Dance Curriculum Toolkit

Title of Resource: Why I Can't Not Dance! The Men of NDEO and ADTA

 

Target Audience: Anyone

 

Description of Resource: This video dives deep into the souls of men who live to dance and can't imagine their lives without dance! These men are of all different ages and express their love of dance through some words and a lot of movement.  The men explain they dance... to "discover myself and all the parts of me", "because my heart expects me to", "because I do it with love", "because it feeds my sole", "because I can", "because it is my heart", "because dance Is my therapy", "to express my whole self", "because I was forbidden to", "because I am supposed to", "to express myself when words cannot say it", "because it makes me feel alive", "because I can’t not dance", "just cuz", "because it’s physical", "because g-d gave me the talent", "because I love movement and rhythm", "because I want to", "because I like to move", "because it was my only home".  All of these reasons they dance could easily match or resemble high school students reasons for dancing.

 

Appropriateness for High School Students: I think that this activity is appropriate for high school students as they are at the age where they can understand and identify with a choreographic piece such as the one shown in the video.  By the time students are in high school, they will have unfortunately, been exposed personally or witnessed bullying in their lifetime.  

 

Use of Resource in Classroom/Ways to Implement this Resource in my Classroom: I would use this video to supplement a lesson related to gender roles in society or dance.

 

Strengths of Resource as a Teaching Tool (Purpose, Value, Uniqueness, Positive Aspects):  I think that this video sends a positive message to all students, not just male, about standing up for what you feel passionately about!  It encourages students to find positive ways of expressing themselves and for those students who do not like to speak their voice; they can find ways to express their feelings through movement. 

 

Possible Modifications to Resource (Weaknesses, Limitations, Supplemental Resources):  As much as I believe this video has a positive message for young adults, I do think it is limiting for educators in terms of "where to go next?"  I think this should be used in conjunction with another gender related lesson to supplement that lesson.  It is possible, given the right demographic; to expand on this video by developing a group piece of choreography that expresses "why the students dance".  The reason that I don't believe that would work with every class is because some students will most likely still be resistant to the idea of dancing and the creation of a dance about "why they dance" may be overstepping a comfort boundary with students.

 

Resource Citation: "Why I can't not dance!" men of NDEO and ADTA dance. (2014). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/hmG5Iz1NpQI

National dance education organization. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.ndeo.org/