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Dance Starters

Moving to the beat | Group sculptures | Action words | Body parts | Follow the leader | Mirroring | Shadow | Skipping | Shapes | Names | Letters | Song

The following activities and ideas may be used as:

  • starter activities at the beginning of dance lessons, as a way of reviewing previously explored material;
  • learning activities within dance lessons related to the exploration of the elements of dance.

Starter: Moving to the beat

Dance elements used:

  • time;
  • space.
  1. Divide the class in half.
  2. Half class stand still and clap eight counts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. The other half of the class walk in time to the beat in general space.
  3. Swap over the groups' activities and repeat.
Variations

Clap groups of:

  • four beats;
  • two beats;
  • accent a selected beat, and the walkers have to stamp on the accent – for example, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8.

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Starter: Group sculptures

Dance elements used:

  • body awareness;
  • relationships.
  1. Class move in general space to music. Students may move in their own ways to the music, or the teacher may specify the locomotor activity, such as:
    • walking in zigzag pathways;
    • skipping;
    • tiptoeing.
  2. Teacher stops music and gives a 'sculpture' or 'shape' instruction – for example, "Form groups of five and create the shape of a cloud".
  3. Teacher calls a 20 second countdown to a group, ending with the instruction to "Freeze!".
  4. Teacher and students comment on the sculptural shapes the groups have created, such as:
    • use of contrasting levels;
    • use of round/angular shapes.
Shape variations

A variety of shape stimuli can be used. Choose those appropriate to the year and level of the students. Ideas and examples include:

  • land forms, for groups of six – Kapiti Island, Ward Island, Rangitoto Island;
  • forms of transport, for groups of seven – car, aeroplane, yacht, boat;
  • bridge shapes, for groups of nine – Sydney Harbour Bridge, Auckland Harbour Bridge;
  • food forms, for groups of three or four – hamburger, birthday cake.

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Starter: Responding to action words

Dance element used:

  • energy.

Students use non-locomotor and locomotor movement to respond to a series of action words (that is, verbs). For example:

  • jump;
  • leap;
  • hop;
  • shiver;
  • fall;
  • collapse;
  • spin;
  • twirl.

Teacher encourages students to interpret the action words in various ways. For example, "Show me how many ways you can 'collapse' with your whole body and body parts. Can you collapse quickly? S-l-o-w-l-y? Like a robot?"

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Starter: Different body parts

Dance element used:

  • body awareness.
  1. In a circle, students take turns at leading the class in isolating and moving a body part. For example:
    • flicking hands;
    • shrugging shoulders up and down
    • flexing and extending the foot.
  2. The rest of class observes the leader, and then follows the leader by repeating the action.
Variation

Incorporate locomotor activity with the body part isolation, such as walking clockwise around the circle while flicking wrists.

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Starter: Follow the leader

Dance elements used:

  • relationships;
  • space.
  1. Students form pairs and chose one to be the leader.
  2. While travelling in general space, the follower copies the leader's movement. The aim of this activity is for the pair to work together, so the leader's movement must be easy to follow.
  3. On a teacher cue (such as a drumbeat or a clap), both stop and do a jump turn to face the other way, with the follower becoming the new leader.
  4. Repeat.
Variation

Use this activity to explore spatial floor pathways. Ask the leaders to explore various pathways – such as circular or zigzag – using a variety of locomotor activities.

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Starter: Mirroring

Dance element used:

  • relationships.

In pairs, student 'A' mirrors the actions of student 'B'. Student 'B' needs to move slowly to make sure 'A' can keep up.

  1. Begin by sitting and focussing on moving hands only, in slow motion.
  2. Progressively add the rest of the body, starting with head and shoulders.
  3. Move onto knees, to give more upper-body movement possibilities.
  4. Move to standing position to involve the whole body.

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Starter: Shadow and mirror

Dance element used:

  • relationship.
  1. Students form groups of three.
  2. Student 'A' faces student 'B', and student 'C' stands behind 'B'.
  3. Student 'A' does action, 'B' mirrors it, and 'C' shadows 'B'.
  4. On a teacher cue (such as a drumbeat, clap or word), students change roles.

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Starter: Skipping game

Dance element used:

  • space.
  1. Students spread out and sit anywhere in the space.
  2. Teacher nominates four students to be 'skippers' - they skip to the music, and when they want to stop, they select someone to sit beside and that student takes over the skipping role.
  3. The student who was skipper (and is now seated) does a body percussion action to show they've had a turn. For example:
    • clap;
    • click fingers;
    • tap knees.
  4. Continue till everyone has had a turn.
Variation

Before sitting down, the skipper makes a shape and freezes in front of the student they have selected to replace them. The seated person mirrors the skipper's shape before taking over the skipping role. Try to make a balanced shape.

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Starter: Connecting shapes

Dance element used:

  • body awareness;
  • space.
  1. In pairs, student 'A' makes a frozen shape, while student 'B' dances around 'A'.
  2. 'B' ends up in front of 'A', and they connect somehow and freeze.
  3. Student 'A' carefully extracts themselves from the shape without disturbing 'B'.
  4. Repeat, with roles swapped.
Variation

Teacher encourages students to try out more interesting shapes, levels, and connections when they freeze.

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Starter: Name dances

Dance elements used:

  • body awareness;
  • space.
  1. Individually, students write their first name in the air (that is, makes an air pathway) using a different body part for each letter. For example, start with chin, then use elbow, then head, then knee, and finish with bottom.
  2. Repeat until student is familiar with that pattern.
  3. Students get together with a partner and teach one another their name dances.

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Starter: Actions for letters game

Dance element used:

  • relationships.
  1. Students form a circle.
  2. Teacher calls the alphabet in sequence.
  3. When a letter in students' names are called, they run into the centre, connect with others with the same name letters, and freeze.
  4. When teacher gives a drum beat, the frozen students run back to their places in the circle.
  5. Repeat for all letters, with students responding to all the letters in their name. For example, a student named 'Robert' would have to run in and out six times.

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Starter: Song and actions

Dance elements used:

  • body awareness;
  • energy.

Teacher calls out an action rhyme while doing the action, and the students echo words and actions.

There are plenty of action rhymes around that can be used with younger students, or teachers can make up their own. For example:
I wave hello to my friends,
 I wave hello to another,
 I give my body a wriggle,
 I give my body a stretch,
 I give my body a shake,
 And now I'm ready to dance.

Variation

Teacher makes up a tune to sing the rhyme while doing the action, and students echo all.

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