Year 9 students are currently studying Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’ in English. The purpose of the dance workshop was for students to physically embody the storm and to give them an experience of learning about the narrative through movement.
Words in a story set the mood, lead the reader in to the world of the characters. Punctuation and structure helps to create pacing and dramatic tension. In dance these devices were echoed through exploring dynamic shifts in space, repeating and layering movement material to build dramatic tension in the space and to coach a stylistically appropriate performance presence. Students were firstly guided through the creative process of forming duets that travelled across the space, symbolizing a storm being conjured from the story. Students then explored the violent ebb and flow of the sea and created duets that captured a climatic streaming of motion, with reference to how the characters were described to be feeling in this scene. Students then created physical manifestations of lightning bolts through layering fragmented movements with strong accents. This material was then combined and performed at the end of the workshop, providing an exploratory experience that students could reflect on to enrich their learning of Shakespeare’s ‘The tempest’. Mr. Spencer (dance specialist) commented on the workshop…’I was impressed by the imagination and commitment of our Regents students. Students were able to perform original movement responses showing confident skills in collaborating with their peers, problem solving creative challenges and working together as a team to deliver an effective final performance’.
‘Mr Spencer’s workshop really brought the opening scene of The Tempest to life for our students. It was a genuinely engaging way to begin our Shakespeare unit. We look forward to future collaborations with dance!’ Ms Ray, English Teacher.
