(upbeat music)
-: Hi, I'm Ciara with Moving Minds Dance.
I believe that we can learn all things through dance,
so today we're going to talk about how to tell a story
and clearly communicate an idea
without using any words at all.
Wherever you are, to do this activity all you need
is your body.
We're going to look at a story together,
and then figure out how to turn it into movement.
The book that we're looking at today
is called "On The Ball" by Brian Pinkney.
While we read this story, I want you to think
about the most important thing on every page.
I want you to think about what the main character, Owen,
is doing, how he's feeling, and where he is,
the setting that the story is taking place in.
All of those things could be the thing
that we need to communicate to the audience.
"On The Ball" by Brian Pinkney.
"Owen loved playing ball.
"But playing ball didn't always love Owen.
"And then one fateful day, Owen took
"his eye off the ball.
"When it escaped, it was up to Owen
"to track it down and get it back.
"It floated across a racing stream.
"Whoosh!
"Then Owen tracked it.
"Through tangled bushes.
"Pounce!
"Bounce!
"Then he flew.
"All the way back on to the field
"and into the game.
"And from that day on, floating,
"fierce and flying free.
"Owen always kept his eye on the ball."
The end.
I love this story, because it has
a lot of things happening.
There are a lot of feelings, there are a lot of actions,
and there are a lot of dance words
hidden in the text.
So now we're going to read through the story again
and we're going to look at the pictures,
and we're going to think about the words,
and we're going to turn all of those ideas into movements,
kind of like acting it out.
Now, I can't hear the ideas that you have,
so all of the movements that I do in my dance
are going to show what I think is important,
and what I see.
But you might have a different idea
of how to show what's important to you,
and I would love for your dance to look different
from my dance.
I want you to be in charge of the creation
that you make.
So, let's start all together.
At the first page, I'm looking at the illustration.
I see that Owen is doing this really cool movement
with his legs up in the air as he chases the soccer ball.
So I can do that movement too.
At the beginning, "Owen loved playing ball."
I see he's falling here, I can fall too,
in a safe way.
"But playing ball," oh!
"Didn't always love Owen."
I can copy the same shape that he's making.
"And then one fateful day," when I look
at that picture, I can see that he is feeling disappointed.
So I can stand up and show a disappointed walk.
(Ciara sighs)
"Owen took his eye off the ball.
"And then suddenly," (Ciara gasps)
A surprise, that's what I see here,
I see his face is surprised, and he watches the ball.
(Ciara gasps)
"It escaped.
"It was up to Owen to chase it down
"and get it back."
He's reaching out, so my dance move
might be reaching too.
And then on this page I see a lot of water,
twisting and curving, and I could make
this part of the story a water dance
to show how the water is moving
and why it's important.
"It floated."
That's a beautiful dancing word.
We can make our bodies float too.
You might see in the illustration
that he has a fish tail.
How could we move like a fish to show
that Owen is also moving like a fish?
Maybe you swim with your arms.
Maybe you show your tail flicking.
There are so many ways to do that.
"Across a racing stream.
"Whoosh!"
So it's a fast stream, you can hear how fast it is.
And you can see these swirls.
Maybe you spin.
Or maybe you move from one place to another place.
That's a fun way to show that racing stream.
"Whoosh," there's another whoosh.
And here, we also see that Owen is coming to land.
So maybe our whoosh stops.
Maybe we show him carefully climbing out of the water.
"Then Owen tracked it."
Look at what animal he turns into.
It's a tiger, you can think about how Owen
would be moving like a sneaking tiger
in this part of the dance.
"Through tangled bushes."
How would you weave through tangled bushes?
Would you go one way and then the other way?
There are so many ways to think about that.
"Pounce!"
And, "Bounce!"
Those are clear dance words too.
We could pounce and bounce with our bodies
for that part.
"And then he flew."
What a lovely dance word.
How could you make a dance that looks like a bird?
I think about moving my arms up and down,
I might think about leaping in the air.
And that flying dance can happen for a long time
without any words at all.
"All the way back."
And you see, he's traveling a far distance.
We could show a far distance in our dance too.
I also see, when I look closely,
that he's holding the ball with his feet.
I could copy that shape with my body,
as if I had a ball between my feet.
So maybe we can go far across the stage,
or whatever room we're in.
"On to the field," he doesn't look sad anymore,
he looks refreshed and happy, and proud.
So I see he's kneeling, but I also see
that he coach is welcoming him back in.
So I could be the coach for a part of the dance.
"And into the game," and now he looks really focused.
But I could do the same movement
that I did at the beginning to show
that he's playing soccer again.
"From that day on, floating, fierce, and flying free."
I could copy his movements, or I cold think
about the words.
Floating.
Fierce.
And flying free.
"Owen always kept his eye on the ball."
I see that he's happy, he's proud.
I might not safely be able to do a back flip like Owen,
but I could still jump for joy.
And you can too.
That is how I would finish the dance.
Now if we had more time together,
I would say, let's go through the book
and dance without even reading the words,
just doing the movements that we thought of.
And we could have someone watch
and see if our movements are clear,
if they can see the water, or the tiger,
or Owen's joy and pride at the end.
You can do that on you own time,
but you can also think about other stories.
"On The Ball" is only one book that I love.
There are so many books in the world
that I think are important, and that tell important stories.
Maybe you have a favorite book,
or maybe your favorite story is something
that you've heard a family member tell over
and over again until you memorized it.
That could be a dance.
Maybe you love making up your own stories,
and you think you could create a dance
based on something that you invented.
That's a wonderful way to create a dance.
A lot of famous ballets are based on stories
that people made up just for the dance itself.
So, you can have a lot of fun playing with these ideas
and creating new dances and new stories.
I hope that you will.
Again, I'm Ciara with Moving Minds Dance,
and today we learned how to tell a story through movement
and without words.
I hope that you'll keep practicing
those ideas on your own, and I hope
that you'll come back and dance with me again soon.
Thank you.
(upbeat music)