CHAPTER 1
CAKE BAKING: THE PROCESS
For several years in my classrooms, I've used the analogy with my students that the creative process is like baking a cake from scratch:
1. First, decide what flavor of cake to make (the idea/ inspiration for the project).
2. Second, gather the ingredients (the research, scripts, music, etc.).
3. Next, as a group, go about mixing these ingredients (developing blocking, choreography, lyrics, and music).
4. After all ingredients are mixed, put the creation in the oven to bake (rehearsals—refining and perfecting a scene, dance, or song).
5. Once the cake is baked and has had time to cool, apply the icing (costumes, sets, makeup).
6. Your cake, or project, is now ready to be consumed (performance).
I always tell my students that the final step in this process is one of the most important parts of the entire creation. It is the one step that often inadvertently gets left out or ignored all together: digestion! It is very important to have downtime after completing a performance to digest, reflect on, and evaluate the success of the product. This is such an important step to not only completing the creative process but also allowing time to fill yourself back up with ideas for the next project. This downtime allows for evaluation of the finished work as well as the generating of new creative ideas. Many times, the young artist wants to rush headlong into baking his or her next "cake."
The Dance Cake
God creates, I do not create. I assemble and I steal everywhere to do it—from what I see, from what the dancers can do, from what others do.
—George Balanchine
IN THIS SECTION
If I were to put a label on my IB dance program as a description of what we do, I would have to say that it comes closest to what has been referred to as "dance theater." My dance curriculum is a unique blend of creative movement exercises, technique classes, choreographic development and analysis, research of contemporary dance styles, and world dance traditions. The students also become well versed in performance and production skills. It sounds like a lot, and it is, but my IB dance curriculum is a two-year program, so there is more time for exploration and discovery.
Here are some fun exercises that help the student dancer begin thinking creatively. Please use these exercises in any way that fits into your own program. Remember, this is about your creative process, which is unique! Please scribble, sketch, doodle, and take notes in this book. Use it as your creative journal as you progress with your students through these exercises. Also, please feel free to adapt and abstract these exercises however you may wish. It's all about thinking creatively and about dancing on the "other side of the barre." Enjoy!
The Name Dance
Level: Beginner
Ingredients
3–5 dancers
Instructions
The dancers select the name of one person in their group. They must work together to create the shapes of each letter in the chosen name. The dancers need to use multiple levels and different directions and develop moving transitions between each letter. The group also needs to create a beginning, middle, and ending to this dance. You may add music or not. (Creates a 1- to 2-minute dance)
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making decisions
• using movement to symbolize a letter
• applying knowledge of basic choreographic structure (beginning, middle, ending)
• effectively using space, time, and energy
• understanding the concept of transition
• exploring movement in different directions and levels
NOTES
Shape, Shape, and Reshape
Level: Beginner to Intermediate
Ingredients
3–5 dancers
Three different shapes (e.g., spiral, triangle, arrow)
Instructions
The dancers in each group need to create movement to symbolize the shapes selected by the instructor. They must work together to create the first shape, transition into the second shape, and finish smoothly with the third. They need to use multiple levels, different directions, and floor patterns, as well as develop moving transitions from one shape to the next. The group also needs to create a beginning, middle, and ending to this dance. You may add music to this dance or not. (Creates a 1- to 2-minute dance)
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making decisions
• using movement to symbolize a shape
• applying knowledge of basic choreographic structure (beginning, middle, ending)
• effectively using space, time, and energy
• understanding the concept of transition
• exploring movement in different directions, levels, and floor patterns
NOTES
Emotions Dance
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Ingredients
2–6 dancers
Select emotions (e.g., surprise, anxiety, longing) and select music to go with each emotion (instrumental music is best, 2–3 minutes).
Instructions
The dancers in each group are given an emotion and music selected by the instructor. They must work together to create the movement that symbolizes the selected emotion. The dancers need to explore gestures used with that emotion and adapt those gestures into movement, using multiple levels and different directions. The group also needs to create a beginning, middle, and ending to this dance.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making decisions
• using movement to symbolize an emotion
• applying knowledge of basic choreographic structure (beginning, middle, ending)
• effectively using space, time, and energy
• exploring movement with different gestures, directions, and levels
NOTES
Elements of Nature
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Ingredients
1–6 dancers (a more advanced level to this exercise is to have each dancer perform solo)
Instrumental music that complements the chosen element of nature (approximately 3–4 minutes)
Instructions
The dancers choose an element of nature to portray in this piece (either as a group or individually). Participants must work to create movement that symbolizes the element of nature. The dancers need to develop movement with multiple levels, rhythms, different directions, and floor patterns. Each piece also needs a beginning, middle, and ending.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively
• making decisions
• using movement to symbolize an element of nature
• applying knowledge of basic choreographic structure (beginning, middle, ending)
• effectively using space, time, and energy
• understanding the concept of intent and motif
• exploring movement with different rhythms, textures, and directions
NOTES
Random Dance
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Ingredients
6–16 dancers (also works great with a dance class of 24)
Foam graphing cubes for use as blank dice
Multiple random, ambient electronic music pieces (2–3 minutes in length)
Instructions
Have the dancers pair up in partners and number the partnered groups 1 through 6. Each group of partners will develop three eight-counts of a movement phrase. Once the movement phrases are complete, put three to four of the partnered groups together to create a new, larger group of six to eight dancers. Give each of the larger groups a cube/die with the numbers 1 through 6. Each group then rolls the die to determine the order of the three eight-count phrases in the dance. Allow each group time to put the phrases together in any way they wish. Groups can learn each others' phrases if they want. Allow the dancers to experiment with this and decide how they wish to create their piece. Once the phrases have been put together, play a random piece of music as each group performs its piece. It's very fun to see what meaning comes from these random dance works.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively
• making decisions
• using random movement to create a dance work
• understanding the concept of "layering" choreography
• exploring Cunningham's Chance Dance choreographic structure
NOTES
Laban's Eight Theories of Effort
Level: Advanced
Ingredients
1 dancer
Laban's Eight Efforts, as follows: dab, flick, punch, slash, glide, float, wring, press
Instrumental music, 2–3 minutes in length
Instructions
This is a solo piece choreographed by a student dancer who will perform his or her own choreography. The dancer begins by doing in-depth, written research about Rudolph Laban, including historical information about his contribution to dance and his development of Labanotation. The dancer then creates the movement for a two- to three-minute solo using Laban's Eight Efforts throughout the piece.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively using specific movements
• applying knowledge of basic choreographic structure (beginning, middle, ending)
• effectively using space, time, and energy
• understanding the concept of transition
• exploring movements in different directions and levels
NOTES
Questions for Discussion
(Questions can also be used as a written evaluation.)
1. What were you trying to express in this piece?
2. How did you get the idea or inspiration?
3. What was your biggest challenge?
4. Describe how you problem-solved any issues you might have had.
5. What part of the process was the most interesting?
6. How did you contribute to the collaboration?
7. What level are you as a dancer?
8. What have you learned about yourself in this exercise?
9. Were you satisfied with your performance? Why or why not?
10. Discuss any changes you would make to your work and why you would make them.
The Theater Cake
I believe in imagination.
—Meryl Streep
IN THIS SECTION
The performing-arts department of which I've been a part for twenty years is a popular program at our school. We not only produce six to eight shows a year, but we also host a one-act festival, a battle-of-the-bands contest, and a comedy improvisation competition—or what is known in our neck of the woods as "comedy sports." All of the theater exercises in this section are taken from our improv show. We begin doing some of these exercises very early in our Theater I class and follow through until our Theater III class. This is when the student actors create multiple improv groups, and the games are played as a sport or competition between groups.
While these exercises (or games) work well on their own, one can also put these together to create an entire improv comedy unit that can last three to four weeks. Again, please be creative in the way you use these exercises. Create your own comedy-sports evening of fun. It's a great fund-raiser! The student actors love playing these games, and the audience laughs the evening away.
Let the competition begin!
Stop, Freeze!
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Ingredients
5–7 actors
Instructions
One of the actors is designated as the referee and is given the task of saying "stop, freeze," as well as getting a suggestion of a situation from the audience. Two actors at a time begin to play out the scenario until the referee stops them. The actors must freeze in their final pose of that scene while a new actor takes the place of one of the actors and starts a different scene. The group rotates through each actor two or three times.
This is a good warm-up game.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a partner
• making quick decisions
• listening to your partner and the referee
• projection
• creating multiple characters
• creating multiple situations/scenarios
• pantomiming or showing physical animation
NOTES
What Are You Doing?
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Ingredients
4–6 actors
Instructions
Two actors at a time take turns asking each other, "What are you doing?" One actor replies that he or she is doing a task, such as "brushing my teeth." The other actor needs to pantomime that task and then ask the other actor, "What are you doing?" That actor then pantomimes the task that was said. Each actor goes back and forth in this manner until one of them hesitates. The actor who hesitates sits down and is replaced by a new actor who asks, "What are you doing?" And then a new round is played. This game can go on until all actors have had a chance to participate.
This is a good warm-up game.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a partner
• making quick decisions
• listening to your partner
• projection
• pantomiming simple tasks
NOTES
Forward/Reverse
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Ingredients
3–5 actors
Instructions
One of the actors is designated as the referee and is given the task of saying "forward" or "reverse," as well as getting a suggestion of a situation for a scene from the audience. Two to four actors then begin to play out the scenario until the ref calls out, "Reverse." The actors must reverse the order of the scene. The ref then calls out, "Forward," and the actors must play the action of the scene going forward, starting at the point where the ref called out. This continues in this fashion as the ref randomly calls out, "Forward" and "Reverse," until the ref ends the scene. (When working with more advanced actors, the ref can also include the directions of "fast-forward" or "slow-mo reverse." This makes the scene very funny to watch!)
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making quick decisions
• listening to your group and the referee
• projection
• creating characters
• memorizing a scene quickly
NOTES
Sportscaster
Level: Intermediate to Advanced
Ingredients
5–7 actors
Instructions
Two of the actors are designated as the sportscasters. They will offer play-by-play commentary during the game. They are also given the task of getting a suggestion of a household task (such as lawn-mowing) from the audience. The sportscasters then begin their commentary for the First Annual Olympic Games of Lawn-Mowing. The three to five additional actors begin to play out the scene as the lawn-mowing "athletes," silently pantomiming the movement. They begin with warm-ups, proceed through the "race," and then at the finish line, their competitive natures overtake them and they proceed to battle with the winner of the race—all in slow motion! All the athletes' movements are performed in slow motion. The sportscasters are the decision-makers of when to end the game by "going to a commercial break," as the athletes tackle the winner at the finish line in slow motion.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making quick decisions
• listening to the sportscasters
• pantomiming in slow motion and showing physical animation
NOTES
Hitchhiker
Level: Beginner to Advanced
Ingredients
5–7 actors
Instructions
One of the actors is designated as the driver and is given the task of getting a suggestion of five to seven emotions from the audience, as well as getting a suggestion of a mode of transportation, such as a canoe. Each actor is assigned an emotion, and the actor who is the driver begins the scene as driver of the canoe. One at a time, the actors begin to "hitchhike" to get into the canoe. As each actor enters the canoe, all the actors in the canoe must take on that actor's assigned emotion. The group plays out this scene until everyone is "in the boat." Then, one by one, each actor leaves, and the group left in the canoe must take on the emotions in reverse order until the only person left is the driver.
Skills Used in This Exercise
• problem-solving creatively with a group
• making quick decisions
• listening to your group
• creating characters based on an emotion
• creating a theme based on an emotion
• showing physical animation in a confined space
NOTES
