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Outreach Assembly Performances

Teacher's Guide to the Assembly

In the past, many teachers have asked for some notes on the performance so they could prepare their students for the performance. We consider this an admirable intention: to develop an informed audience. Therefore, this synopsis is made for you, the teacher, principal, or coordinator, to help you and your students acquaint yourselves with some modern dance concepts, the music and composers we use, some of the process of choreography, and with dance as a performing art. This collection of thoughts is meant to introduce you to the dances VWC'MDT will be performing, and also to provide some ideas for discussion and activities for preparation and follow-up. It is important that some element of surprise be present for a performance, so we would appreciate your not giving all the details of the dances to your students.


On Viewing Dance and Understanding Movement

Dances can tell a story, show an attitude, create an atmosphere, or be movement for movement's sake. You and your students may see very different things in the same dance. That's fine! Each of us brings our own background to a performance and the beauty of a live performance is that we, as performers or audience members, are expected to use our individual eyes and experiences to participate in that performance. It is not necessary to search for meaning, it is entirely appropriate to just enjoy watching the fascinating interactions of human bodies moving through space. Modern Dance is usually quite accessible to young people because it is very athletic with leaping, jumping and strong movement. Even in serious dances, young students can learn to watch for interaction of the dancers, shapes, use of music, and movement qualities.

To people who have only seen structured movement with recognized rules (e.g. basketball), modern dance movement may look strange, but the movement itself is really similar. We all have two arms and legs, etc. It is the intent in dance movement that is different, and in dance, the movement is more complex. Dancers aren't allowed to skip any muscles; feet are just as important as arms, as backs, as faces, as fingers in communicating an idea to an audience.

To fully understand dance, especially modern dance, it is important to understand some basic movement anatomy. In other words, it is important to understand the human body: joints, bone structure, muscles, body parts. All people move in basically the same way because all have basically the same body: arms, legs, head, torso, etc.

The dancer uses the body's capacity for movement combined with differences in speed, level, direction, movement quality, energy and shape to create dances. Motivations for dancing are highly individual and can include emotions, stories, visual images, etc.

Questions and Activities

Before and after the performance
- Show your students a skeleton and identify the bones.
Demonstrate how they articulate. Have the students try different shapes and movements on the skeleton to see how the bones work, and then try the same shapes and movements on themselves to see how they feel.
- Experiment with energy on your own and with your students
--move with little energy and then with much energy. Discuss other forms of energy, like electricity, solar, magnetic, energy from food. Why do bigger people usually need more food?
- Have the students try many different ways of moving--you can supply the ideas:
Call out verbs and adverbs, combine them by intent or chance. i.e. run quickly; skip backwards.
Call out feeling words--students can show or reflect the feelings with movement and shapes. Ask them to try many different ways of showing those feelings.
Ask the students which they like best, try those again, then have them try the opposite. Try some movement improvisation using movement qualities, full body moving, isolating body parts, fast, slow, turning, jumping, traveling, stationary, etc. (Improvising means to make it up as you go along)
- How do people learn rhythm? Is rhythm innate?
Walk, feel your natural rhythm (everyone has s/his own comfortable speed). Notice how your arms and upper body react to your legs. Have everyone walk at s/his own speed, then on your instruction gradually adjust their tempi so eventually all are on the same walking beat. Try it in silence. Try it with you giving the beat by clapping (it is fun to make the students really listen by changing the beat). Dancers have to react to both internal and external cues. How does it feel different to make your own beat or to follow someone else's (internal-external)?
- What difference does your background make in how you view art? Your age? Experience?


During the performance:
- Look for how the dancers' joints operate individually and together.
- Listen to the music. Feel the rhythm the dancers keep without music. See how many different ways we move, and with what body parts.
Can human beings ever NOT be in a shape?
- Is the same amount of energy used in every movement?
- Watch how the dancers use:
different directions - forward, sideways, backwards, diagonal, up and down different movement qualities - sustained, percussive, swing, collapse, vibrating and suspension
different speeds - fast, slow, medium
different levels - high, middle and low (close to the ground), in the airdifferent ways of traveling - walk, leap, jump, roll, etc.
different shapes - self, partner and group shapes
different attitudes - How did the dance make you feel?


After the performance
- Do you think the titles were appropriate?
- Think about the movement and decide if you think it was "weird", or if the juxtaposition of the dancers is what made it "weird". Is "weird" the best word to describe a dance? What does "weird" mean? Discuss unusual events, and what make them unusual. Apply that discussion to ways we treat other peoples and cultures and their common and unusual occurrences. Is there such a thing as a universal event or idea? Think about the foods people eat, the games they play, what they call a house or home. Why might we be so quick to call something "weird"?

- How do you feel when you are twisted? When you see a twisted thing? Does dance always have to be pretty? What do you think and feel when you see an unattractive shape?
- Dances come from many different ideas: music, story, emotion, pattern, movement, etc. How many different ideas can you think of? - Read e.e. cummings work. Try making short dances to poems or lines from poems.
- Compile a list of adjectives; make shapes and/or movement to go with the words.
- Listen to sounds. Collect some and bring to the classroom. Make your own sound score and try moving to it. How does it differ from music? Create a movement sequence and try it with both music and the sound score.
- Have your students look for design and pattern during the day and collect them on a sheet of paper. How could you make dances from those ideas?


Creating Dance

Dances are made by choreographers (explore the etymology of the word choreographer). Some choreographers "see" the movement in their minds, some need to see the movement on dancers' bodies before they know what it will look like. Some choreographers work in a specific style, some approach dance through improvisation. Improvisation serves to involve the dancers in the creative process, and ensures that the movement looks natural on the dancers.


Additional Information

If your students and/or faculty are unacquainted with any style of dance, check with your local library, AEA or dance teacher to collect some examples. Some dance styles to investigate: modern, ballet, jazz, tap, folk, square, clogging, ballroom dances such as waltz, foxtrot, tango, rock and roll, disco and fad dances such as break dancing. Although it concentrates on musical theater, the introduction in the MGM film, "That's Dancing" presents quite a variety dance styles. The video "He Makes Me Feel Like Dancing" featuring classical dancer Jaques D'Amboise, shows the process of making a dance production. The PBS series "Behind the Scenes is also an excellent show for young people, explaining and showing how concepts become finished products.



Valerie Williams Co'Motion Dance Theater is in residence at Iowa State University Department of Health and Human Performance