Creating Critical Thinking Dancers:
What is important?
What challenges did you face today in dance class?
What new goals are you finding for yourself?
Find one objective that describes how you danced today? Explain what you were doing when it applied.
Have you identified new strengths and weaknesses in yourself? (can be worked into a particular unit/lesson objective, concept, skill, etc.)
What did you learn today?
Why is it important that we...?
What do you think the point of...is?
What are some solutions to...?
How could you improve...?
What do you already know about...? And what questions do you have about...?
Name a concept you worked on in class today and why it is important.
Which of the exercises today was most difficult for you and why? How might this be different another day? What an you do to overcome the difficulty?
How could you modify something that is challenging you so you can make progress at your own pace?
Write about 1 correction or bit of feedback that was shared today and how it helped you.
Explain something you learned today from observing others go across the floor.
Write about something that surprised you today in class and why.
Describe one combination or exercise from class...using reference to the elements of dance, terminology, and proper core engagement and alignment.
Draw a map of the combination we did today
Draw a picture of yourself dancing.
Liz Lerman’s “Toward a Process for Critical Response” Critique Sheet…
Step One: AFFIRMATION and POSITIVE COMMENTS
Identify at least one thing in the work that you noticed. It might not be the coolest thing you’ve ever seen but you need to be honest (i.e. it caught your eye, made you say “huh”). Be specific! Say WHY something interested you and not that it was just “cool” or “good”.
Step Two: ARTIST AS QUESTIONER
The creator/choreographer asks questions – clarify their work and find out what needs to be cleaned more thoroughly. The choreographer should ask about specific areas of their work to get more direct and concise feedback (i.e. NOT “how did you like it?” BUT ask “when we do the turn in a canon, how might we be able to make it appear more smooth to the audience?”).
Step Three: VIEWERS ASK QUESTIONS
Now, the audience/observer asks questions to the choreographer. For instance, one might ask, “why did you choose to use the steps at different levels?” instead of saying “I liked how you used different levels in that section.” By asking a question instead of simply forming and stating an opinion, the choreographer is forced to evaluated and further critique his/her own work.
Step Four: OPINION TIME
NOW, is when the observer/audience member may ASK PERMISSION to state an opinion. An example might be “I have an opinion, may I state it…it might help you work out the counts in this section….why don’t you try turning on the even counts (i.e. one dancer turns on 1,2 the next on 3,4 until you reach the 8th count everyone will have something to be doing).” Always use a positive approach…the key is that we are trying to assist one another and help make the best pieces possible by stimulating the artistic flow of ideas and precise measures of performance. We don’t want to make a decision for the choreographer but we do want to help facilitate their perfection of work.