LESSON 1: Telling a Story with Pantomime

LESSON 1: TELLING A STORY WITH PANTOMIME LESSON AT A GLANCE

LESSON OBJECTIVE: Students will listen to the story of “The Nutcracker” and participate in a collaborative small group pantomime in which they will physically and emotionally act out a story to understand how dance uses movement to tell a narrative.

DURATION: 45 mins

MATERIALS: Picture book of The Nutcracker, Handout 1: Scenes from The Nutcracker

STANDARDS: CCCS, ELA/Literacy: Reading Standards for Literature, Grade 5: 5.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama or poem from details in the text, including how characters in a story or drama respond to challenges or how the speaker in a poem reflects upon a topic; summarize the text. CCSS, ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening Standards, Grade 5: 5.1 Engage effectively in a range of discussions with diverse partners on Grade 5 topics and texts, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly. CCSS ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening Standards, Grade 5: 5.2 Summarize a written text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally. CA VAPA, Dance, Grade 5: 2.5 Convey a wide range of feelings and expression through gestures, posture and movement. CA VAPA, Dance, Grade 5: 2.6 Demonstrate cooperation, collaboration, and empathy in working with partners and in groups.

CONCEPTS/VOCABULARY: Ballet: A classic Western dance form that originated in the Renaissance courts of Europe. By the time of Louis XIV in the mid-1600s, steps and body positions were classified. Character: A person who is part of a story or drama. Dramatize: To present something in a dramatic way. Gesture: A movement of a part of a body, especially a hand or head, to express an idea or meaning. Setting: Where and when a story takes place. Theme: An idea, belief, message or lesson of a story that the author wants the reader to understand. Pantomime: Using body movement, gestures, and facial expression to communicate or tell a story.

GUIDING QUESTIONS: How would you briefly summarize this story in words? Why is movement effective in telling a story?

LESSON PLAN

Mini-Lesson: Pantomime

Begin The Nutcracker unit with a pantomime exercise. Do a pantomime in front of the class and tell students to watch, and try to guess what emotion you are feeling.

Stand with arms folded, brows furrowed, and lips pursed. You are feeling angry.

Next, add movement and gesture to the pantomime by pretending to hold a bat and hit a ball. Call on another student to guess what the action was.

Ask the students if anyone knows the word for what you were doing. If someone answers with “pantomime” ask that it be explained. Review the definitions of pantomime and gesture as a class. Pantomime is using body movements, gestures, and facial expression to communicate or tell a story. Gesture is a movement of a part of a body, especially a hand or head, to express an idea or meaning.

Have students stand and pair up with a neighbor. Have students decide who is Partner A and Partner B. Tell students that you will assign a pantomime to Partner A who will then go back to Partner B and perform it. Partner B will guess what the pantomime is.

Ask Partner A students to come to the front of the room and whisper the pantomime that they receive happy news whispered in their ear followed right away by sad news whispered in their ear. Have Partner A’s go back to their partners and perform the pantomime. Ask Partner B to guess the action!

Repeat this activity with the Partner B students. Whisper to them that they will pantomime chewing a piece of gum, blowing a bubble which then bursts, sticking all over their face.

When done, have students take their seats and remind them that they will be attending a ballet performance of The Nutcracker performed by Westside Ballet at The Broad Stage. Similar to the pantomimes they just performed, ballet uses dance, music, and expression to tell a story. The music is integral to the story as it sets the mood. Students will learn more about the music in The Nutcracker in Lesson 3. The specific type of dance used to tell the story of The Nutcracker is called ballet, which has many of its own specific movements that will be explored in further lessons.

Main Activity

Part 1: Read and Discuss The Nutcracker

Tell students you are going to read aloud, The Nutcracker so that they are familiar with the story before seeing the ballet. While you read, tell them to think about the story elements (plot, setting, main character, conflict, and theme) and visualize how they would tell it without words.

NOTE: In this version, the main character is Marie, but in the Westside Ballet production, the main character is Clara, as it is in other versions of this story.

Read any version of the entire story with the class. (Suggested: The Nutcracker, Illustrated by Valeria Docampo, Based on the New York City Ballet Production of George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker, published by Little Simon.)

When done reading, have partners pair share about the story elements and identify the plot, main character, setting and conflict. After identifying, ask partners to discuss what they believe the theme of the story is and why. Ask for two partnerships to share with the class.

Part 2: Demonstration of Learning with Pantomime

Task: Perform a scene from The Nutcracker using gesture, movement, and expression in small groups.

Form groups of 4 students and give each group Handout 1: Scenes from The Nutcracker. Assign each group a scene from numbers 1-5 on Handout 1. Cut into strips and give one strip to each group.

NOTE: To be consistent with Westside Ballet’s performance the name Clara is used for the scenes to pantomime, instead of Marie.

Ask students to collaborate and create a brief pantomime of the scene they were given. Remind students of the assessment criteria that all members of the group play a part in the pantomime, and that they use facial expressions and gestures to communicate the story.

Assessment Criteria: • Work cooperatively. • All group members participate in the scene, or is the “Director.” • Use facial expressions and movements/gestures to communicate what is happening in assigned scene.

After assigning parts and rehearsing, ask groups to perform their pantomime to the class. Make a clear area for a “stage” and remind students of audience etiquette. After the group performs, ask for an audience member to guess the scene that was performed. Ask for more student volunteers to identify the gestures and facial expressions that the group used to tell the story.

Purpose: To be more familiar with the story of The Nutcracker, develop nonverbal skills of gesture and expression and have a better understanding of how ballet uses movement and expression to tell a story.

Student Reflection

In a brief group discussion (or quick write), students reflect on how pantomiming of the scene from the story was different from the mini lesson pantomime activity. Have students answer and reflect on the following questions:

• Why was it helpful to have heard the story? • In what ways will listening to the story and pantomiming a brief scene help you better understand and appreciate how dance can tell a story?