Dramatic And Characteristic Games Dances

Author : Caroline Crawford
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781518728020
Total Pages : 88 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (28 download)

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Download or read book Dramatic Games and Dances for Little Children written by Caroline Crawford and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-21 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the introductory: THE EVOLUTION OF THE DRAMATIC GAME AS AN ART FORM In the introduction of games as educational material, there has been, until quite recently, no serious study of the different kinds of games so far as meaning, form of expression, and use are concerned. In all the grades above the kindergarten, most of the games have been introduced through the gymnasium, as new modes of exercise. Fortunately, the so-called dramatic game does not offer either the kind or amount of activity to make it generally attractive to the teachers who must give "so much exercise in fifteen minutes." The result has been that the games of skill have gone into the gymnasium as appropriate material, while the dramatic games have been discarded. Almost the only exception to this has been in the case of the folk-dances, and the unfortunate thing in their gymnastic introduction, is the tendency to take the more common and vulgar forms, because the standard of judgment is not for the thought expressed but for the "motor activity." As long as the dance was a decadent art, it could not be expected that it would at first be given serious attention as an art-form. Education is, however, beginning to follow the trend of the creative thought of the present, and the interest in the three united arts, - the dance, music, and literature will cause them to develop, educationally, through their proper channels and in their related forms. The earlier classifications of the dramatic games have been: -the form or manner of playing, the subject of the game, and the kinds of exercise for the body. Just to imagine studying dramatic literature under such an assortment of topics reveals the situation in which we find ourselves, educationally, in attempting to reinstate these earlier arts. Under the third heading-exercise of the body, the prize would surely go to "comic" opera because there is so much "motor activity" in that form. In attempting to present this small collection of dramatic games and dances built on another classification and for another purpose, there are several important points to be noted before the art-forms of the little child will have much significance for us. So long as we judged the child's art-product by adult standards, we were inclined to say that the little child was "artless." Not until we hunted out the beginnings of highly evolved activities did we realize that the child is an artist at an early period of life. His constructive tendencies lead him to build in forms which differ from the most complex arts, in degree only. When we study what actions he puts together to build his plots; how this plot is "whole and complete" out of his experience; how yesterday's plot may not satisfy him today, because a new fact must be added to the older group, even though all the relations have to be changed to do it.... But the signs and symbols which represent these actions that he relates in the plot are somewhat different from our developed forms. A little child's language for artistic construction is a composite. It is made up of actions, tones, words. Sometimes the three forms are very clear and definite, but usually they are fragments put together as best they serve the purpose. The important thing is that children begin relating, organizing, composing their experiences into wholes long before the complex symbols we adults use, are mastered. The first plots are told with the actions that accompanied the experience; soon, however, the child uses only the emphatic or vivid parts of such acts; and he accompanies this gesture or pantomimic action with all the tones and words he can get; and uses objects such as tally-sticks to help him keep the incidents in mind. But how does he relate these experiences into wholes? Is he, as some writers on play contend, quite free in his world of relationships, or does he experiment to find ways--laws that are those of all art-form?