Dance is
B.E.S.T. DVD & Resources
Marilyn Berrett
Dance is B.E.S.T. Director
Brigham Young University
Premiered at the 2006 Dance and the Child
International Conference
in The Hague, Netherlands
SEEING – HEARING – FEELING and DOING:
Developing Dance Teaching Resources that School Teachers Keep Asking For
Experienced and novice teachers in general education
have been asking for dance teaching resources for years. After observing the
power of dance for his 5th grade students during a dance residency, Mike Johnson
at Taylor Elementary in Payson, Utah said he “was sold,” he wanted to include
dance as a creative process for all his future students. But he expressed that
even though he was an experienced classroom teacher, he was a novice dance
teacher. He needed resources to remind him what to teach and more important how
to teach dance, and teach it well. He said, “These written dance lesson plans
are great, but if you would just video tape all of your dance lessons – I could
review what the class looked, sounded and felt like before I try it myself – I
would remember better the essential how-to’s of each dance class. I could watch
the video, then go and teach dance to my students with much more confidence.”
Mr. Johnson’s request and many others like it, encouraged the development the
“Dance is B.E.S.T. DVD,” a teaching resource with the capacity to keep
increasing in value through it’s connected website and continuing updates and
additions.
The Dance is B.E.S.T. DVD is an easily navigatable teacher resource which
includes footage of several complete creative dance lessons taught to 3rd, 4th,
and 5th grade students at Rees Elementary in Spanish Fork, Utah. Each lesson
demonstrates essential dance content as outlined in both national (U.S.) and
state (Utah) core curriculum standards. As the lessons develop, text-overlay
points out best practices and essential “how-to’s of guiding children to move,
investigate, create and connect to dance experiences as participants, creators,
and spectators. As the children are guided to express themselves in and through
dance the observant teacher watching these videos is reminded of the strategies
and methods that need to be employed as they teach. The DVD also includes a
short documentary-style explanation of best practices in teaching dance, a link
to the danceisbest website for updated definitions of the national and state
dance standards, additional printable written versions of the lesson plans, and
a variety of downloadable music selections that can be used for each lesson.
If we truly desire to increase opportunities for more young people to experience
dance as creators, performers, and spectators and if we want to encourage
inclusion of dance in general education, we need to give classroom teachers what
they are asking for: resources that help them see, hear, and feel what a
creative dance class can be and then the tools, encouragement and confidence to
teach dance themselves using best practices. The Dance is B.E.S.T. DVD
represents this author’s response to meeting these needs.
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