Lesson Plan
FORCE Author: Anna Mansbridge, Creative Dance Center, Seattle Age: 7 - adult Length of lesson: 50 minutes. This lesson is written for a remote class but can easily be adapted to in-person teaching.
1. Warming-up (Teacher-directed) BrainDance: Alternate single and multi focus: Breath - single, Tactile - multi, Core-Distal – single, Head-tail – multi, Upper - single, Lower – multi, Body-Side – single etc Suggested Music: Gradual Motion by Peter Jones, #6,“Perpetual” Introduce the Concept: “see, say, hear and do” Focus: single, multi, internal, external, serial (BCDE, 2nd ed., pg. 100)
2. Exploring the Concept (Student-centered) Single Focus and Multi-focus (BCDE 2nd ed., pg. 106) ABC Suite A I will call out an object in the room. Focus on that object, and I will call out a locomotor skill to dance to that object. B We will keep focused on that object and dance a nonlocomotor skill in self-space. C We will dance multi-focus, viewing objects in a scattered manner. Then I will call out a different object to focus on, and we will repeat the ABC structure. Examples of locomotor and non-locomotor pairings: sneak/twist, grapevine/rise & sink, roll/wiggle, leap/float, dart/stretch & bend etc. Suggested Music: Music for Creative Dance, Vol. 1-5, Potpourri Reflection: Which focus do you use the most in your day, single focus or multi-focus? Free dance demonstrating the focus you use the most.
3. Developing Skills (Teacher-directed) a. Feet in parallel: bend & flex right foot to ball, flat. Repeat. Flex foot, toe reach, flex, flat foot. Extend foot to the front (tendu), close. Tendu, bend knees weight on both feet with forward bend of body, tendu and close. Float to a rise and lower. Do right & left. 16 counts free dance multi-focus general space. Turn legs out to first position and repeat above to the front, 16 counts improv for recuperation, then to the side, and back. 17 19 Suggested music: Joyful Noise by Andy Monroe, Vol 2, #6, “Theresa”
