Education Combined With Creation:A Study On Children’s Dance Education By Cao Errui

Cao Errui,the famous children’s dance educator and choreographer in Henan Province,is an icon in the history of children’s dance education in Henan Province.Since her teaching for forty years,she has created more than thirty popular children’s dance works and has cultivated a large number of country-wide dance talents,making great contributions to the prosperity of children’s dance education in Henan Province and even China.Taking Cao Errui’s children’s dance education as the main research object,this paper digs deep into the course,content,system,teaching methods,teaching characteristics of Cao’s children’s dance education and her major contribution through collection of historical materials,analysis of works and oral interviews,discussing her educational view featuring “Education Combined with Creation”.This paper consists of three chapters.The first chapter introduces three major stages of education exploration of Cao’s children’s dance education.This chapter sorts out the three major development stages of Cao’s children’s dance education in chronological order: the establishment of education ideal(1978-2002),the development of teaching and creation(2002-2016)and the maturity of educational ideas(2016-2020).In these three stages,she established the ideal of children’s dance education,then gradually developed her own educational view,and formed mature educational content and teaching methods.The second chapter introduces the basic system of Cao’s children’s dance education.This chapter discusses the main content of Cao’s children’s dance education including comprehensive physical training,“childishness-oriented” choreography class,and dance performance featuring “aesthetic education”.Taking physical training as the base point,Cao Errui help children with comprehensive physical development and her dance creation,including selection,image capture,structure and design scenario,is characterized by“childishness”.Besides,she instructs students to perform dance on the basis of sound physical expression ability to realize the aim of spiritual aesthetic education,the development of children’s nature and the cultivation based on dance.The third chapter is the characteristics,contribution and enlightenment of Cao Errui’s children’s dance education.In this chapter,the five characteristics of Cao Errui’s children’s dance education system are expounded,namely,setting up the educational concept of "love children-understand children-become children";applying creative dance teaching methods according to children’s physical and mental characteristics;always adhering to the "gentle and rigorous" teaching attitude;inheriting the professional dance spirit of "dare to hone-endure honing" and keen and careful internal quality,summarizing the large number of dance education and dance creative talents trained;creating children’s dance works to carry forward Henan dance culture,which help popularize the educational contribution of the children’s dance aesthetic education project in new countryside,and enlighten children’s dance education at present: first,the children’s dance education institutions should pay attention to the inheritance of teachers and students and build their own education system at present;second,children’s dance educators should aim at creating classic works to form their own brand culture.Reviewing the role played by Cao Errui in the development process of the field of children’s dance education,his unique proposition as a dance educator is explored,research conclusions from five aspects are drawn : First,for children’s dance education,teachers should broaden educational thoughts and establish a people-oriented educational view from the perspective of children.Second,in the teaching process,teachers should avoid the malpractice of the separation of children’s dance creation and children’s dance teaching.Teachers should integrate creation into children’s dance education,and establish a two-way interactive teaching between teachers and students.Thirdly,teachers should develop and carry forward local excellent traditional culture base on local culture when creating children’s dance,so as to keep the flourishing vitality of children’s dance forever.Fourth,for children’s dance training,teachers should pay attention to developing children’s bodily perception ability,guiding children to dance impromptu,so as to cultivate children’s imagination and creativity.Fifthly,teachers should pay attention to their own business growth and improve their comprehensive attainment in order to achieve excellent teaching results and realize the value in children’s dance education.