talking-dancing-howling-walking-whispering-spiraling… Learning English while performing a dance score from the 1970s
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Date
2025
Authors
Benoit, Agnès
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Publisher
Department of German, University College Cork
Published Version
Abstract
“Moving Words in Space” is an artistic and teaching practice based on a dialogue between dance improvisation and language learning. I have been developing this teaching approach with adults for the last twenty-five years, but I have also used it with children to teach English under the name “Jump’n Turn”. In this contribution, I retrace the developmental stages of “Moving Words in Space”, before describing how I use performance scores to introduce children to the English language through “Jump'n Turn”. To illustrate this process, I use “Scramble” (1970), an exercise and performance score originally created by the American dancer and choreographer Simone Forti. The tasks are extremely simple yet have a strong pedagogical potential. I explain how I guide young children through the activities so they can experience language fully through movement while performing a score that was created during the development of postmodern dance in the United States.
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Keywords
Dance , English learning , Performance , Arts-based language education , Dance improvisation , Movement , Performance score
Citation
Benoit, A. (2025) 'talking-dancing-howling-walking-whispering-spiraling…: Learning English while performing a dance score from the 1970s', Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning, Research, 19(1), pp. 96-108. https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.19.1.6