Rhythm and focus activity in the classroom

What do we learn?

In this tip, I’ll explain an exercise focusing on rhythm, concentration and direction, which I recommend for students from upper secondary level onwards; naturally, it also involves work on body positioning and postural control, which form the necessary foundation for any practice.

This exercise was devised by Pina Bausch, a dancer, choreographer, contemporary dance teacher, and director of the Tanztheater in Wuppertal. She is a cult figure in international dance, and perhaps the most important of the contemporary era. Born in 1940, she was a student of Kurt Jooss.

This proposal allows us to observe and evaluate different aspects that should be made explicit to the students. Once they master the exercise, a peer evaluation can be carried out in pairs, where one person performs the exercise and the other observes and evaluates using a rubric.

The implicit content in this exercise is:

-Laterality

-Rhythm

-Look and focus

-Address

-Weight shift for turning

-Concentration

-Placement and postural control

I share the items I use in the upper cycle for the co-evaluation rubric, taking into account that in Catalonia achievement is not a quantitative but a qualitative grade, where achievement is graded from not achieved to excellent.

	Solid Excellent	Notable Solid	Satisfactory Solid	Not Solid
FIXED GAZE-CONCENTRATION (looking straight ahead, towards the horizon, and focused, without speaking)	Maintain concentration and a steady gaze throughout the exercise.	They are almost always able to maintain a steady and focused gaze.	Sometimes they lose concentration and their gaze becomes absent, or at some point they get distracted.	They have difficulty focusing their gaze or keeping it on the ground, they seem distracted during exercise and cannot concentrate.
POSITION (good body alignment, spine well aligned, chin slightly tucked in, feet firmly planted on the ground, arms and face relaxed)	Maintains good posture throughout the exercise.	Overall, you maintain good posture, although there are some aspects that need improvement. Which is it?	They struggle to maintain good posture throughout the exercise, although at first they are able to position themselves correctly.	At the beginning and during the exercise, they continue to show poor postural control.
ACCURACY IN EXECUTION (number of steps, rotation, rhythm)	The execution of the exercise is precise: the correct steps are followed, the rhythm of the music is maintained, and all turns are performed correctly.	The execution of the exercise is precise, following the correct steps in time with the music, but it fails in some turns.	Shows some difficulty in keeping up with the rhythm, performing some turns correctly, or completing the appropriate number of steps.	The turns are not performed by pivoting on the back leg; if this is not done, they do not follow the rhythm of the music or the steps are lost.