Today's task: Create choreography inspired by animals.
(Why animals you ask? My initial idea was shapes, but I later decided that this would be more fun. I mean, who doesn't want the chance to dance like a dinosaur?)
I split my 1st-3rd grade hip hop class into 4 groups. Each group picked a folded piece of paper out of a pile (to be kept secret from the other groups) with the name of an animal. They were instructed to create choreography inspired by whichever animal they chose.
Me: " So, does anybody know what it means to be inspired?"
Students:
- "to be happy!"
- "to like something!"
- "to have confidence!"
Not a bad start. I told them inspiration can lead to all of those things. We talked a bit about how being inspired can lead you to develop fresh, new ideas... that you can take from what you've learned in one experience & apply it to other situations. We would take inspiration from the animals we chose and develop a dance. I told them we didn't have to be literal and try to be the animal. If one were to draw the word "cat," I was not expecting them to meow and chase after mice.
"Think about the way the animal moves... the way the animal carries itself... Is it weak or strong? Is it loud or quiet? What kind of shapes does it make? Let those ideas help you as you create."
This wasn't so much a hip hop dance exercise but an opportunity for them to simply explore. However, I did expect that their dances would all have a slight hip hop tinge because they have been immersed in the technique the past few months.
At the end of their creation, they shared their dances with each other. After each dance, the rest of the class got a chance to guess each group's animal. I found that this encouraged each student to be a really observant and respectful viewer. All in all, it was a fun & creative day. Enjoy the video! (Oh, apologies if you are sick of the song. They LOVE it, so I felt it was only right...)
