What on Earth!? Resource pack for teachers

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What on Earth!? RESOURCE PACK m: of What on Earth!? for ages 5+ fro Designed to support the performance

For more information please visit: www.scottishdancetheatre.com


About this pack This pack provides an introduction to Scottish Dance Theatre’s (SDT) production of What on Earth!? and includes information, images and videos about the creative processes. There are also suggested activities to use with your pupils which link to Curriculum for Excellence areas and outcomes in Expressive Arts (Dance and Drama), Literacy and Health and Wellbeing.

Contents Page 3..............................................................About SDT Pages 4 - 6 ..................................................About the show Pages 7 - 11 .................................................About the creative process Pages 12 - 17 ................................................Activities Pages 18 - 24 ..............................................Further resources Page 25 ..........................................................Contact details 2.


About Scottish Dance Theatre For Teachers Scottish Dance Theatre (SDT) is Scotland’s national contemporary dance company and is part of Dundee Rep Theatre. SDT’s programme includes work by internationally celebrated and emerging choreographers.

Watch the Scottish Dance Theatre promo film here: http://vimeo.com/40657030

For Pupils Scottish Dance Theatre is a company of male and female dancers from around the world and a team of people who work behind the scenes. The dancers work with choreographers to create dances that tell stories and make people laugh, cry, think, smile and more. The dancers use lots of different ideas and the movements are inspired by many dance styles such as ballet, hip hop, contemporary and gymnastics. The dancers are very energetic and have to practice every day to avoid injury. They use their faces and voices and act as well as dance to tell the stories. Scottish Dance Theatre’s performances also use special effects such as music, lighting and animation. The company performs in theatres all over the world.

What is a choreographer?

A choreographer is a person who makes up dances for performance. The choreographer works very closely with the dancers and other members of the team.

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About What on Earth!? For Teachers SDT presents a new work for young people aged 5 and over. Combining dance theatre and animation What on Earth!? takes audiences on a curious nocturnal journey full of surprise encounters with strange flora and fauna.

For Pupils What on Earth!? begins with things we all do when we get ready to go to bed; cleaning our teeth, drinking water, getting into our pyjamas and checking for monsters under the bed! Then we drift off into dreamland, travelling around the world and meeting different creatures, plants and people along the way.

Watch rehearsal footage here: http://vimeo.com/40656614

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What on Earth!? timeline As What on Earth!? is not based on an existing story, it might be useful to go through this timeline with or without your pupils before coming to the performance:

Getting ready for bed:

The Incredible Flying Mattresses - Highly active games before bed in the circus style.

Bats:

Can’t Sleep - An animated nature documentary, as the female dancer falls asleep the bats fly from the TV screen and into her dreams. Revolting Peasants – The Transylvanian peasants tease the dreaming dancer with references of bats and vampires.

Pillow Dream Solo:

The bats leave and the female dancer’s dream takes her on a journey. She sees the world pass by and follows it off stage.

Trees:

Seedling - A Sycamore seed floats down to earth and germinates. The seedling grows up and out of the earth becoming a beautiful tree. The Friendly Tree – Still following the world, the wandering female dancer now meets the tree and realises they could be friends. Bollywood Disaster – Disaster strikes as the sound of saws echo through the forest. The trees gather to protect themselves from destruction. The dancers return to their dream state – sleeping under a tree at the back of the stage.

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Animals:

Toad Versus Mantis Kung Fu – A toad and a chameleon meet on a forest path, the chameleon transforms into a mantis and they battle for the right of way. Quenched – A small forest creature buries its precious water bottle, but a passing water bird discovers it, removes it, and drains the swamp. Thirsty fishy things beg for a share of the water but take the bottle away with them – leaving the bird all alone. Water Pillows – Pushing their pillows in front of them to mop up the water spilt in Quenched, the dancers continue their dream night journey. The dancers are using the sensation we all have of falling, just at the moment we drop off. Dance with the Earth – The female dancer, having met many friends along her night-time journey dances with the world. Signing Birds – A flock of pink footed water birds gather on the edge of the water and make plans for their annual migration using BSL signing. Duck’s Dream – Our friendly water bird returns, hoping to migrate with its friends, but is too late, and can’t fly anyway. Duck falls asleep and dreams of flying high across the cities and countryside – eventually on into outer space. On waking, the bird realises that its familiar surroundings have changed and that its friends have migrated.

Back To Bed

The dancers return to their bedtime antics, before piling up and falling asleep. The earth keeps turning.

Reprise

A recollection of the best parts of the night’s dreams!

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About the process This section includes some more information about the creative processes involved in making What on Earth!?. There are also full versions of these resources and an ‘About the team’ section at the back of this pack. Creating the dance, by Sally Owen (Co-choreographer) The movement content was created by the choreographers and the dancers, with all of us suggesting movement, stories and ideas. For example, I imagined two animals on a path who meet but won’t let each other pass, leading to a fight breaking out. When the dancers researched online they discovered that animals, insects and reptiles influence many Kung Fu forms. We created the Kung Fu battle between Preying Mantis and Toad using some real Kung Fu moves but mostly made up ones. We then tried adding different kinds of sound and music and finally chose tropical insect sound and Japanese style music. We think the result is quite funny!

Watch the video of Sally talking about the creation process: http://vimeo.com/40709285

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Creating the animation, by Graeme Hawkins (Animator) A technique I used quite often for What On Earth!? was to draw images onto transparent acetate (such as the bubbles in the swamp animation) and project them with an overhead projector onto my living room wall. I would then move them about and film them with a camera. It’s a really quick way to get movement and you only have to draw everything once! You can make it more complicated by combining two (or more) different moving images together to create a sequence – the bubbles in the swamp, for instance, would float up to the top of the water and then change to an image of the bubble bursting so it looks like part of the same sequence.

You can watch the process on Graeme’s video: http://vimeo.com/34432345

Here are some still shots of the animation. On the next page you can see the original storyboard for parts of the animations in What on Earth!?.

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The storyboard A storyboard is a picture by picture version of the film or animation that is used to represent the different parts and help make the finished film. Graeme has also included a human figure in some of the images to help you see how big the animations are compared to the people on stage.

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Creating the set and costume designs by Becky Minto (Designer) As a designer, I work with the director to create the look and atmosphere for the performance. I will research lots of ideas and spend time in rehearsals before we both decide on the right idea. I will then make a scaled model, which is a smaller version of the actual stage. We will choose the backcloth, called a cyc (short for cyclorama) and the colour of the dance floor. For specific pieces of furniture, such as the bed, I provide a drawing with all the measurements for the carpenter to build. I also work with the stage management staff to decide what the props (short for properties = stage objects, such as the balls and bat) should look like. Pictures of the set model box (scaled model of stage):

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I spend time watching the dancers to see how they move so that choices about the style and exibility of the costumes do not inhibit the performance of the dancers. Once the costumes have been designed, I work with the wardrobe department to choose the right fabrics for the costumes. The dancers are measured and the costumes are cut out and sewn together. The costumes are then ďŹ tted on the dancers to make sure everything ďŹ ts perfectly. Pictures of the costume designs:

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Activity 1: Slow-Mo Fighting

© Scottish Dance Theatre 2012

Suggested length: 1 hour Groups: Pairs and groups Curriculum links: Expressive Arts (Dance and Drama) Outcomes. Activity outline:

1. Spend 5 minutes warming up by moving quickly on the spot or around the room. 2. Get into pairs, label each other A and B and stand 2 metres apart. 3. Person A makes a slow motion punch towards the stomach of person B, without any contact. 4. Person B reacts by pulling stomach right back. 5. Person B makes a slow motion kick to A’s right shoulder. 6. Person A reacts by moving away. 7. The pairs practice these movements so they are very specific and the timing of the reactions matches the action. 8. Each pair adds in 4 fight moves of their own, developing the reactions into falls, rolls, turns etc. 9. Half the class shows their moves to the other half. Feedback and repeat with the other half. 10. Cool down by slowly stretching up, and to each side, then curling whole body down towards floor.

Further developments:

In small groups: Pairs can show their moves to another pair. All the moves can be developed into a group sequence adding in sections which everyone copies or repeats or where 3 people react to 1 person’s punch or kick. In Pairs: Pairs can also think about how they can resolve their fight sequence and add in a section before their fight.

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Activity 2: Going to Bed Dance

© Scottish Dance Theatre 2012

Suggested length: 1 hour Groups: Pairs and groups Curriculum links: Expressive Arts (Dance and Drama) Outcomes. Activity outline:

1. Spend 5 minutes warming up by moving quickly on the spot or around the room. 2. Standing in their own space, each pupil acts out 4 things they do when they’re getting ready to go to bed. Make those movements 10 times bigger and practice to be able to repeat the order. 3. Explore ways to link the movements using turns, rolls, jumps, balances etc. Spend at least 5 minutes exploring whole body and body part turns as well as jumps and balances to make sure everyone had ideas of what they can use. 4. Pupils get into pairs and find 3 ways to make contact with each other during their dance. 5. Half the class shows their moves to the other half. Feedback and repeat with the other half. 6. Cool down by slowly stretching up, and to each side,then curling whole body down towards floor.

Further developments:

Once everyone has their sequence, explore different speeds and dynamics to add interest and contrast. Think about the directions different movements could face. Explore the different space or directions the movements travel in (sometimes it helps if pupils make a ‘map of where my dance travels’ floor pattern). Think about refining and adding different qualities of movement – can the tooth brushing be enormous and then very tiny and delicate, for example?

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Activity 3: In My Dreams I Can...

© Scottish Dance Theatre 2012

Suggested length: 1 hour Groups: Pairs and groups Curriculum links: Expressive Arts (Dance and Drama) Outcomes.

Activity outline:

1. Spend 5 minutes warming up by moving quickly on the spot or around the room. 2. Pupils get into small groups of 3 or 4 and discuss things that they can do in their dreams but can’t do in real life (for example, run up walls, float, slow motion running, leap really far etc.). Each group decides on 3 things. 3. Each group work as a team to create the dream actions, keeping everyone safe. Movements that represent the 3 things and find ways to link the movements using turns, rolls, jumps, balances etc. Practice this sequence. 4. Find ways to link the movements using turns, rolls, jumps, balances etc. Practice this sequence. 5. Each group shares their sequence with the class. 6. Cool down by slowly stretching up, and to each side, then curling whole body down towards floor.

Further developments:

Explore different speeds and dynamics to add interest and contrast. Think about the directions different movements could face. Explore the different space or directions the movements travel in (sometimes it helps if pupils make a ‘map of where the dance travels’ floor pattern). Think about refining and adding different qualities of movement. The group may have created some lifts or balances; could some small and intricate movements also be added to give even more texture and contrast to the action?

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Activity 4: Write a Review...

Š Scottish Dance Theatre 2012

Suggested length: 1 hour Groups: Pairs and groups Curriculum links: Literacy Outcomes

Activity outline:

After watching the performance, the pupils can write a review of the production. The following hints and tips may be useful to think about before attending the performance and while preparing and writing the review: - How does the piece start?

- Describe interesting costumes, lighting, set and props/objects. Think about the colours, shapes and patterns. - Describe the movements (see the word lists on the next page).

- Is there a narrative? Is the dance telling a story or is it abstract? - Who are the main artists involved? - How does the piece end?

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Some advice from Mary Brennan, Dance and Theatre Critic: “Writing is different from telling. When you tell someone about a book or a film or a dance piece, your tone of voice and your facial expressions all help to communicate what you thought and felt. Even silences can speak volumes. When you write a review, words have to do all that for you. So it’s important to choose words with ‘added value’. For example: - ‘he races round the stage’ gives a stronger impression of speed than ‘he runs round the stage’ while ‘he strolls round the stage’ or ‘he plods rounds the stage’ suggest different degrees of slowness and give hints about the dancer’s mood at the same time. Punctuation marks can help to emphasise the points you are making, but too many exclamation marks can spoil the effect...!!!!! (see?) No-one can see any spelling mistakes when you tell them about a show. But when your review is in print, it’s important to get the spelling right especially if you are referring to the dancers by name. So remember to keep any programmes or information sheets after the show.”

Movement words: Balance - hover, pause in the air, freeze Turn - roll, pivot, rotate, circle, spin Jump – leap, hop, skip, pounce Slide – slither, glide Swing – circle Fall – melt, collapse, drop, release, relax Extend - stretch, reach out, kick, unfold Contract - pull in - fold, shrink Gesture – do a movement using just a hand or an arm or a foot or a leg. This could be a ‘pedestrian’ movement (something that we all do e.g. scratch nose, point finger, fold arms etc) or an abstract movement (e.g. point the foot then flex it, draw a circle with one elbow etc)

Movement quality: With energy, energetic, energetically, flowing, smooth, lyrical, controlled, sustained precise, with precision, detailed, exact, sharp, jerky.

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Other activity suggestions There are many other ways that a visit to see the show could inspire or support a particular subject such as art, literacy, creative writing and science. Here are some further activity ideas for use in the classroom:

Explore the environmental themes: What on Earth!? could inspire a project about a particular issue, such as water wastage, which could be explored through classroom activities or a long-term project.

Creative writing / Create a storyboard: During the show, we meet many characters. Their stories could be explored further by asking pupils to write a story or create a storyboard to show what the characters have been doing to lead up to a particular moment or what happens after the scene we see.

Costume design: Create an alternative costume design for one of the characters from the show.

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About the team The dancers: Please see our website for the current cast of What On Earth?!

Watch a video with some of the dancers: http://vimeo.com/40655533

These team members worked behind the scenes to create What on Earth!?: Janet Smith: Former Artistic Director/Co-choreographer

As Artistic Director of Scottish Dance Theatre, Janet would make all of the big decisions about the company, such as what type of work the dancers would create, who they would work with and where the work would be performed. Janet was one of the choreographers for What on Earth!? with Sally Owen.

Sally Owen: Assistant Director/Co-choreographer

Sally plans the dancers daily class and rehearsal schedules in addition to many other tasks. Sally co-choreographed What on Earth!? with Janet Smith.

Graeme Hawkins: Animator

Graeme works in Dundee, just around the corner from Scottish Dance Theatre’s home. He works with lots of different companies to create animations for their specific projects. He helped to turn our ideas into magic worlds using pictures and drawings, a computer and projection to create animations that are used to help tell the stories in the performance.

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Becky Minto: Designer

Becky works with many companies like ours to create sets and costumes for performances. The set for What on Earth!? is very simple as the dancers need space to move around and we also use other ways to ‘set the scene’, using the animation and lighting. The costumes had to be variations on sleepwear. Everyone has his or her own specially designed jimjams! Becky sent us drawings of each costume and then they were made by our fantastic wardrobe department who stitch the costumes together.

Emma Jones: Lighting Designer

Emma is the person who brings the worlds of the choreographers, designer and animator together with her lighting design. On stage, we use lots of different types and colours of lights to create the atmosphere and make sure the dancers can be seen.

Amy Steadman: Stage Manager

Amy finds or makes the objects for the show such as the bat, the duck feet and balls of all shapes and sizes. She has to know everything about the show and the different special effects because she will be the person who sits at the side of the stage and tells people when to turn the music, lights and animation on or off.

Colin Lowson: Sound Technician and Sound Recordist

Colin has the job of putting all of the different music and sound effects together to make sure we have the right length and volume for each part. He also helped us to record the voice of Kevin Lennon, an actor whose voice we use for part of the show. We asked Kevin to try being David Attenborough for a mini animated documentary and found ourselves in amongst rows of costumes in the wardrobe department recording Kevin’s voice! The costumes make a wonderful and very effective soundproof box so you only hear Kevin’s voice and no background noise.

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More about the creation process by Sally Owen: Watch the video of Sally talking about the creation process: For Teachers: http://vimeo.com/40709285 For Pupils: http://vimeo.com/40656119

How did you come up with the ideas for this show?

I can’t remember exactly where our ideas started. I know we are both interested in our planet Earth and its amazing life and environments both big and small. Also we have worries that human beings do not look after these wonderful things as well as we should. We didn’t want to tell an existing story so decided to make our own story with little ‘pods’ of dance. These became ‘awake’ pods or ‘dream’ pods. Pods gave us the freedom to follow lots of ideas.

How do you make choreography with the dancers?

There are so many ways to make choreography and different choreographers use different techniques. I need the ‘seed’ of an idea to start with and sometimes the idea comes after listening to music or sound and sometimes the idea comes on its own. I have always loved animation and comedy and physical theatre and all three things tend to mix into the final choreography.

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For instance we decided that we should have a fight in one section. I imagined two animals on a pathway that meet but won’t let each other pass. A fight begins. Kung Fu and ‘Transformers’ came to my mind and the dancers working with me went on line to Google ‘Kung Fu’. We discovered that animals, insects and reptiles influence many Kung Fu forms. The great Kung Fu battle between Preying Mantis and Toad was created. Some real Kung Fu moves but mostly made up ones came first and then we made them into a dance/ fight with no music. We then tried different kinds of sound and music but finally chose tropical insect sound and Japanese style music. We think the result is quite funny! Janet is very interested in people and their connections and friendships. She likes to give the dancers movement tasks. Together they created movement sometimes to music; sometimes the music came later in the process. Different music will make the same movement say a different thing. One day she started to work on sections of movement with pillows. Sometimes the pillows were used by the dancers in a sleep/dream place and sometimes in very awake pillow games. In one beautiful section the sleepers push their pillows along the floor dreaming whilst the pillows mop up water spilt in the dance that happened before. Many hours were spent making up great pillow games and jumping around on the bed. The rehearsal bed was completely destroyed! The movement content has come from the choreographers and the dancers, all of us adding to the choreography, changing, adjusting and suggesting movement, stories and ideas.

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More about the animation process by Graeme Hawkins: I can remember wanting to be an animator from about the age of ten or eleven when my Dad bought me a book called The Art Of Animation. I was really into all the hand drawn Disney films that were about when I was a kid, like The Lion King and Aladdin, where the animators had to draw every single frame (that’s 24 frames for every second of the film!). I think I just loved the spectacle and the visual overload that you experience when you see those films on the big screen, and I still love that feeling today whether it’s with a film, or a videogame, or a piece of really detailed graphic design or illustration. That ambition to become an animator stayed with me until it was time to decide on a university course after school, so I went to Duncan of Jordanstone in Dundee to study animation. A technique I used quite often for What On Earth!? was to draw images onto transparent acetate (such as the bubbles in the swamp animation) and project them with an overhead projector onto my living room wall where I would move them about and film them with a camera. It’s a really quick way to get movement and you only have to draw everything once! You can make it more complicated by combining two (or more) different moving images together to create a sequence – the bubbles in the swamp, for instance, would float up to the top of the water and then change to an image of the bubble bursting so it looks like part of the same sequence (you can see how that works here http://vimeo.com/34432345).

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More about the set and costume design by Becky Minto: When I was a young girl I spent a lot of time at Ballet and Drama classes and was always very excited, yet nervous when the time came to go on stage. I was nervous of performing but excited by the scenery, the costumes and the amazing lights that would colour the stage. Years later in my late teens my Grandmother heard of a Degree course at The Welsh College of Music and Drama where you could train to design costumes and scenery for the stage. I applied, won a place and went to study for 3 years. Now with children of my own I am still very lucky to be designing sets and costumes for the stage and I still get excited when they appear on stage. As a designer you work with the director to create the right visual look and atmospheric feel for the performance. I will research lots of ideas and spend time in rehearsals before we decide on the right idea. Once that has been decided I will make a scaled model, which looks exactly like what the actual stage will eventually look like, but much smaller. This helps the director, performers; lighting designer and stage management have an idea of the space. From here we will choose the right backcloth, called a cyc and the colour of the dance oor. For speciďŹ c pieces of furniture, such as the bed, I would provide a drawing for the carpenter with all the measurements required. I would also work with stage management to decide on the look for any props, such as the balls and the bat.

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Next are costumes, it is important when thinking about costume to spend time watching the dancers to see how they move so that choices about the style and exibility do not inhibit the performance of the dancers. Once the costumes have been designed I work with the wardrobe department in choosing the right fabrics for the costumes. The dancers are measured and the costumes are cut out and sewn together. The costumes are then ďŹ tted on the dancers to make sure everything ďŹ ts perfectly and any adjustments are made before rehearsals on stage.

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Contact us

For more information about Scottish Dance Theatre’s Creative Learning programme, please contact: Dawn Hartley, SDT Education Manager dhartley@dundeereptheatre.co.uk 01382 342600 We welcome all feedback to this pack and our work. Please send any comments or results of activities to Dawn. www.scottishdancetheatre.com

Funders: The Moffat Trust/The Mathew Trust/ The Northwood Trust/Harold Adams CharitableTrust/ G. Patullo Advancement Award Scheme/ William S Phillips’Fund/ Iain More Associates Publicity and production photography by Andy Ross. Resource pack designed by Bonnie Smith.

SDT is part of Dundee Rep. Dundee Rep is a Registered Charity SC017315

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