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More video's showing Koonung Creek in the creative response.

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Assessment 2 - Music, Movement and Dramatic Arts

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Tree with the sunlight filtering through

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Tree with the sunlight filtering through

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In my creative response, the sun was sending me a code through the trees as it flickered, telling me where to go. However, the sun isn’t sending me some special code through the trees. The trees were moving around from the wind and it created a flashing effect as a branch crossed over the spot where I was looking at the sun. When I was looking around the area where I was doing my country visit, I tried hard to listen deeply to my surroundings. Reading Miriam-Rose Ungunme’s “Inner Deep Listening & Quiet Still Awareness” (2017, p.2-3) highlighted to me the importance of listening, so I could connect to my surroundings in order to expand my imagination and complete this task. While focusing on listening, I heard a rustling and looked up to see a beautiful tree moving in the wind. Without having focused on the sounds around me, I wouldn’t have thought to look up and experience the light filtering through the trees. Watching this play on light reminded me of the activity we did in class in session 3 “Drama in Your Immediate Environment” where we looked at how light plays in our environment (Bao, 2023).

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What a beautiful noise a magpie makes! Luckily, I was able to capture the bird singing a few times within my creative response video. Within this response, I said the magpie was telling me the direction I needed to go to find the treasure. Of course, this was not actually the case. The magpie singing, reminded me of a quote from Murray Schafer’s “Listen” video (2009), “The world is a huge musical composition that’s going on all the time”. There were so many beautiful sounds to focus on in the surrounding area of Koonyung Creek. This was a place I had never been to before. However, it was not just a visit, but an experience and I could feel the place with all senses. I feel a connection to this place now. The magpie calling also reminded me of Victor Wooten’s “Music as a Language” Ted Talk (2013). The magpie communicating with the other birds around sounds so musical. It reminded me of Victor saying that it’s not about getting everything perfect all the time it's about ‘what you have to say’. The magpie isn’t conscious of getting the perfect notes every time, ‘we were born musical’ including the magpies and birds!

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By this point in my experience, I was starting to get more imaginative with my artefacts and creating the story. I saw lots of vines creeping up the pine trees and imagined they were ladders climbing up the trunks. Whilst recording the video, I heard a weird noise coming from someone’s backyard. I decided to make the ladders a trap, and the noise a warning to stay away. Creating drama in this way reminded me of reading “The atelier: a conversation with Vea Vecchi” where Gandini highlighted the importance of imagination in order to “renew them (and renew ourselves) through a sense of wonder”. This is something, despite my job, I don’t do enough. I think we lose the ability to imagine as we get older. However, I am able to imagine when I read, so I am still able to practice this occasionally.

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What a beautiful sight, the wonderful colours and the shiny silver paint that was used. It is a shame though, that someone has graffitied this wall without permission (I’m assuming) when it could have stayed a natural colour. However, concrete is already unnatural. To be honest, I am quite torn on my response to the graffiti. In this case, it’s the back side of a wall where not many people walk. It did also add a great ending to my story in the creative response! On my country visit, I approached the wall and felt how bumpy it was, the paint had created a smoothness to the bumpy rocks jutting out from the wall. I was able to connect to the area by using my sense of touch and sight. Visually, the wall was sparkling from the sunlight reflecting off the rocks on the walls creating drama. This is where I got the idea for the wall to be the treasure. I really enjoyed this quote by Gandini in ‘The atelier: a conversation with Vea Vecchi’ saying “to benefit fully from opportunities, we need to ensure that our senses, and our curiosity, expectations and interests, are kept constantly alive”. This is what this experience has done for me. Initially, I was hesitant in coming up with a creative response to my surroundings, I was unsure if I could create something interesting. It is a shame that I feel this way towards using my imagination and when trying new things. However, I came home feeling alive and happy. I had fun on my adventure! As Victor Wooten said, “Allow the student to keep the freedom”, and that’s what this task has done.

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When I approached this fenced-off area in the creek, I was already in full character. I was on an adventure in a magical world looking for treasure. As soon as I approached the area I instantly thought: there’s a fence there to protect us from something, perhaps a crocodile or some kind of monster. So that became part of the story. This reminded me of “The Parallaxis: a game of walking between worlds” (2017) by Jessica Kilby which we played in class. I was just doing the real-life/in-person version of the game. I was seeing what fit into my story of events and using my imagination to create a game.

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How this will inform your future practice in early childhood education settings?

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How this will inform your future practice in early childhood education settings?

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I think the main takeaway from this task for me is to do more open-ended activities. I thought I was doing this in my practice, but upon reflection, open-ended activities should be the only activities I provide. For example, not singing a song with specific actions that the children should follow exactly without any creative input.

I would also like to put in place more activities as a group including drama, meditation or place-thought walks. Activities where the children are encouraged to slow down and focus on their senses.

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Bao, R 2022, Session 3: What is drama?, lecture notes, Music, Movement and Dramatic Arts ECE2008, Victoria University, delivered 27 February 2023.

Gandini, L 2012, ‘The atelier: a conversation with Vea Vecchi’, in C Edwards, L Gandini & G Forman (eds), The hundred languages of children: the Reggio Emilia experience in transformation, 3rd edn, ABC-CLIO, LLC, pp. 303–316.

Schafer, M 2009, Listen, National Film Board of Canada, online video, viewed 22 February 2023, <https://www.nfb.ca/film/listen/>.

Ungunmerr, M 2017, 'Inner Deep Listening and Quiet Still Awareness', Miriam Rose Foundation, pp. 1-4.

Wooten, V 2013, Music as a Language, TEDx Talks, online video, viewed 20 February 2023, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zvjW9arAZ0>.