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"##$%&&&&& '& Aubry Dalley Elizabeth Christianson English 311 9 November 2013 Creative Dance and the Advanced Dancer Creative dance has had several foci, most with the over arching goal of benefiting children. In fact, no matter what the focus, creative dance contributors who branch out beyond the concentration on young, novice dancers are difficult to find. Perhaps the most influential of all contributors, Anne Green Gilbert uniquely applies creative principles beyond the scope of children in her work, Creative Dance for All Ages [my emphasis]. Therein, Gilbert provides valuable insights on teaching children, seniors, and non-dancers, but only minimally addresses how creative dance may be specifically applied to teaching young/mid-adults and advanced dancers. This hole in creative dance application has been maintained by most creative dance scholars and advocatesfrom efforts such as fighting for a place in the public education system and providing integrated lesson plans for classroom teachers to simply enhancing the world of dance overall through increased creativity. Despite these listed efforts, creative dance is not as wide spread as traditional methods of teaching dance; therefore, it may be ambiguous for dancers and non-dancers alike. Although a flexible term, this discussion refers to creative dance not as a genre of dance but as a pedagogy, which according to Gilbert combines the mastery of movement with the artistry of expression (3). In concurrence with Gilbert, most creative dance experts offer that the recipe for this combination requires a unique lesson plan organization through which students explore movement concepts by making choices under the guidance of a teacher rather than by rote

!"##$%&&&&& (& repetition of steps (see table 1). Learning movement in this way leads to many unique outcomes including confidence, individuality, respect for ones body, problem solving, and decision making, to name only a few. This is in direct contrast to the typical way many dancers (especially at the advanced level) are taught, which tends to merely emphasize visual outcomes. Such outcomes may include dancers moving in exact unison, leg height reaching a precise angle in extensions, or students strictly following the steps and dynamic qualities demonstrated by a teacher. Without denying the significance of such results, a dance environment that primarily values visual outcomes deprives advanced dancers of further meaning in their dance education. Creative dance offers that level of depth for experienced dancers, proving that just as the outcomes of creative dance are valuable to novice dancers, advanced dancers too thrive in an environment where creative principles are emphasized.
Table 1 General Class Structure for Childrens Creative Dance Class Gathering and General Warm Up 5-7 minutes Welcome Warming the body Connecting the mind Preparing and focusing for coming lesson Introducing concept or overall idea Skill Development Qualitative technique (15 minutes) 25-30 minutes Developing and refining qualitative development of skill through practice. Primary consideration of the developmental attributes should be paramount. Locomotor skills (15 minutes) Developing and refining locomotor aspects of moving through practice. Primary consideration of the developmental attributes with clear sequencing. Creative Activities Give specific yet open ended instructions. 15-20 minutes Not too many choices. Encourage exploration, improvisation, creation and observation. Provide practical opportunities to make choices and problem solve in a variety of ways. End of Class Closure 5 minutes Cool down Goodbye Source: Sheffield, Kathleen. Class Structure. 2013. Chart. n.p. Print.

!"##$%&&&&& )& Perhaps one reason why creative dance has failed to extensively reach adult, advanced populations is due to a misconception that children are more creative than adults, therefore they are more apt to utilize this gift. To the contrary, Stephen Dollinger and Stephanie Dollinger found that as age increases, individuality and uniqueness becomes even more dominant. Dollinger and Dollinger asked adults ages eighteen to fifty-four to create personal photo essays, each containing twenty pictures that they felt best represented their individuality (229-230). After being rated for originality, personal richness, and creativity, surprisingly the essays with the highest ratings overall belonged to those of the older end of the age spectrum (Dollinger, and Dollinger, 235). This evidence confirms that creativity increases with age, suggesting that adult populations would actually respond positively to creative dance instruction. The personal creation and exploration involved in creative dance pedagogy naturally lends itself to adults increasing individuality. Still, it is not only age that suits advanced dancers for creative dance pedagogy; contrary to some beliefs, the capacity for creativity and expression of individuality also increases with dance experience. Both experienced and less-experienced dancers were involved in a study done on EEG alpha activity of the brain, which has been linked to creative capacity and right-brained thinking (Fink, et al.). In the study, the novice and professional dancers imagined themselves performing an improvisational dance (movement with broad boundaries and no specific steps) and then a structured piece, such as a waltz (Fink, et al., 856). While mentally performing the regimented steps of the waltz, both groups exhibited similar EEG alpha activity, yet the group of professional dancers demonstrated much higher right-brained, creative activity during the mental improvisation than that of the novice dancers (see Figure 1) (Fink, et al., 860). Although it was not specified whether the dancers in this study were engaged in creative dance classes, this study

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Figure 1 Task-related changes in EEG alpha band power (TRP) in the upper alpha band (1012 Hz) during performance of the dance improvisation task, the waltz task and the Alternative Uses task separately for professional dancers and novices. Blue regions in the maps indicate increases in alpha activity relative to rest, red regions unchanged activity or even decreases. F: frontal; FC: frontocentral; CT: centrotemporal; CP: centroparietal; PT: parietotemporal; PO: parietooccipital. Source: Fink, Andreas, Barbara Graif, and Aljoscha C. Neubauer. "Brain correlates underlying creative thinking: EEG alpha activity in professional vs. novice dancers." NeuroImage. 46. (2009): 854-862. Web. 10 Oct. 2013.

shows that advanced dancers already posses an aptitude for right brained thinking and exploration of creative concepts through movement. This aptitude makes advanced dancers a prime audience for creative instruction, contrary to the present focus on novice dancers. Truly, if creativity increases with experience, advanced dancers likely will respond positively to creative dance methods.

!"##$%&&&&& +& Aside from misconceptions on creative ability, possibly the greatest misunderstanding about advanced dancers is that they gain all the positive outcomes of creative dance simply because dance itself is a creative endeavor. Unfortunately, creative dance outcomes are not inherent in any dance instruction. In fact, Thomas Hagood finds from his experience as an associate professor that his students enter the collegiate level with advanced technique but are novices in creativity and personal expression (34). For example, aside from struggling to choreograph and improvise, dancers may be unable to comprehend movement kinesthetically and are therefore left to understand dance merely as steps copied from an instructor. Additionally, while the philosophy of creative dance inspires utmost respect for the body, Hagood laments that his advanced dancers fail to catch that spirit; The body is experienced not as a vessel for living, for understanding and appreciating . . . but as an objectified advertisement; a machine or tool (34). The reason for these negative aspects is clear: Hagood observes that numerous dance educators fail to offer holistic training, providing superficial instruction rather than delving into dance as an art form (36). Dance educators are not effectively using their disciplines scope and substance to counteract the corroding forces of a relativistic and narcissistic popular culture. Instead, their work is often reactive; shifts with the tides of local pressures for products . . . (Hagood, 36) These examples make it clear that traditional pedagogy is lacking. Not every dance experience provides students with creativity and the positive outcomes found in a true creative dance class. A major assumption about creative dance is that its outcomes are elementary and therefore more applicable to novices; however, these basic outcomes yield precious results even for advanced dancers. One such result is an understanding of movement that extends beyond the superficial copying what the teacher demonstrates, or following what Nicole Harbonnier-Topin

!"##$%&&&&& ,& and Jean-Marie Barbier call the typical demonstration-reproduction model (301). In this traditional dance class pattern, an experienced teacher demonstrates movement and the students are expected to imitate it, generally without variation, creativity, or personal choice (HarbonnierTopin, and Barbier). From their research, Harbonnier-Topin and Barbier find that this method is not the only approach nor always the best choice for successful learning (321) . . . A method involving increased student responsibility and involvement seems to be the remedy as student involvement increases student investment in movement concepts. When the dancers are the source of the movement (or at least partial sources) accompanied with side coaching from an experience instructor, they gain an understanding of what they are doing beyond what it looks like. Students begin to understand movement kinesthetically, emotionally, personally, and academically. For example, the teacher may ask the students to respond through movement to the word suspend or may actually demonstrate a dance step (such as a turn) then ask the students to manipulate this movement by performing it fast, slow, low to the ground, off-balance, etc. In both examples, students spend less time replicating and more time creating, feeling, analyzing, and exploring for themselves. They transform from dancing copy machines into educated, intuitive artists, able to make informed decisions about movement. A deeper understanding of movement also provides dancers with greater emotional health. Harbonnier-Topin and Barbier also find that many students (novices and advanced dancers alike) experience negative emotional reactions to the traditional demonstrationreproduction model. Analyzing advanced dancers in this mode, Harbonnier-Topin and Barbier recorded that the feeling of powerlessness regarding their capacity to master the movement performance was expressed by several students . . . Other students admitted they were not able to do the movement the way the teacher showed it and expressed their dissatisfaction or frustration.

!"##$%&&&&& -& They express a strong sense of failure and a self-disparaging attitude about their ability to learn (319-20). In contrast, students of a creative dance class develop confidence as they instead execute personally created movement. Even when teaching specific steps, creative dance instructors teach only the necessary information and then allow students to expand the ideas on their own, leading to increased confidence and positive feelings of themselves. Dancers are not held to a standard of how well they can reproduce; rather, they are held to their own standard of personal creation. For this reason, Gilbert offers, it is an activity that increases, rather than decreases, self-esteem (4). Even more personal to advanced (and even professional) dancers, another outcome of creative dance is achieving what Kate Hefferon and Stewart Ollis, call flow. Flow is described for advanced dancers as entering a calm state of being, or a zone, while executing their greatest performances and personal bests (Hefferon, and Ollis, 141). Enjoyment, intrinsic motivation, confidence, positive thinking, and absorption in the task are all markers of flow (Hefferon, and Ollis, 148-150) and incidentally are all significant elements inherent in the creative dance philosophy. In fact, confidence is considered the most important prerequisite to achieving flow and (as discussed) is equally important to emotional health. Getting into flow also requires movement that dancers feel is natural and comfortable to their body (Hefferon, and Ollis, 152). Because they often create their own movement, creative dancers may generate and adjust movement to fit their natural movement style, eliminating many roadblocks to flow in this way. Perhaps the most significant roadblock reported is negative relationships with directors, fellow dancers, and choreographers (Hefferon, and Ollis, 154). When dancers do not feel positively toward those they work with, their ability to achieve flow is decreased. Whether creative dance teachers are striving for flow or not, their pedagogy requires loving, personal

!"##$%&&&&& .& interactions with all students. A creative dance teacher disciplines lovingly and strives to eliminate competition and comparison. This is done through a responsibility to not only correct students but also give praise. Teachers verbally call attention to every students individual gifts, inspiring appreciation in each student for each student. When free from negative relationships and other distractions eliminated through creative dance, dancers are open to flow and greater heights in performance.
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The higher level of experience and understanding in sophisticated dancers does not justify reducing the quality of their education. While advanced dancers may be more tolerant of traditional pedagogy than novices, creative instruction still unlocks many unique rewards for experienced populations. The key to gaining such benefits is straightforward for dance educators: simply, begin by applying Gilberts (and other creative dance advocates) techniques literally to all ages [my emphasis]. Gilbert suggests, Activities must build upon each other to create a meaningful lesson, one that entertains and educates, and that reaches all learning styles (24). Specifically, she advises that the best way to do this is for creative dance educators to choose an overarching concept (from the elements of dance perhaps) to create a theme for the lesson and each activity (24). This helps teachers to avoid planning dance lessons based solely on copying skills for visual outcomes and lends itself to guided exploration. By applying the principles of creative dance instruction, advanced instructors empower their students through more effective learning and performance. Clearly, advanced dancers are both capable and in need of achieving these outcomes; it is now up to advanced teachers to bravely apply this philosophy.

!"##$%&&&&& /& Works Cited Dollinger, Stephen J., and Stephanie M. Clancy Dollinger. "Individuality in Young and Middle Adulthood: an Autophotographic Study." Journal of Adult Development. 10.4 (2003): 227-236. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Farrer, Rachel. "The creative dancer." Research in Dance Education. (2013): 1-10. Web. 24 Oct. 2013. Fink, Andreas, Barbara Graif, and Aljoscha C. Neubauer. "Brain correlates underlying creative thinking: EEG alpha activity in professional vs. novice dancers." NeuroImage. 46. (2009): 854-862. Web. 10 Oct. 2013. Gilbert, Anne Green. Creative Dance for All Ages. Reston: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, 1992. Print. Hagood, Thomas K. "Values and Voice in Dance Education: The Merit of Fostering Tradition, Experiment, Diversity, and Change in Our Pedagogy." Arts Education Policy Review. 108.2 (2006): 33-37. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. Harbonnier-Topin, Nicole, and Jean-Marie Barbier. "How seeing helps doing, and doing allows to see more": the process of imitation in the dance class." Research in Dance Education. 13.3 (2012): 301-325. Web. 9 Oct. 2013. Hefferon, Kate M., and Stewart Ollis. "'Just clicks' an interpretive phenomenological analysis of professional dancers' experience of flow." Research in Dance Education. 7.2 (2006): 141-159. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

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