Course Ideas and Strategies for Teaching Dance at Key Stage 3.

Provider Laban Centre for Movement and Dance (www.laban.org).

Venue Laban Centre, London, June 21 2002

Cost pound;50 paid by my school.

How did you find out about it?

I’ve been on the mailing list for a while.

Why go?

I’ve got a real interest in dance, though no proper training, and I wanted to catch up with some contemporary dance issues.

What did it promise?

“Warm-up ideas, small motifs and sequences and advice on how to develop them and be creative.”

Did it deliver?

It took us through everything from music for warm-ups to using difference, pace and dynamic. We also learned to adapt visual stimuli, stories or themes into dance sequences.

Highs and lows It was good working with a group, exploring contact through dance. It helped me see things from the children’s point of view when I ask them to work together. Also, the resources were fantastic. But I had to give up a Saturday, which might put some people off.

Message, mantra or motto Contemporary dance can be accessible, it can embrace everyday things and show them in a new way.

Best advice I enjoyed the exercises that took unexpected stimuli for dance - a poem or a picture of a footballer scoring a goal, for instance. It means people of all abilities can get dancing.

Has it made a difference?

I’m launching our dance programme next term, and it’s given me loads of ideas and the confidence to use dance creatively.

Coming your way?

Laban offers short and term-long dance courses for beginners and more experienced dancers. Details on its website or from the education and community department, tel: 020 8691 8600.

If you’ve been on a course that others should know about email

jill.craven@tes.co.uk