Dance Africa
After a demanding winter term schedule, I decided to treat myself to African Dance this spring. As I surveyed the room I realized I was one of two women old enough to be everybody else's mother. While it was evident that not everyone was a dance major, that's a nonmajor's assumption and fear on the first day. This was not going to be a class where one could easily hide on the back row and never be noticed.
Careful planning, good pacing and a developmental progression allowed all of us to learn the fundamentals. I realized as the pace of the learning picked up, that we were being taught to keep moving even when we were not always sure what to do. Sometimes the whole idea or feeling of the dance was more important than the specific steps.
As we progressed the instructor introduced the idea of improvisation and paired us up with instructions to "make up" a 32 count dance of our own. Besides the fear of feeling I wouldn't be able to choreograph a dance, I felt the terror of the inevitable - performing in front of the whole group!
My partner and I worked together and chose three simple steps that we could both execute successfully and quickly. My heart pounded as I waited for the instructions to come to the front of the auditorium and DO IT.
Instead, we were asked to join another pair and combine our dances. After that we combined with another group of four. With shared ideas and responsibility the improvisations became, well - fun. I felt an enormous sense of relief. I turned my attention from worrying to collaboration, a lot of laughing, and an appreciation of the people in my group who were - with the exception of a few dance majors - people just like me who were taking the class to learn about African dance.
Eventually we did perform in front of the rest of the group. By that time we couldn't wait to show off what we'd created together.
Lizard 4 Spring 92
Address questions or comments about
TEP or this site to:
Georgeanne Cooper, Program Director,
64 PLC
Phone: 541-346-2177 Fax: 541-346-2184
© Copyright 2000-2006 Teaching Effectiveness Program, University of Oregon.
Last Modified:
05/22/08
