I Like to Move It, Move It (lesson idea)
Have you ever taken part in something we call YouTube Party? It happens when you meet friends, chat a bit and suddenly someone goes like “have you seen this video on YouTube?”… and you’re doomed; you know that for the next two hours you’ll be watching random stuff telling you more than you want about your mates’ interests.
I don’t really remember who took me to this unknown area of the Internet and showed me David Armand and his interpretative dance in Fast and Loose, a British TV series, but whoever that was, I owe them. Just take a look at something that never fails to put a smile on my face – the interpretative version of “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen:
The curse (or the blessing) of a creative teacher is when you see such material you know it’s literally ready to wrap it up in some more or less educational principles and you’re ready to go with a lesson. So, naturally, here I am with some ideas that you can use to make your classes a bit more festive.
Guess the song
The most obvious activity that may work well with adults, as I don’t think many youngsters will know all the songs (you may find more songs here). Just show the video (make sure not to show the title) and ask your students to guess the song. You may do this as a group activity to encourage competitiveness or simply ask for answers whenever someone is ready to guess.
Try to identify the words
Once we guess the song, we can easily observe that the gestures are not random – some base on metaphors, others on puns etc. Watch a chosen song with your students and try to identify all the words. Then try to apply them to another song – it will be easier to guess it now!
Make your own “code” – and show it
If your students like this activity and are quite creative, why not encourage them to create their own “code” and act it out before the whole class? To make it easier, divide your class into groups and each group may come up with a different song – of course the song has to be kept secret, so the rest of the class will have to guess it together!
It’s a completely new song!
When you listen to the song for the first time, you’ll probably get some words oh, so wrong – but stick to them! Write them down and try to make a completely new song with them. Bonus idea? Try to sing the new song along!
I hope you liked my ideas on how to use interpretative dance in the classroom – if you and your students come up with more inspirations, please share them with me.
Enjoy!
