This is a film made by the West Riding of Yorkshire Education Committee showing their progressive practice on dance education for older children at primary school.  The film shows a group of boys and girls, aged about 11, from a school in Castleford doing various modern free dance exercises in the grounds of the local college of Woolley Hall. The film begins looking down onto Castleford before showing children out playing in the back alleys of the terraced housing.  Then children board a...

This is a film made by the West Riding of Yorkshire Education Committee showing their progressive practice on dance education for older children at primary school.  The film shows a group of boys and girls, aged about 11, from a school in Castleford doing various modern free dance exercises in the grounds of the local college of Woolley Hall. The film begins looking down onto Castleford before showing children out playing in the back alleys of the terraced housing.  Then children board a school bus with the commentator explaining that it is an old school, while many have moved to new housing estates.  The bus is taking them to the local college of Woolley Hall where they can dance outdoors in natural light.  Next the children are dancing and doing various acrobatics and movements in the grounds of the College.  The boys are wearing just black shorts and the girls just black swimming costumes.  One boy is focused on as he does dance movements.  A girl does more dramatic movements.  As we watch the group doing their physical movements the narrator explains that they are asked to move lightly on their feet, and to take their weight on different parts of their bodies as the children demonstrate these principles. Then they work in pairs, enacting the principles enunciated by the commentary, such as expressiveness, and later, the children make up their own movements in silence.  They spontaneously develop their own ideas on which to base their dance, with the children providing their own added sound effects.  They improvise to music, both as individuals and collectively.  They then do movements to “modern dance rhythm”.  This is followed by them doing movements to a Spanish rhythm and then to folk dance. Intertitle – Finally there are two dance dramas which the children have worked out with their teachers over a period of time.  The task of the teacher in work of this kind is not one of production but sensitive observation, guidance and encouragement.  This is the children’s own version of Halloween.  A story of evil spirits in the night, frightened villagers, Druids, and the Goddess of the Dawn. With a background sound of hooting owls and other animal noises, the children slowly get up as if at dawn.  Some of them perform a Druid ceremony while the others watch.  A girl carries a wreath which she offers to a tree.  A group of girls recite some words as they dance around and then the dance becomes more dramatic as they continue the pagan ceremony in the manner of early Stravinsky.  Some boys seem to be acting as sacrificial animals.  Three girls then appear to symbolise some kind of re-birth as the wreath is held high, while others die off. Intertitle – The chasing of Pau Puk Keewis They next enact a scene of Indian squaws and braves who are visited by a mocking Pau Puk Keewis (from Longfellow).  He is chased out of the village by the braves who return with his dead body.  The body is carried off in a funeral ceremony. Intertitle – What you have just seen will never be quite the same again.  With increased knowledge and experience and the introduction of new ideas the children constantly shape and reshape the way they develop a theme . . . And so there is continual change, development and growth throughout their work. This film has been produced with the help of the Elmgrant Trust for the West Riding of Yorkshire Education Committee. Peter Phillips Educational Media Producer, Writer and Voice Over Artist