Exploring the senses through dance in the first years

Gibanje je človekova primarna potreba, ki jo moramo spodbujati že v najzgodnejših letih. Že kot novorojenčki s svojim telesom odkrivamo svet in z njim komuniciramo. V svojem diplomskem delu sem se osredotočila na plesno ustvarjanje malčkov. Le-to na začetku temelji na usvajanju osnovnih gibanj, ki jih postopoma nadgrajujemo in povezujemo z elementi plesa – s časom, energijo in prostorom. Na začetku teoretičnega dela je opredeljeno in analizirano gibanje. Ker je gib v tesni povezavi s plesom, sem opredelila razliko med njima ter opisala elemente plesa. Na kratko je opisan tudi ples v preteklosti in danes, kar sem povezala z lastno izkušnjo. V nadaljevanju sem opisala pomen plesnih spodbud za ustvarjanje, ključne razvojne značilnosti malčkov, čute in čutila, njihovo razvitost v najzgodnejših letih in teoretični del sklenila s povezavo med čutili in plesom. V empiričnem delu je predstavljena praktična povezava med plesom in čutili. Opisanih in evalviranih je pet dejavnosti – pri vsaki je v ospredju raziskovanje enega izmed petih čutov. Izvedla sem jih v skupini otrok, starih 2–3 leta. Z dejavnostmi sem predstavila nekaj primerov, kako s plesom spodbujamo raziskovanje čutil, in z izvedbo ugotovila, kako se malčki na tovrstne dejavnosti odzivajo, kako jih doživljajo in kaj jih je najbolj spodbudilo k plesno-gibalnemu ustvarjanju. Čeprav potrebujejo malčki veliko zunanjih spodbud, sploh pri raziskovanju čutov, so se na spodbude zelo dobro odzivali, s telesom komunicirali z mano in s sovrstniki ter bili kreativni po svojih zmožnostih.Movement is a human’s primary need, which we need to promote from the earliest years. Already as newborns, we discover the world through our body and communicate with it. In my dissertation I focused on a toddler’s dance creation. At the beginning, this is based on the acquisition of basic movements, which we gradually upgrade and connect with the elements of dance – time, energy and space. In the beginning of the theoretical part, the movement and its analysis are defined. Since movement and dancing are closely related, I defined the difference between them and described the elements of dance. The dance in the past and today is also briefly described, which I linked to my own experience. Next, I have described the importance of dance incentives for creation, key developmental characteristics of toddlers, the senses and the sense organs, their development in the earliest years and concluded the theoretical part with the connection between the senses and dancing. The empirical part describes the practical connection between the senses and dancing. 5 activities are described and evaluated – in each of them the research of one of the five senses is in the forefront. I performed them in a group of children, aged 2–3 years. Through the activities I presented some examples of how we encourage the exploration of the senses through dancing and through the implementation I found out how toddlers react to such activities, how they experience them and what stimulated them the most to dance-movement creation. Although toddlers still need a lot of external incentives, especially when exploring the senses, they responded very well to incentives, communicated with me and their peers with their bodies, and were creative to the best of their ability