Dance and theatre are two areas that are extremely important for comprehensive development of the child. Activities related to dance and theatre help the child to relax and acquire a number of skills, abilities and knowledge. Dance dramatization is a way to connect dance and theatre into one unit. To this end, we could compare the process of creating a dance dramatization with the process of producing a theatre performance.
The purpose of the thesis is to conduct a case study and then monitor the creation and development of a dance dramatization of the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats in a group of preschool children. The thesis is empirical. It consists of a theoretical and an empirical part. The theoretical part first provides the characteristics of dance education in preschool and then focuses on the typical features of dance, theatre and literary education in kindergarten because the three areas are closely related to dance dramatization in the preschool period. The theoretical part concludes with a brief explanation of the significance of participation and cooperation in creating a dance dramatization. As regards the empirical part, we observed a group of children in the process of creating a dance dramatization of the fairy tale The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats. We wanted to determine whether it is possible to complete the dramatization in a certain time frame so that the children could present it to other groups and also capture it on film. Moreover, we examined the influence of the dance dramatization on cooperation and arrangements made between the children, their creativity, identification with individual roles, becoming acquainted with animals, and cooperation in the entire creative process. We were particularly interested in whether participation can be used to create a dance dramatization so that the children will grasp it regardless of their personal abilities and gender. The research sample involves 22 children attending the Velenje kindergarten. They are from five to six years old. The research results suggest that all the children, leaving aside their age and gender, are able to grasp a dance dramatization lead by an adult in a certain period of time. However, some differences in motivation were observed, especially with regard to the popularity of some of the roles. The findings also indicate that participation yields better results than detailed guidance provided to the children.
|