LEVEL AND THE NATURAL WORLD

Author: Bri Wilson, Creative Dance Center, Seattle, WA

Age group: 4th and 5th grades

Length of Lesson: 1 hour

Warm-Up (Teacher-directed)

Brain Dance

Seated on a low level: Breath, Tactile, Core-Distal, Head-Tail

Standing on a high level: Upper-Lower, Body-Side, CrossLateral, Vestibular

Suggested Music: “Perpetual” by Peter Jones

Introduce the Concept: “See, say, hear, and do”

Low Level: below hips

Middle Level: between hips and armpits

High Level: above armpits

Low level occurs close to the ground, underneath your hips. Now rise up a little higher to a middle level, in the space between your hips and armpits. Your knees have to bend a lot, and your spine may be bent forward. Now rise up even more to a high level, and try to fit as many body parts as you can in the space above your armpits. Varying levels in a dance mimics the rise and fall of a natural landscape: low level is like a valley, middle level is like foothills, and high level is like mountains. What other natural landscapes can you think of that have a clear level?

Reference: Creative Dance for All Ages, 2nd Ed. pp. 125-138

Exploring the Concept (Student-centered)

Mountain Loop Highway Improvisation Score (inspired by a popular road trip in Washington State can be adapted for any geographic area and natural environment)

Let’s begin on a low level. Imagine that your body is a luscious valley, filled with rustling grass. How does that inspire you to move? As we rise up to a middle level, imagine that your body is the rounded foothills at the base of the Cascade Mountains. How do the foothills inspire you to move? At last we’re reaching up to a high level, imagining that our bodies are the sharp, jagged peaks of the North Cascades. How does that image inspire you to move?

Optional Prop: scarf

Suggested Music: “September Song” by Agnes Obel

Reflection: make a shape on the level that you enjoyed the most. Look around and see who is like you, and who is different from you. We’re making a landscape all together!

Shaping: Seesaws

Seesaws can be natural or man-made. Let’s explore making shapes on the opposite level as our partner. The leader will make a shape on a high level. The follower will copy that shape, but on a low level The leader will decide when to change shapes, moving slowly so that the follower can copy them. On the teacher’s cue, both dancers will improvise through general space on the same level as their last shape, then return to each other and switch roles. After three rounds, find a new partner.

Reflection: Tell your partner which role was more challenging for you creating the shape, or copying the shape on the opposite level and why.

Suggested Music: “Fern” by Zoë Keating

Developing Skills (Teacher-directed)

Technique warm-up

Pliés in parallel first, parallel second, turned out first, and turned out second Prances and tendus in parallel and turned out, en croix Swings in sagittal, vertical, and horizontal planes

Combining movements with an ABC structure

Dancers start scattered.

A: two sets of eight counts of triplets in any direction traveling through general space two sets of eight counts of sagittal drop swings in self space two sets of eight counts of skips to a partner

B: two sets of eight counts of seesaw shapes, changing every 4 counts

C: two sets of eight counts of any level improvisation

Repeat until the music finishes.

Suggested Music: “Pitseleh” by Portland Cello Project

Creating: Plant Life (Student-centered)

In groups of three or four, students collaborate to create a dance that represents the life cycle of a plant. Dances will start on a low level with the planting of a seed, and rise in level as the seed bursts out of the soil and grows into a plant. They may also incorporate the germination and spread of seeds, to start the cycle again, as represented by traveling through general space on multiple levels. What obstacles stand in the way of a plant growing? How might the weather of the plant’s environment help or hinder its growth? How can the dancers’ bodies represent the parts of whichever plant they choose? Groups perform one at a time, and observing groups share what they enjoyed about each dance.

Cool Down

In a circle, dancers review Level with the “Say, See, Hear, Do” model Then the teacher cues one collective deep breath, and passes a clap around the circle, encouraging students to change the level of the clap as it comes to them. They finish with one collective clap.

Bri Wilson is a dance teaching artist based in Seattle, Washington. Originally from Michigan, she holds a BFA in Dance from the LINES Ballet BFA program. She joined Creative Dance Center faculty in 2020 to teach ages 3.5 and up in Creative Dance, Ballet, and Modern, and has acted as rehearsal assistant for Kaleidoscope Dance Company since 2022.