Dance me to the end of class
Students learn respect through movement
|
|
Ashley Hensel-Browning teaches dance and movement in Springfield on Thursday. She is traveling to schools and studios throughout New England with the purpose of building community through dance. Vyto Starinskas / Rutland Herald |
Toolbox
By JOSH O’GORMAN STAFF WRITER - Published: November 14, 2009
SPRINGFIELD — Thursday afternoon, students in Alyson Bull’s fourth-grade class stood in tightly knit clusters, laughing as they leaned on each other and pulled on each other’s hands and feet. This was no ordinary roughhousing, but a lesson in community building and respect.
The class was led by 23-year-old Ashley Hensel-Browning, who teaches dance and movement in schools and studios throughout New England, and for the next week she will be visiting classes at Park Street School.
Although there was music playing in the background, it was more to set a good mood than to mark time as pupils stumbled their way through a set of prescribed steps, because the lesson was less about traditional notions of dance and more about teaching the children how to treat each other.
“The idea for me is to build community through dance,” said Hensel-Browning, who studied community development at Hampshire College and received a master’s degree in education from Harvard. “You don’t necessarily need words to connect with people. You’re showing a different part of yourself, which can be intimidating at first, but it can also help you open up.”
Hensel-Browning split the children up into groups of four and instructed one pupil in the group to make a “shape”— meaning contort his or her body into any pose — while the other children struck poses close to, but not touching, the first.
“I think of it as community building. They have to work together and be aware of each other,” said Jan Rounds, a Park Street guidance counselor who in past years has invited yoga and tai chi instructors to the school.
The exercise also builds upon the school’s theme of the month: respect. After a few minutes of moving around each other but not actually touching each other — respecting each other’s space — they repeated the exercise, but this time actually made contact. Surprisingly, this does not turn into the wrestling match one might expect with 8- and 9-year-olds. Instead, the students treat each other as they would like to be treated.
Taking a break from forming body clusters, they embarked on another exercise of moving their bodies to form a human chain stretching across the classroom.
“These guys have gotten to the point where they’re starting to bicker with each other, and this is making them work together,” Bull said as she watched her pupils react to each other’s choices of how to best form their human chain.
Following the lesson, Hensel-Browning, a graduate of Springfield High School, reflected upon what the lessons mean to her and why she came back to Springfield.
“It makes you realize that what you think isn’t possible is possible. I came from a small, rural town and now I can make my living in dance,” she said. “I wanted to give back to a community that gave so much to me.”
josh.ogorman@rutlandherald.com
28