Sharing, Learning and Exploring First Nations Cultures through Dance
Introducing REDed’s New Look Dance Curricular Program
REDed is thrilled to be launching our new look Dance Curriculum Programs for 2024, with a lens on First Nations Cultures through creative movement practices, processes, and learning outcomes to support PDHPE syllabuses K-6 and 7-12, and The Arts K-6 (Dance) syllabus. REDed is proud to collaborate with Bangarra Dance Theatre – an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation and one of Australia’s leading performing arts companies, on this next iteration of REDed, integrating First Nations approaches to learning into our existing curricular programs. So what changes can teachers expect in 2024, and why has Founder and Head REDed, Dale Pope, chosen to enhance REDed’s programs by drawing on more than 65,000 years of indigenous cultures? Read on to learn more and what we can offer your school this year.
What to expect from REDed’s Curricular Programs in 2024
If you’re familiar with REDed’s curriculum aligned dance programs, in 2024, you can still expect the same highly engaging and inclusive dance experiences for students and teachers alike. What’s changed though is our enhanced focus on exploring, learning and sharing through movement based storytelling. Through this approach, students and teachers can access individual and personal connections to the self, community and country – something that sets us apart from other school dance programs. This approach is organically woven throughout each lesson using verbal and visual stimuli as starting points for individual and group creations, with additional classroom support provided to teachers to enhance the individual’s experience.
“The current model is very collaborative, but this elevates us in a way that accesses the emotional and imaginative intelligence of the child, and they share that with us in a way that allows us, as educators, to learn as well. It elevates our program to an equal playing field of sharing and learning where we are still facilitating the space to grow that but we are participants in this as well.”- Dale Pope, Founder and Head REDed
Our delivery will include a movement based, land connected Acknowledgement to Country; movement exercises that explore First Nations ways of living, being and sharing; and dedicated individual/group storytelling creations in relation to specifically created Australiana themed routines (such as Plants, Mountains, Animals, Community, Weather). These extra elements to our school programs run alongside all of our wonderful REDed winners that have always been in our programs to support curriculum alignment and delivery. While still adhering to the dance curriculum for ACARA (Australian Curricular, Assessment and Reporting Authority) and NESA (National Education Standards Authority – NSW), the new look program also allows the student to take the lead where self-expression and evolutionary storytelling is invited and welcomed, rather than simply a finished product that remains stagnant.
Why are we enhancing our program with a First Nations lens?
As someone who is passionate about understanding and respecting our oldest living cultures, Dale sought to find out how and where REDed could access information on First Nations delivery through dance. Despite being a curriculum requirement, Dale was surprised at the limited amounts of supportive information available, so rather than wait for an ‘advisory board’ to be created to support what the curriculum was requesting, she decided to seek industry knowledge herself that would provide REDed with an ongoing growth and learning opportunity. Enter Bangarra Dance Theatre, who have generously shared with us such beautiful aspects that we now understand have no beginning, no end and are eternal.
“My biggest takeaway in journeying with REDed to pioneer in this area is that the teacher is a student, the student is a teacher, and together we share, we explore, we learn, we pull apart, we rebuild and so on. And that sits beautifully inside how I see REDed as an ever evolving company of curiosity, open mind and open heart. Together.” – Dale Pope, Founder and Head REDed
The relationship with Banagarra Dance Theatre
REDed is honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with Bangarra Dance Theatre on an ongoing basis to ensure respectful alignment with First Nations information. Dale and the REDed artistic team have been working together with Bangarra since July 2023 and have deeply engaged in curious discovery; the result of this research and discussion is a valuable new aspect to our Curriculum Program.
“From our very physicalised experiences of Bangarra’s Professional Development, we have genuinely felt what the students are going to receive.” – Dale Pope, Founder and Head REDed
REDed is committed to continually exploring the depth and breadth of First Nations learnings with Bangarra regularly throughout the years to come, and is excited to take students and teachers on the first chapter of this journey in 2024.
“It’s going to be a real work in progress to ensure we are stepping lightly and respectfully with the First Nations lens. We will continue to evolve and tweak and re-design 100% alongside Bangarra forevermore.”– Dale Pope, Founder and Head REDed
Enrich the knowledge and understanding of First Nations Cultures through dance, and enquire now about our 2024 Curricular Programs!
