Blue Mountains Steiner School students performed a specially-choreographed dance piece at the school’s recent spring festival.
Sixty students from years one to six worked with artist-in-residence and teacher, Julie Humphreys.
Having returned from the Dance And the Child International (DACI) Panpapanpalya conference, held in Adelaide this July, Ms Humphreys came to the project with refreshed inspiration for dancing and choreographing with school-aged children.
“There is a strong pull to integrate more of the arts into all areas of the national curriculum,” she said.
Local Darug elder, Jacinta Tobin, has given the Hazelbrook school a waratah flower totem, which inspired the dance. Ms Humphreys worked with the children to create the 10-minute choreography; practicing improvisational techniques, contemporary choreographic skills and gestural motifs.
“The children have been discovering new ways to move their bodies in space, both in relation to themselves, other movers and gravity,” said BMSS teacher Steph Cassin. “Their confidence has visibly grown over the course of the residency, having practiced new movement pathways and textures with their bodies. They have definitely had lots of fun, even the more reluctant members of the groups.”
