Joint movement

A material can be made of wood, metal, stone, plaster, clay, wool, or paper, and depending on its composition, it will possess different qualities such as hardness, malleability, fragility, weight, or lightness. Similarly, movement can also have different qualities, and in this lesson and the next two, I will discuss some of these qualities and how to introduce them in the classroom through various exercises in a progressive manner.
In this short video, I present joint movement. Its main characteristics are rigidity, straight lines, abrupt movements, stops, and, if we consider the gaze, it shifts from side to side, changing position suddenly, “in fits and starts.”
To introduce joint movement, it is first necessary to work on making children aware of what joints are, where they are, what function they have and what they are called, and obviously to experience their range of motion and the limitations they present.
This lesson consists of two parts: in the first I explain exercises to work the joints and, in the second, I show the activity I call “the robot”, whose objective is to experience this type of movement quality.
Regarding the recommended age, it can be adapted to all levels, although at school we make this proposal in the initial cycle and, from this base, in the following cycles we expand this quality of movement through other proposals that I will explain in future installments.
I propose some materials that help introduce this type of movement quality, such as sheets of the human skeleton, an anatomical skeleton that they can manipulate, or articulated wooden dolls of the kind used in plastic arts.
I have applied these contents for 20 years within the framework of a unique center project, linked to dance and movement, in a public school of early childhood and primary education in Vallès Occidental, more specifically in Sabadell.