Dance in SchoolsEventsHoliday ClubsSpring into Holiday Clubs
The Holiday Activities and Food Programme, often known as the HAF programme has meant there are lots of holiday clubs taking place. The criteria of the HAF programme means that dance is a perfect activity for the children and young people who attend.
We were delighted to take part in hundreds of hours of holiday club dance sessions over the summer and even more excited to be invited back for the holiday clubs at Christmas.
Over the past few weeks it has been holiday club time again and TRS Teachers, Lara and Kirstie, talk about their experiences here.
To find out more about these two holiday club providers please click on their names to get to their websites.
🤘The Rockstar Experience🤘
I had the best time at The Rockstar Experience today! We took a trip into all things 80’s bands.
We started off looking at some video examples of live band performances, pointing out every part of the band, and taking in some moves we liked the look of.
Next, focusing on ‘power poses’, deciding on possible signature poses for our band, we looked at each role, and how they might move. I saw some awesome guitarists, drummers, lead singers and backing singers performing!
Then we explored classic moves, used in live performances, such as the fist pump, knee slide and head banging, whilst creating our own movement motifs from these actions. Some of our own moves even made their way in, complete with cool names including, ‘the karate kick’ and ‘the glass shatter’!
To finish we used moves from each group to create some back up singer choreography, that we performed together to the chorus of ‘Never Gunna Give You Up’ by Rick Astley!
Watch out world, you’ve definitely got some new Rockstars on your hands 🎸😎
Lara 🤘
“I love that you exposed the students to a variety of different genres” – Teacher at Salmelstone Primary
“Your playlist is absolutely awesome” – 12 Year old boy.
“That was the most I had ever seen the older students join in” – Tom, Inclusive Sports Founder.
“She really loved that, thank you so much” – Parent who stayed to assist their child during the workshop.
Inclusive Sport
I had the most wonderful time teaching some Inclusive Sport workshops in Whistable and Margate this holiday.
My chosen theme across all of the sessions was of course Easter. However, I adapted my lesson plans to suit the ages ranges of the children who were participating.
Once our younger groups had warmed up, they took part in a dance inspired Easter lucky dip. I filled plastic eggs with a variety of different dance moves including the conga, the floss, frog jumping, great vines, hopscotching and a freestyle movement using a scarf. They took turns choosing an egg at random from the basket. I even set a timer for some of the challenges which motivated our dancers even more!
For our older and mixed age groups I wanted to give them the opportunity to get creative, so I extended the warm up by encouraging them to come up with 5 different stretches to warm up the body. Working our way from our head to our feet. They enjoyed being in charge and all got involved in creating some fantastic ideas. To encompass the theme into this exercise I ensured my playlist was filled with spring and Easter songs which were a huge hit in all groups.
In our older groups, we had some students in the room who initially weren’t excited by the idea of a dance workshop. However, I managed to pique their interest by playing an Easter version of Popcorn Dance. We used a beach ball and pretended it was a giant Easter egg. We passed the ball down the line and created a movement with it before passing it back. This actually created lots of giggles and laughter. It was wonderful to see so many of the coaches getting involved too.
All of our groups then had the chance to work on their rhythm and musicality by using the egg shakers. These actually fit perfectly with our theme and the dancers loved them! For our younger students, they practiced copying and following along to a variety of different rhythms and movements. Whereas our older groups came up with their own, and wow their creativity was absolutely incredible.
Once we had all completed a variety of movement and dance games. I wanted to take the dancing to the next level. I used a Tik Tok trend called “Bad Hair Day” and instantly every group got excited. Some of our older students new the trend, whereas some of our younger dancers had heard it from their grownups. We all learnt the trend and performed it to our coaches and teachers.
For a fun treat I then got all the teachers and coaches up to perform it and let the students watch them. We were all laughing and having a great time!
The highlight of my workshops was most definitely seeing those who initially weren’t excited getting up and moving. Everyone left with a smile on their face. Especially me, because I had the best time! 😊
Kirstie