WEEKLY DANCE AND THEATER JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT

Each week you will be expected to write in your dance or theater journal. Your journal submissions should be a combination of reflections and ideas.

Reflections	Ideas
A reflection describes your thoughts and feelings about something you worked on in class.	An idea describes a moment of creative inspiration you’ve experienced. Your ideas may occur in class or outside of class.

What a Reflection DOES NOT look like:

-          A three page rant about a group member (or members) that did or said something to irritate you in class or outside of class.

-          Complaining about a dance/scene and/or assignment/project you don’t like.

-          A plea to be advanced to the next level.

-          A plea to be moved to a different group.

…you get the idea, right?

Your reflections and ideas are personal to you. More often than not, one will prompt the other. Meaning, maybe you did something in class that gave birth to a new choreographic/improvisational idea. Or, maybe you had this really cool idea, but pursuing it requires additional practice/development of skills to execute it successfully.

Your journal should be your personal inspiration portal. Write in it as often as you like (make sure you date each entry). If you are extremely creative you may find yourself writing in it every day. You are required to write at least one entry per week.

*one entry = one page

JOURNAL SHARE-OUT DAY

Every Thursday we will have Journal Share-Out Day. You will be asked to swap your journal with another classmate, read the entries in the designated week and select one to share-out. Once everyone has shared-out, one idea will be selected by the class collectively and that idea will be worked into the lesson plan for the following week.

Journal specifications – Purchase a book/diary style journal. A composition notebook would work too. Your journal will be handled often, so loose pages (spiral bound) will fall out over time.

Journal Prompts

What should I write about?

Dance

Theater Arts

-          Cross curricular ideas involving curricula in more than one educational subject Are you doing something similar in another class? Did what you learned in the other class inspire you to enhance what we are doing in our class? -        Drawings/descriptions of spatial transitions and formations Do you think your idea is better than mine/your classmates? It might be, tell us about it! -          Written responses to choreography, technique, projects/group work -          Dance Principles Refer to chart (Elements, Structures, Designs, Devices, Relationships)

-          Cross curricular ideas involving curricula in more than one educational subject Are you doing something similar in another class? Did what you learned in the other class inspire you to enhance what we are doing in our class? -          Drawings/descriptions of physicality, choreography and blocking Do you think your idea is better than mine/your classmates? It might be, tell us about it! -          Written responses to scene work, acting fundamentals, projects/group work -          Acting Exercises (Games, Improvisation)