A Snow Globe, Mushroom, and Ski Slope

Week 5

This week's lesson was all about teamwork.  This lesson plan, inspired by my fellow BYU dance educator Kelli Briggs, was intended to help the students successfully work as a team to complete a goal.

First, we choreographed a dance sequence to the word phrase:

"When we work as a team we can all succeed.  Sometimes we follow, sometimes we lead."

The students enjoyed having a set piece of movement that they choreographed and performed.

A "mushroom"

Then we played a game that required silent communication.  I taught them different tasks to do when I called out a specific word.  The words, such as basket, skyscraper, star, required the dancers to get into groups of a specific number to accomplish the task.  If the dancer was unable to find dancers to be in a group with, then they would be out.  Because of the varying numbers required to complete the task, students would be out each round. This game went on until there was only two students left.  It was fun to see the student's competitive side, and watch them interact with students they would not normally.

A "snowglobe"

Next, I introduced them to the dance/athlete group Pilobolus.  This group creates amazing shapes using only human bodies.  Inspired by Pilobolus, their task was to create shapes using only their bodies.  I assigned them into small groups, and it was their objective to pick a word and create a shape representing it.  Working as a team, the students chose words such as pyramid, ski slope, mushroom, snow globe, and a spider. This task required students to work together as a team, sharing ideas and taking turns being the leader. 

Each group presented their shapes, and the rest of the class tried to guess what they were.   I enjoyed observing the interactions between classmates as they shared ideas. 

An "olympic skier"