Jane Syder's Blog

New Intermediate ISTD Tap I have just come back from the new Inter Tap course with one of my former teachers Heather Rees. What an inspiration she is!  The syllabus is incredible.  The younger girls were really picking up the new work quickly and it was taking my old knee injury and my brain somewhat longer.  But you find that rather than just learning the work you are contemplating the teaching of it.  I loved the sequences and slides!!  Day 2 is to come.  Looking forward to the turning steps. Having taken my Adv 2 and Associate Tap and National both with Heather Rees I realise how fortunate I was to have her as my mentor and teacher.  The new work features some of the Advanced steps and the build up from the new grades.  I am yet to learn the Grades 5 and 6 and realise there are a few gaps in my learning where paddles and around the sides are concerned.  It makes you realise the importance of the 'build-up's' and for children ...

Different genres and their relevance today? How important is it for you to uphold the 'tradition' of a particular genre in your Practise? Different styles, how they originated is interesting. Whether the dance was created for religious purposes, rituals and how the steps relate to 'actions' i.e planting seeds, ringing bells to rid evil spirits etc is quite fascinating and gives 'meaning' to the steps and dance as a whole.   The National Dance Syllabus (ISTD) covers many different dances from around the world.  How they 'came to be' and their influence in new choreographic pieces is apparent.  Many of these dances were just performed at a social occasion to celebrate the harvest and such like. How relevant is tradition in what we teach now? How many young children would be interested in learning some of these dances? How could we inspire them to do so? What newish genres have evolved in the past 30 years?  Hip-Hop, Bollywood, ...

Rhythm is in our Lives How has the rhythm of your day impacted upon your teaching?  If you've been rushing about trying to drive the children to school and catch up on admin, etc how does this effect your teaching?  Do you bring the rhythm of your day into the studio?  How do you manage stress? Or are we always able to switch hats and our professionalism kicks in? Is it important for our participants to see the 'perfect us'?  The perfect us that we always feel we have to present - the performance?  Does it start the minute we step through the door? Or can they realise that we all have pressures and responsibilities and we are in fact human? After watching and listening to the wonderful Liz Herman I have been wondering about how my experience at home and at the 'studio' growing up has shaped me as a teacher and communicator.  I think the plastic self protective shield struck a certain chord.  I think I was brought up in a strict...

UNIFORM I am interested in how you all feel about Uniform?  Do you insist on the set ISTD/RAD regulation uniform for classes? Are all children comfortable wearing it? My consideration is for the child who may be 'self-conscious' already.  Insisting on tight fitting leotards and soft flowing skirts, can this be off - putting for some children wanting desperately to dance or perhaps feeling uncomfortable with their bodies?  One little girl said to me she "I don't like Ballet, I don't want to be a 'fairy"!  I think it's a shame that some little girls see Ballet only in this way partly by the image a uniform might project. How does uniform impact upon the child.  Does the 'image' decide which genre they want to learn?  If we dressed 'Ballet' up in Baseball Hats and t-shirts would more children sign up?  Is Hip-Hop more attractive because you can wear jogging pants? Are we able to be flexible on this?  Do we need to rethink the im...

'Give the child a Voice'  they aren't our puppets or trophies. I was very interested to hear George talk about how dancers at HE level seemed reluctant to try anything for themselves as they have become used to this 'spoon fed' culture expecting to be told what to do mainly because the teacher is always telling them what to do! This troubled me as I know we need to find our innovative choreographers for the future so we need to educate our young dancers to think creatively. This put me in mind of my childhood learning to dance when my teacher would stand at the front and we would be expected to watch, listen copy practise and learn.  We weren't able to speak at all.  Perhaps we got more done.  I realise that dance is a discipline and group cohesion is necessary, but don't believe this has to be forced.  I think you can engage children by including them and using methods they relate to, to keep them interested.  What do you th...

for the REFLECTIVE JOUR NAL Description A 2yrs - 4yrs dance class at their Primary School in a large school hall which took place yesterday morning from 9am until 9.40am.  There were two girls and ten boys.  Three other members of the kindergartens staff joined in with the children helping them with taking their socks and shoes off and repeating my instructions. Looking back, I felt content and reassured that the method I used had worked and was effective for 10/12 of the children!  I felt I needed to put more work into understanding the two other children.  One little chaps disruption was not unexpected, but there was a definite improvement in his behaviour from previous classes. I felt in a 'play moment' and concentrated on the age of children and gave careful thought to what they could identify with. List Three addition staff members from the kindergarten. music worked from CD player. one child with limited hearing due to glue ear in both ears...

IDEAS FOR FRAMEWORK? One person counts and dot to dots connect with many shaping pictures and artwork for the critic / the novice   Wordless language then lifts away from the page, resonates motivated through sound, the pace pitch music projects encompassing thoughts, emotions and actions expressly embodied for individual interpretation -   supporting our childsplay immersed within memories of bright blue skies, beaches, snow or things unspoken gone by.   BANNON (2010)   intellectual, physical and sensorial response to experiences of the world. There is silence, stillness and then the feelings rekindle, continue, we sense the mood changing within us and have our private or shared reasons for this is personal . KURT LEWIN (1951) Model of Change.   Unfreeze, Change, Freeze.   (DEWEY social implications of the the Arts).   Timing shared moments felt from carrier to receiver.   (DEWEY active creator and passive recipient?).   Passin...

I am really enthusiastic about linking dance to drama and exploring plays / stories that can be converted to either dance only or a combination of the two disciplines (but not musicals). I admire the innovation of the Northern Ballet Theatre http://northernballet.com and Christopher Gable for their interpretations/adaptations of plays and stories to dance form. I remember being transfixed particularly by 'The Christmas Carol' many years ago and draw on my early childhood when dancing the role of The Little Matchgirl. I line of inquiry I'm interested in is exploring regional accents, culture and words to create something originally expressive and new. I am also really enthusiastic about the joining together of different dance forms and ideas. Such as The RiverDance - riverdance.com with Irish and Tap and Tap Dogs - www.tapdogs.com, with percussion and Tap. I would love to look further into exploring rhythms naturally used in language, life & communication as well as...

Hi everyone. I am looking into how to keep a regular journal and how this will enhance reflective practise. This has made me think over situations that have arisen whilst teaching and how this has impacted upon the learner and in turn how this has altered my perspective. Life has always been so busy that often there hasn't been time to think in depth about some situations but I think in a way I have evolved without really realising. So, I suppose this what experience is. How are you all thinking about organising a journal and have you managed to read any additional material yet? I am keen to get started on Dewey, Levin, Kolb, Schon and Kottcamp and see what conclusions I can draw from this. Jane