(jazzy music)
- Hello, I'm Ciara with Moving Minds Dance,
and I believe that we can learn anything through dance.
Today, we are going to meet some storybook characters
and try to understand their personalities
and their feelings by trying them on in our bodies.
At home to do this, or wherever you are,
all you need is your body.
I have a book that we'll look at together
to help us meet some characters,
but you can do this with
characters in books that you have, wherever you are,
or you can even do it with the people around you
and the animals that you might know.
Let's get started with a dance idea.
We're gonna talk about energy today.
When a dancer does a movement,
the way that they do it can really change
what the movement means.
For example, if I jumped like this
with my arms stretched up and my legs strong below me,
you might understand (gasps)
she's happy or she's excited,
or she's really glad to be here.
But if I jumped like this,
you might think, "Oh my goodness,
"she looks really scared or surprised
"or (shivers) worried or concerned about something."
So, it makes a big difference.
We are going to try on some of those energy ideas
in our bodies, without trying to think too much
about what they might mean, and then we're going to layer on
the idea of what feelings and emotions
they might make us feel.
So let's start with one of my favorite ways to move: smooth.
Can you say smooth and you move your body smoothly?
Smooth kind of means that we don't stop moving.
We keep going, and we just get to wiggle
kind of slowly and softly.
The opposite of smooth is sharp.
That's where we move fast and we stop.
(whooshes)
It feels really different, doesn't it?
Did you try it with me?
Good.
Alright, we are going to move on
to a new kind of energy, this is soft.
Soft can be really gentle.
It can almost feel like you're not using
your muscles at all,
or it can feel kind of fluid.
It's like smooth, but just a little bit more gentle,
a little bit less effort,
like you're not trying very hard.
The opposite of soft is strong.
Strong is like you're pushing something away
or like you're really standing up for yourself.
You're using all your muscles in a really active way.
It feels like you're working hard
to do whatever you're doing.
There's another one that feels
kind of like soft called light.
This is a little different because it feels
like you're floating upwards.
It feels like everything is flying away from the earth,
like there's no gravity at all.
And the opposite of light is heavy,
where it feels like everything just weighs too much
to be able to move it.
Now there's two more, shaky.
(shakes)
Can you shake with me?
(shakes)
And swingy, which is when we let our arms and our legs
swing from side to side or forward and backward,
or even up and down.
How do those things make you feel?
Let's try to add that on.
When I do smooth, I feel calm.
I don't know about you, but that makes me feel relaxed.
Sharp can feel kind of angry
or it can feel brave,
or it can feel any number of different things.
Soft might feel bored,
or it might feel kind of sleepy,
or it might feel, meh.
It could also feel gentle and kind.
Strong I think of as being really brave,
so I'm really using my muscles, even if something
is hard to get through, strong makes me feel
like I can do anything.
Light, I think of as being really happy.
It might feel different to you,
but it makes me feel joyful.
Whereas heavy feels really sad.
(cries)
Shaky can be a couple of different things.
You might shake (trembles)
if you're scared, or you might shake
if you're excited!
There are so many different ways that can come across
and so many ways that can feel for you.
And then swingy,
for me, that feels silly.
It can also feel kind of carefree,
and again, kind of joyful, but it might also be goofy.
Alright, let's look at some characters in a book.
We're going to use all of those kinds of energy
to see if we can understand the characters we meet
in "Where the Wild Things Are" by Maurice Sendak.
On this page, we meet two characters.
We meet Max, the main character of this story, and his dog.
You might see two different kinds of energy on this page.
When I look at Max,
I see strong energy and I see sharp energy.
When I look at the dog,
I might see shaky energy or soft energy.
They're very different.
Max looks kind of mischievous to me in this picture.
So his strong and sharp energy
looks like he's maybe playing a trick
or causing mischief, which is what it says in the story.
The dog to me looks scared.
I can see him running away, ooh.
Let's look at some of the wild things.
On the first page, the wild things look a lot
like Max did in that last page.
They're using sharp energy to try to be scary,
or maybe chase him away.
They also kind of look happy.
Maybe they're just saying hi,
but they have sharp energy in their personality,
and it can look like more than one different thing.
What about on this page?
This is more like what the dog was doing,
kind of shaky, maybe smooth,
maybe soft.
Maybe when I look at them,
I see that they might be kind of surprised,
sudden, or maybe scared and hiding
On this page, I see smooth energy.
I see them being a little bit more calm and relaxed.
That bow looks very regal,
which means they're being very proper and formal.
That looks like a different energy.
Can we try that on in our bodies,
so we can have smooth, proud,
maybe brave or happy and calm?
On this page, let's try that in our bodies.
That feels excited and happy to me.
Let's try that one more time.
(gasps)
Good.
Alright.
In this page, they look like they're using strong muscles
to hold them up, but they also look relaxed.
Maybe they're swinging their legs smoothly,
or maybe they're feeling a little silly up in those trees.
Alright.
We're not going to read every page of the story,
we're gonna skip ahead to this one
and this will be the last one we look at.
On this page, I see heavy energy.
I see them showing maybe soft,
heavy energy to show that they are
(yawns) so sleepy.
Can you do that too?
Oh, sleepy energy.
Good.
It's very different than that light jump
that we tried together.
Alright, we're going to play a dance game now
called mirroring.
When we mirror, one of us is going to be the leader
and do movements kind of slowly
so the other person can copy.
This time, it's gonna be me, 'cause I can't see you,
but you can see me.
When we do this game, you can do this again
a little bit later with anyone who's around you
and you can switch who's the leader,
but for now I want you to look
at what I'm doing and I want you to copy
what I'm doing at the same time that I'm doing it.
While we move together, I want you to see
if you can feel the same feeling that I have in my body.
So let's just start and see how it goes.
I'm gonna start really big and reach up,
and I want you to copy that shape too.
I feel joyful when I do this shape,
I hope it makes you feel joyful too.
Now we're gonna start moving slowly together
and I want you to see if you're feeling changes
as my movement changes.
What does this shape feel like?
Is it still joyful, or does it feel sad?
What about this shape?
Does it feel scared?
What about this shape?
Does it feel brave?
What about this shape?
Does it feel strong and angry?
What about this shape?
Does it feel curious?
What about this shape?
(yawns)
Does it feel heavy and tired?
What about this shape?
Does it feel excited?
What about this shape?
Does it feel calm?
Alright, that was our mirroring exercise.
You can do that with anyone else.
I want you to try being the leader,
find a partner and try taking turns.
But you can do that after we play one more game together.
I have this magic hat full of dance movements.
I'm gonna choose a movement from a hat,
and then I'm going to pick a character card from my pile,
and I want us to try to do the movement
the way that the character is feeling.
Are you ready to find out what they are?
Our first one is jumping like this wild thing,
his name is Bernard.
He is really so exhausted and sleepy.
Can we try an exhausted jump?
(yawns)
Let's try another one.
(groans)
Good, that feels kind of fun, doesn't it?
Let's try another one.
We are going to stretch like this excited wild thing,
that really light and happy jump that he's showing.
Let's stretch our muscles in that way.
You can stretch out away from you,
or you can stretch down,
or you can stretch your leg up high?
Does that have that same big, excited feeling?
Good job, okay.
Some more.
We're going to wiggle,
and we're going to wiggle
like these frightened wild things.
Let's try that.
(trembles)
Can we look closely at the shapes
that they're making and do that shape when we wiggle?
I'm seeing that this wild thing has one hand on his belly
and one hand on his head, and he's sitting
and bending his legs and we can shake like them.
Alright, let's do one more.
We are going to gallop,
and this is the picture that I picked.
There are two characters,
which means that you get to choose.
You can be strong and mischievous Max,
or you could be frightened dog.
Which one do you choose?
I'm gonna choose, and it's gonna be a secret
you might have to guess.
Alright, ready?
Let's gallop like one of those characters, set, go.
Gallop is like you're chasing one foot
with the other foot so we can
maybe even have a scared foot,
and then the mischievous foot.
That's tricky, to do two things in our body
at the same time.
Alright, that's all for today.
You can keep playing with these ideas.
You can keep playing these games and looking at characters
and trying on what they feel in your body.
While you do that, I want you to think
about how copying or mirroring someone's movements
and someone's feelings can help you understand
where they're coming from or what they're feeling.
That's one of the most important things that we can do,
is understand other people and why they're feeling
the way they are.
I hope that you have fun playing with those ideas
wherever you are and whatever you do,
and I hope that we'll get to dance together again soon.
(jazzy music)