Dance: telling a story with movement
Physical Education · Key Stage 1 · The School
Movement can mean something
Movement can show an idea without any words. Creeping low and slowly shows caution. Big fast movements show excitement. Stopping suddenly shows surprise. Choose a movement for what it SHOWS. Do not choose it just because it is fun to do. That is what makes it dance and not simply moving about.
Speed and level
Two things change the feeling of a movement more than anything else. The first is SPEED. The same step done slowly and quickly means different things. The second is LEVEL. High on tiptoes. Medium. Or low on the floor. A story told all at one speed and one level is hard to watch. That is true whatever the steps are.
Remembering a sequence
Take a short sequence of four or five movements. Repeat it the same way every time. That is worth far more than lots of movements done once. Practise until you can do it without thinking. Then you can perform it instead of remembering it. Say the moves aloud in order. That fixes them faster than repeating them silently.
Show a storm with four movement qualities. Do no acting at all. BUILD: slow, low, small movements spreading outward. GUSTS: sudden sharp changes of direction, high up. THE PEAK: fast, large and strong, using the whole space. AFTER: slow, low, still. Nobody wiggled their fingers to be rain. And everyone watching knows it is a storm. The QUALITIES of the movement carried it.