other on the technologies used when taking headshots.

Using Technology Along with the Choreographic Process

One aspect of dance and technology is when it is used incorrectly and overpowers the dancing. Due to the fact that technology is incorporated in almost every dance performance today, sometimes the choreographers think more about technology then the actual intent behind their movement and choreography. During L.A Dance projects performance, three pieces were performed that had very low movement invention and choreographic structure, but had a lot of emphasis on technology. Moving Parts(2012), in its regional debut, choreographed by Millepied himself, Winterbranch(1964), choreographed by Merce Cunningham, and Quintett,(1993) choreographed by William Forsythe made this much anticipated night of dance even more alluring due to the variety and the integrity that these works and their choreographers carried. With expectations high, I, and many others left the performance feeling somewhat let down and underwhelmed. With works by such world renowned choreographers as these one wonders how this evening of dance, presented by the choreographer of the movie “The Black Swan”, could end in such disappointment. The dancers danced with three separate pieces of grand artwork on wheels. They moved the artwork around the stage creating wonderful shapes and framework for what was happening onstage. The dancers would often disappear behind one of the pieces of art and another one would reappear in their place. While what they did do with the “moving parts” was interesting, I did feel as though they could have explored the use of them in other ways. After awhile moving them around the stage and using them to hide the dancers became rather repetitive and redundant. I would have liked to see the dancers dance on the artwork, using more as a prop as opposed to a moving set piece. While both the dancers and the set pieces were beautiful, I did feel as though there was so much more exploration to be done in both the use of the set and the movement itself. A lot of the movement became very repetitive and seemed under-rehearsed. There were several times when the dancers had different arms or focuses, which very well could have been Benjamin’s intent but to me as an audience member it didn’t come across. The music for this piece did not begin right away. The actual sound began with some sort of monologue which repeated throughout the entire piece. From the beginning of the piece, their was a large projector set far downstage left. The dancers did not interact with the prop at all until the very end of the work. The projector turned on during the very last movement of the piece and projected moving clouds onto the scrim. This is a prime example of choreographers spending too much time on the technological aspects of dance opposed to choreographers include technology into the choreographic process. As a teacher, I would like to have my students become completely comfortable using technology with their choreography that way if they decide to pursue a career as a choreographer they will not produce work like the choreographers in this show. 

Popular Dance Company Uses Technology During Performance

Andrea Miller’s “Gallim Dance Company”, made their world premiere performance of an evening’s length work, Fold Here, at the Alexander Kasser Theater on September 26th of this year. Choreographed by Miller herself, Fold Here was originally inspired by Raymond Carver’s short story, Cathedral, a story in which a man’s hand is guided by a blind man’s heart in his own illustrations of a cathedral. Miller collaborated with Israeli video artist Tal Rosner and American lighting designer Robert Wierzel on this project as they created a universe where the many individual cardboard boxes represented the basic units for all of life’s existing matter. Miller's work is completely cutting edge and new and like the world of education, the dance world is integrating technology into their everyday lifestyle. Their performance was filled with lights and projections unlike any other performance I had ever seen. This inclusion of technology in a famous dance company would serve as en excellent class trip for students studying dance. They would be able to see that professional dance is using technology in rehearsals and performances. They also will be inspired by the beautiful dancers and choreography used in this show. Hopefully the connection of technology and performance will help them realize that their studies in dance must go hand in hand with their knowledge and comprehension of technology. 

Each one of the dancers were artistic and technical geniuses. Like most of Miller’s pieces, this piece possessed a hint of humor, not the type of humor that was overt or cheesy, but humor that was inherently built into the movement. The dancers delivered this humor with the comedic timing of some of the most well trained comedic actors. These dancers were so fluent in the vocabulary of Ohad Naharin’s Gaga technique. It allowed for a freedom and release throughout every one of their movements as they danced with a visceral, organic, yet surprisingly powerful style. The dancers knew the extreme limits of their bodies as they jumped to the highest of highs and possessed some of the deepest most grounded plies I have ever seen. They were animals, not one of them moving exactly like the other!

From a production stand point this work was a true spectacle. The use of lighting to cast shapes and images upon the cardboard boxes with which the dancers’s played was visually stunning. The dancers effortlessly moved in and out of movement phrases, interacting with the cardboard boxes, manipulating them as well as the shapes that appeared on the boxes themselves. It was as if the dancers had some sort of telekinetic control of the images. This allowed for many points of interest as the dancers were able to create relationships with each other and the images casted on cardboard boxes.

Visual Media and Design in Dance

The students of the Visual Media and Design in Dance class presented the culmination of their work this semester through various combinations of visual presentation and dance. The dance  student body, including myself, had the opportunity to view these presentations in a performance setting.

One of the students used a basic video recorder to film our fall dance concert, Works-A-Foot, that opened the previous week in Memorial Auditorium. She then used Final Cut Pro, a video editing program, to create a promotional video for the concert of about three minutes in length. She spliced and combined various clips together, overlaying a single music track to create a cohesive promo vid for our concert.

Two students worked together to create a unique duet of sorts in which the female dancer performed and interacted with a video projection of the male dancer. The dancers set up a small white dry erase board for the projection to be casted upon. The dry erase board also hid the male dancer, who stood behind the projection of himself only to be revealed at the very last second of the duet. This was my favorite moment of the duet, as the male projection ran off of the dry erase board, the male dancer ran out from behind the board almost as if the projection jumped off of the board turning into a three dimensional human being.

The final presentation project used projection and bluetooth technologies to show what audience members sometimes do at dance performances. I female dancer began performed a solo in the space. Midway through the performance a projector turned on which revealed time-lapsed images of us, the audience members, and our reactions to the dancer’s movement phrases. The creator of the presentation stood in the back of the auditorium on his cell phone. With bluetooth technologies, the creator projected the screen of his phone onto the back of the auditorium. He browsed through various forms of social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, texted friends, and scrolled through his various calendar events. This entire project was a clever way to express the lack of interest in the arts and I quite enjoyed this humorous allegorical display.

This class clearly broadened the horizons for all of these dance students, showing them the many different ways to incorporate technology into their art form in order to further convey their intent. Technology and dance have a symbiotic relationship as one increases the validity of the other and boosters the lasting effects of both.  

Technology Integration Plan

           When making a technology integrated lesson plan I found myself challenging my usual approach to lesson plans in the dance classroom. It was a challenge for me to integrate technology into many aspects of the lesson due to dance's physically demanding nature and minimal need for technology. However, I feel that the "Interactivities" and information that I learned in this course has helped me devise a new approach to incorporating technology into my lesson plans. For this final lesson I found that using technology to help students understanding of how improvisation and choreography are similar and how they are different. This use of technology will allow students to explore the differences between dance improvisation as well as specific choreographic structure. The students will learn the helpful tools of a successful improvisation, as well as popular approaches to choreography and creating movement. 

            The following unit plan will take place over the course of four class periods. This unit plan is divided into four sections, which are labeled as Access, Analyze, Performance, Assessment. The first portion of the class (Access) will be used to describe the difference of improvisation and choreography through the showing of a performance piece on the smart board. This piece is entitled “Continuous Replay” choreographed and performed by The Bill T Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. This piece is a prime example of the understanding and content area literacy of choreography and improvisation in dance. “Continuous Replay would be a great piece to show because it has a set of 45 shapes that are easy to fulfill and show the structure of choreography. While the 45 shapes are being performed in a continuous and repetitious manner, there are dancers using improvisational tools around these 45 shapes. The juxtaposition between the dancers performing the choreographed 45 shapes and other dancers improvising is a clear example of the use of improvisation and choreography. The smartboard would be an excellent technological tool to use for the showing of this piece because of the large size of the screen would allow the students to see the shapes and movement at almost a life size scale. The standard that aligns with this first section of the matrix in the spreadsheet is NJCCS 1.1.8.A.1 which is “Interpret the choreographic structures of contrast and transition, the process of reordering and chance, and structures…” This standard aligns with this matrix because of the emphasis on observing and interpreting and contrasting between choreographic structure. Students will observe through the following strategies including “direct teaching, oral presentation, and listening and viewing.

The second portion of the lesson (Analyze) would involve the students physicalizing the shapes from the video as an entire group. This would permit the use of technology in a non-judgemental way because some students may have trouble watching the material on the smartboard and translating it to their own bodies. Next the students would have the opportunity to improvise based on the material that they had just learned from the smartboard. Now that the students have observed the use of choreographic structure and improvisation through the use of the smartboard, then had the time to learn the shapes off of the smartboard, as well as practice improvisation based off of the material, the students will be prepared for the third portion of the unit. The standard that aligns with this second section of the matrix in the spreadsheet is NJCCS 1.1.8.A.2 “Analyze dance techniques and styles to discern the compositional use of the elements of dance and choreographic principles relating to dynamics, as well as to discern spatial relationships.” The students will be able to discern the compositional use of the elements of dance when practicing and translating the movement from the smartboard. The strategies used in this portion of the matrix include listening/viewing, duplicating shapes, presenting shapes, and improvisation.

The third portion of the unit (Performance) would include the students being organized into small groups of 4-6 students performing a sequence of shapes learned off of the smartboard, then followed by improvisation based off of the smartboard. After the students work in groups they would then perform in front of the class while another group films them with a camera. This would promote the use of technology in a cooperative sense that would benefit another student. After all of the groups have had time to practice their choreography and improvisation and then filmed each other one at a time, they would be ready for the fourth portion of the unit. The standard that aligns with this second section of the matrix in the spreadsheet is NJCCS 1.1.8.A.4 “Integrate a variety of isolated and coordinated movements in dance compositions and performances, making use of all major muscle groups, proper body mechanics, body patterning, balance, and range of motion.” Students will be able to work on their dance composition when performing their material that they learned off of the smartboard. The strategies used in this section of the matrix was presentation of shapes, and presentation of improvisation.

The fourth portion of the unit (Assessment) would involve the students observing themselves performing the choreography and improvisation on the smartboard. The combination of the camera along with the smartboard is a great example of technology building off of each other in order to assist content area literacy. With dance education, assessment is mostly performance-based assessment. This is why every dance studio classroom has mirrors from floor to ceiling, which allows for dancers to self correct and assess themselves as they dance. Having students assess themselves when watching themselves on film on the smartboard is an excellent way to incorporate technology in a redundant process of self-assessment. The standard that aligns with this second section of the matrix in the spreadsheet is NJCCS 1.3.P.A.3 “Participate in simple sequences of movements”, as well as 1.3.2.A.1  “Create and perform planned and improvised movement sequences using the elements of dance, with and without musical accompaniment, to communicate meaning around a variety of themes.” These two standards allow students to assess themselves based off of their performance and representation of the choreography and improvisation that was filmed with a camera and presented on the smartboard. 

My final Technology Integration Plan can be found in the following link...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AnNK2baFHVzHdDl5TFpaODE2U2wyemtJQ01QaUhlZ2c&usp=sharing 

Social Media in the Classroom

When teaching dance of any genre, it is expected that the teacher will show some example or demonstration of what the technique "should" look like. For example, when learning a classical modern technique such as Horton and Graham teachers will show videos that have been produced for the sole purpose of demonstrating each exercise to perfection. 

In order to incorperate technology even further into my classroom, I would like to have my students bring in their favorite dance pictures that were found on social media apps such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Students will be able to observe these images and compare them to their own bodies as they learn more about dance techniques. 

The next step would be to have students take pictures of themselves outside of school attempting dance shapes or positions that we are working on in class. I would like to create a common hashtag like #7thgrademodern, or #8thgradeballet, that way all students in that class can see their classmates progress throughout the semesters. 

Assigning homework for dance classes is always a difficult subject because it is such a physical content area that requires more than written work. My hope is that this small physical task that can be done each day will have a great impact on my student's growth and development in dance. Also I think that students will truly enjoy themselves when taking these pictures and posting them under the hashtags for class. Of course the accounts will be monitored for prevention of cyber bullying but overall I do see these assignments unifying the students in positive, fun, and effective way. 

Remixed Canvas

       Remixing another colleague's canvas is a great idea and very useful tool of collaborative and cross-curriculum teaching. However, remixing the canvas was very tedious and frustrating. I was excited to collaborate and use another lesson's ideas and principles for my own lesson, however that excitement soon died out when I had to figure out a way to attempt to finish this assignment. The website continuously froze which made it very frustrating. Once I clicked the "remix" button all of the information vanished and only the template remained, which made it difficult remix information off of the original canvas. 

      All technological issues aside, I really enjoyed the final product of the remixed canvas. I chose Matt W's canvas which dealt with emotion within music. Since dance is another art form that relies heavily on the emotion found with music, I thought that combining emotion found in music with choosing music for dances. It is a difficult topic that has many different opinions attached to it, which makes this topic very important to teach to prospective dancers and choreographers. In the remixed canvas I showed some two different dances that rely heavily on the music that is being danced to. I find that showing successful dances that are able to portray emotion in a cohesive way, is a great tool to introduce this topic of music in dance. Also educating the dancers with classical musicians and contemporary musicians is an excellent tool to teach dancers that music has had an effect on dance over time and both should content areas should have a general knowledge of the other.

Here is a link to the remixed canvas...

http://www.play.annenberginnovationlab.org/play2.0/challenge.php?idChallenge=2677&mode=edit#network6