Everyone can Dance
Kamusta bloggers! Today for Dance I will be sharing with you all some things you need to know about our subject Dance.
This term, we are learning how to work together and create a dance. Making/Creating a dance includes manaakitanga. (Here are some synonyms of manaakitanga to help you: hospitality, kindness, and generosity)
For our warm up this lesson, we did a Haka dance with the whole class.
If you don’t know, Kapa Haka is an avenue for Maori people to express their language, culture and heritage through song and dance. It occurs in both informal and formal settings — on marae and sports fields, at iwi, Maori, hapu and whanau events.
Kapa Haka can be competitive or non-competitive. It can be performed by any number of people, men and women, young and old. Music for Kapa Haka is primarily vocal and sung in Te Reo Maori (Maori Language.) And lastly, if you don’t know yet, Kapa means to stand in a row and Haka means to dance.
Here is some more information!
who? = Maori people
what? = Kapa = to stand in a row Haka = to dance.
where? = on marae and sports fields, at iwi, Māori, hapū and whānau events, in schools and education organisations, in community and business settings, and at Kapa Haka shows, events and competitions.
when? = the 1860’s
why? (why is it performed) = to provide a cultural connection for those separated from their culture by urbanisation.
how? = it involves choral singing, dance and movement connected with the hand-to-hand combat practiced by Maori in mainly precolonial times, presented in a synchronisation of action, timing, posture, footwork and sound.
Some other cultural other than Kapa Haka is the Filipino folk dance Tinikling.
Tinikling is usually performed using two bamboo sticks, two people who’s dance and another two people who will be having control of the bamboo sticks
Tinikling is performed by the bamboo stick being tapped twice on the ground on the first two beats, then brought together on the third beat. Two or more dancers then weave through the rapidly moving bamboo poles with bare feet and ankles.
Talking about cultural dances, where being inclusive is important, why is including everyone in Dance important? Some of examples of including everyone in Dance are letting them share their ideas, making sure that everyone is catching up and helping those who need more extra time with some skills, and lastly showing manaakitanga.
Why is showing manaakitanga important in Dance?
I think that manaakitanga is important in Dance because showing manaakitanga is being inclusive, kind to others who are struggling with some individuals skills and helping them, making sure that everyone is getting the chance to share what they have in mind, and showing manaakitanga in Dance doesn’t only mean having a good result but also getting to have fun not only with whom you’re familiar with but also with new people.
Dance in Musical
What is musical?
Musical is a play or film in which singing and dancing play an essential part. Musicals developed from light opera in the early 20th century.
Here are different types of musical:
- Book Musicals are the most traditional form of musical theatre, featuring a clear narrative structure with the songs and dances advancing the plot and character development. Examples of book musicals include classics such as “West Side Story” and “The Sound of Music,” as well as more recent hits like “Hamilton”.
- Operettas are lighter, more comedic musicals with a focus on music and dancing. The best example of this type of musical is “The Pirates of Penzance”, which tells the story of a young pirate apprentice and features catchy tunes and witty lyrics.
- Revue Musicals feature a rock music score, often with edgier themes and subject matter. Examples of rock musicals include ” Rent,” which explores the lives of struggling artists in New York City, and “Spring Awakening”, which deals with adolescent sexuality rebellion. The best of this type of musical is “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which tells the story of the last week of Jesus’ life and features a classic rock score by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Why is there dance in musicals?
There’s dance in musicals because through dance, it expresses the characters feelings and thoughts. It also helps tell the story and expresses the unspoken mood of a song, and makes a good transition in time or places.
Final Blog; What we learned
What did we learn this term for Dance?
What we did for the first two weeks in our dance lesson is learning how is Manaakitanga connects to dance. Which we wrote our thoughts/answers to a blog post. The second topic that we did was why is there dance in Musical. Before we wrote our answer what we did was watch some musicals which have some movements in them, and there, we write our answers which can also be found in our blog posts. There are also lessons where we learned some cat movements and also performed them in groups in front of our classmates. We also watched some cultural dances, learned a thing or two about them and also performed them.
We also watched some bands perform some music for us, which I really enjoyed. We were also given the chance to watch some of the performances that were included in the Show Quest.
Overall, we had a pretty short lesson since this term only lasts for 9 weeks. But in that 9 weeks, I really enjoyed this subject and it really helped me build more confidence with nonperforming dances.
