Specialioji meno edukologija : estetikos, terapijos ir ugdymo aspektai : metodinė priemonė

Abstract

Educational drama is important for all participants of it: for the disabled child it gives more possibilities for self-awareness and provides with opportunities to live through the fragments of the offered situations, as well as learn how to model them. In this case, the therapeutic impact is felt in the child's authentic movement and spontaneously expressed emotions. For the other participants of an educational drama the therapeutical effect is created by the empathy experienced while participating in the invented situations, and by the possibility to choose a certain role. In summary, it should be stated that in the artistic activity of music, dance and theatre, that is characterised by aesthetic, philosophical and educational value quality, physical, emotional, cognitive, social and therapeutic aspects get closely intertwined. Due to participation in the artistic activity, disabled people can express their most secret desires, spontaneusly get rid of negative emotions, and develop their personality. Within the scope of analysis of issues of specific artistic education it is currently more and more evident that scientists, artists and educationalists are ready to look for social meaning in arts, alongside the aesthetic and cognitive functions. Arts, with their inherent power to establish human contacts and generate personal self-awareness, are able to considerably improve the quality of human existence. It is hard, though, to draw the line between the educational function of arts and the therapy of arts, similarly — between specific artistic education and educational therapy of art. However, all people's wishes can be typically characterized by the most commonly manifested desire: to achieve the state of well-balanced and harmonious feelings and experiences, to discover one's identity, to perfect one's body and attain the transparency of thinking. Some people find ways of realizing the formerly mentioned desire in religion, others - in scientific research, sports or arts. The aim of the present publication is to reveal some therapeutic aspects of arts (in the forms of music, dance, acting) that enable the person to achieve homeo-stasis, the stability and unity of body and mind. The harmonious functioning of body and mind in artistic activity is possible only under the circumstances when the person is experiencing satisfaction and joy. The forms of manifestation of that state can include free music playing, improvising, which makes it possible for the imagination to unfold and for the state of inner calm to set in. The well-established balance, though, is usually destroyed by changes in the functioning of mind or body. Thus, the balance that normally relates mind to body, according to E. J. Dalcroze (1930), can be regained again by certain intentionally performed exercises, which lead to resolving the problems caused by the amount of new information obtained and the loss of balance of bodily movements and functions. The forms of music activity like sutartines singing, improvising by voice or music instrument, trying out different forms of expressing and developing one's emotions and movements while listening to the music are typical of the human nature and they belong to culturally inhereted experience. The 52 disabled person, in this way, is granted the possibility of learning how to hear and feel one's body, thoughts, emotions, and to uncover oneself, alongside the conscious effort to achieve the harmony of different personal manifestations and reactions. Folk, or ethnicity-bound, dancing, to which games, round playing activities and pair dances belong, contain the abundance of emotional and cultural experience of the nation (as they reflect daily household chores, the calendar year rituals and interpersonal relations). Besides, the opportunity to establish contacts with one or several members of the group is realized in that kind of dancing. Those activities enable the person to shape one's behaviuor in a patterned way, they provide a possibility to satisfy the natural need for movement and, in this way, the psychomotoric activity is encouraged. The movements that had originated once as typically performed community rituals, and often are unconscious expressions of emotions, can be closely related to the essence of human nature, and those movements can be termed as authentic movement (Samuels, 2004). On the basis of the information that can be received from that kind of authentic movement, the author of the present publication uses the therapy of dancing, or certain movements, with children suffering from autism. As a rule, autistic people have very weak contacts with die surrounding world or they at all refuse to communicate with others. Thus, according to S. Samuels (2004), the therapy of authentic movement is the only possible way to get to know the people suffering from autism and to help them develop self-awareness. The second important source of the dance / movement therapy is modern dance. The techniques of modern dance and the freedom for improvisation open new possibilities for disabled children to develop self-expression, self-regulation, they help to divert the negative energy into positive activity and to establish relationships with their peers. Dance teaching possibilities depend on the nature of disability. In some cases the wide-scope space is used, in others - only a narrow space is handy; the rythm of movements is specifically adjusted, the same is done with the intensity of mobility. In the dance activities with the specifically-focused children, conversations are most helpful as they lead to betterself-awareness, e.g., 'What does this movement mean?', 'Are you ill at ease while expressing your feelings?', 'Would you like to dance at the front of the whole group?', 'How can we express sadness/happiness with the help of movement?' The stage generally inhibits people, makes it difficult for them to disclose their self and express feelings. People normally know very well to whom and to what extent they can open up. Self-esteem, the established rules of communication, psychological climate and a number of other factors determine the degree to which people are ready to reveal themselves. According to A. Maslow (1970), striving for self-expression depends not only on the sociocultural values but also on the person's dependency on/or belonging to a subcultural group. Drama teachers can observe that drama activities appeal even to those children who are otherwise not interested in anything. For bouncy and easily irritable children some peaceful roles are usually chosen, for shy children an activity requiring more energy is, as a rule, suggested. Retarded children and children with learning difficulties can be characterized by spontaneity of behaviour, they feel relatively free on the stage and like to express their emotions wholeheartedly. The plays of limited scope with the content closely related to the immediate surroundings also have practical value for that kind of children as they help to come into closer contact with real life situations, everyday routines, they teach them practical skills (like travelling by train, doing shopping, etc.). If the child experiences any difficulty in memorizing texts or expressing themselves, then pantomime elements are drawn into the play. While watching the play in which a disabled person is acting, the audience should be prepared to reject their usual view of the theatre performance. The leading role in this case is played by the actor's disability. It is clearly visible, but from the humanistic point of view everything on the stage is so just and logical that the dialogue between the audience and actors emerges unconsciously. Acting skills are helpful in developing not only emotional expression or building self-confidence, but they also help to improve language skills, that is why a particular theatrical activity with the people who have certain disability, is extremely meanigful. Children suffering from au- tistic disorders find it difficult to spontaneously plunge into game activities, they are hard to be motivated for that, but they should be provided with the possibility to play in the open context, i.e. real life situations. The dynamics of child education can be studied in the processes of free game, checked in real life situations and patterned in structured game situations (Vygotsky, 1978). While constructing child education, we have to consider the child's potential, construct the flexible educational space and observe closely into which direction the child is moving, it is also important to give feedback to the child's every comment.