The Brain Dance!

November 30, 2017

The Brain Dance

For my very last lesson, teaching experience with the Arts Bridge program, I decided to leave my cute kindergarten class with teaching them the “Brain Dance”. The Brain Dance was created by Anne Green Gilbert to help students connect their brain or “wake up the brain” through a series of movement exercises/patterns that healthy human beings naturally move through, to help them with daily life. It has been said “moving through these patterns at any age, daily or weekly while sitting or standing, has been found to be beneficial in reorganizing our central nervous system… repeating these patterns over time may help us fill in any missing gaps in our neurological system due to birth trauma, illness, environment, head injury or even not enough floor time as a baby.” As you can see, as teachers, we should be trying to incorporate these simple movements into our teaching to best help the students succeed.

There are eight exercises or principles used to for the Brain Dance which include; Breath, Tactile, Core-Distal, Head-Tail, Upper Lower, Body Half, Cross Lateral and Vestibular. As I pondered and prepared for this lesson, I thought it would be really neat to see how the kindergarteners react to these specific exercises and I hope they can remember them and use them in the future. It has also been said that “the Brain Dance may be used as a warm-up for any physical or cognitive activity; before tests, performances and presentations; after sitting for long periods of times; as a break during computer work and TV watching; and to increase energy and reduce stress. It is a centering body/brain movement tool for brain reorganization, oxygenation, and recuperation. The Brain Dance prepares us for learning and helps us with appropriate behavior and social skills.” For more info on the Brain Dance, please visit https://www.creativedance.org/about/braindance/. This website does a great job explaining what the Brain Dance is and how it is beneficial for our students.

To begin the lesson, I reminded the dancers our rules and how if we want to have fun, we need to be great listeners! After I knew they were all ready, I had the dancers move out into the space and stand tall and frozen like a statue/solider. One by one, beginning with Breath and ending with Vestibular, I lead the dancers through the eight principles of the Brain Dance. They did such a wonderful job listening and following instructions! Once they were familiar with each one, I lead them through all eight again, but this times using the drum going through each exercise for 2 sets of 8. I noticed how the students enjoyed Vestibular, as they got to move through the space by spinning and then of course ending with a few bounces. On the other hand, I saw how Body Half and Cross Lateral were challenging for the students due to those two exercises being stationary rather than traveling through the space.

Due to time, we only had a chance to go through all eight with music once. As I lead them through I enjoyed watching those students who got into the movement and had a fun time exploring multiple ways they could complete each principle. I wish I could have let them explore a little more and I would have invited them to pick their favorite or maybe even put a sequence together of their own! I wonder what they would have done to complete the task at hand. If I would have had one more lesson this next week, I would have gone back and reviewed then taken the chance to build off these eight principles and maybe we could have created a dance! But, I guess I can keep these thoughts in mind for the next time I teach the Brain Dance.

Overall, I feel the Brain Dance can be taught to any age group. If the teacher does a good job catering the movement to that age group, this lesson could be very successful! I loved using this lesson for my last time with these cute kids! I felt like it gave them a great sense of exercise they can do to help with their daily lives, as well as ending on a positive dance note. I really hope these kids enjoyed dancing with me as I’ve enjoyed dancing and teaching them. As I left, I had a handful of kids jump up and give me hugs goodbye and I could tell they enjoyed their dance lessons. Of course, their cute love and support made me feel great and now I have a sense of satisfactory as I’ve completed this challenging opportunity to be a part of this amazing program. I’ve really enjoyed my time teaching and being able to learn and hopefully I can remember this experience forever.