SEL Corner: Social- Emotional Learning in the Dance Classroom

SEL Corner

Social-Emotional Learning in the Dance Classroom

by Rachel Swenson

Editor’s note: With this issue we inaugurate a column on SocialEmotional Learning (SEL). daCi member Rachel Swenson has been researching SEL as a doctoral student at Teachers College and using it as a pedagogical framework in her work as a dance educator in Idaho. Each column will focus on one of the five domains in SEL and will offer an example of a dance activity to put it into practice.

Dance is an ensemble art form and uses social processes, yet social and emotional learning in the dance classroom is under-recognized and under-utilized. What better place to teach social-emotional learning than by moving and creating together in the place we call the dance studio? After two years of reviewing the current literature on SEL in dance education, I see a need for dance educators, with the help of dance students, to bring light to the connections between dance and SEL awareness and skills. Many dance educators do deliver different aspects of SEL in their everyday teaching practice. My hope with these columns is to uncover and center even more opportunities for SEL in dance pedagogy.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has been a leader in SEL for over two decades. CASEL defines SEL as “recognizing and managing one’s emotions, developing caring and concern for others, establishing positive relationships, making responsible decisions, and handling challenging situations constructively and ethically. ” The five social and emotional competency domains identified by CASEL are self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.

Just as dance skills are dynamic, developmental, and reflective, so are SEL skills. SEL can occur in a number of learning activities in the dance studio,

such as students taking inventory of bodies before warming up, reflecting on strengths and weaknesses in technique class to set goals for improvement, dancing in unison with peers as a unified social interaction, sharing newly generated movements with a partner as a way of effectively communicating embodied ideas, or creatively problem solving with peers to complete a dance composition.

Here’s a class project that relates directly to the domain of self-awareness. It is a poetic identity mapping activity inspired by the poem “Where I Am From” by George Ella Lyon, former poet laureate of Kentucky.

Begin by asking the students to listen to George Ella Lyon reading her poem at georgeellalyon.com/audio/where.mp3. Then share the template (see page 9) which retains the structure of the poem but leaves space for students to fill in words and phrases, and create metaphors about their own lives.

After they have filled in the poem, there are many possible directions to go. The students can create a solo dance based on it, or they can choose one line. from their poem to create a movement phrase that can be layered with other student’s movement phrases to create a group “Where We Are From” dance. Consider co-creating a motif for the “I am from” refrain that can be repeated by all dancers throughout the dance. Encourage students to generate small gestural movement as well as large motor movement.

The finished poems can accompany the dance as a narration or they can be spoken by dancers during the dance. There can be a poetry gallery that the audience views before and after the dance performance. One idea, for building empathy between peers, is to have the student writer read their own poem aloud while other students improvise and embody the poet’s story. As well as developing self-awareness the students can build social awareness through recognizing and identifying the thoughts, feelings, and perspectives of other students and recognizing and appreciating the similarities and differences in the group.

Rachel Swenson is a dance specialist at Idaho Fine Arts Academy and a dance teaching artist for the Idaho Commission on the Arts and the Utah Arts Council. She is pursuing an Interdisciplinary specialization as a doctoral student within the Ed.D. Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include social-emotional learning and social processes in collaborative choreography, and cognitive processes in creativity, as well as other areas. 8

Inspired by “Where I Am From” by George Ella Lyon

Where I Am From

I am from ___________________ (specific ordinary item), from ______________________ (product name) and ____________________(product name). I am from the _________________________ (home description) ____________________________________________________. (adjective, adjective, sensory detail). I am from the ____________________________________ (plant, flower, natural item), the __________________________________ (plant, flower, natural item) ___________________________________________(detail of natural item) I am from _________________________________ (family tradition) and __________________________ (family trait), from _____________________ (name of family member) and _________________________ (another family name) and ____________________________ (family name). I am from the _______________________________ (description of family tendency) and __________________________________ (another one). From ________________________________ (something you were told as a child) and __________________________________________ (another). I am from __________________________________________(representation of religion, or lack of it) _____________________________________ (further description). I'm from __________________________ (place of birth and family ancestry), ______________________ and ___________________________(two food items representing your family). From the __________________________________________ (specific family story about a specific person and detail), the ____________________________ (another detail), and the ________________________________ (another detail about another family member). I am from ___________________________________________ (location of family pictures, mementos, archives) ________________________________( indicating their worth) and __________________________________________________ (also indicating their worth). I am from ____________________________________________________________________ (memory of childhood) and _____________________________________________________________ (another) I am from ___________________________ (one word adjective describing family)

Lyon, G. (n.d.) . George Ella Lyon Writer and Teacher. Retrieved January 30, 2021, from http://www.georgeellalyon.com/where.html