(upbeat music)
-: Hi, I'm Ciara with Moving Minds Dance.
I think that we can learn anything through dance.
So today we are going to dance about the setting
of a story.
The setting is where a story takes place,
and it can be really important
because the setting changes what happens to the characters
and how they're feeling.
If a character is in outer space,
they're probably gonna have a very different experience
than someone who's in Seattle.
So we're gonna think about setting
and we're gonna dance about it.
To do all of that, all you need is your body.
You can think about setting in the book
that we'll look at together,
but you can also do this activity with books
that you have around you, or with the world
that you have around you.
You can dance about the setting
of your life, whether that's the room that you're in
or what you see out the window,
or if you go outside,
the world that you have all around you.
We are going to think about dance levels
to help us understand setting today.
In dance, levels talk about how high or low you are.
So we can be in a shape on a high level.
Can you do a high level shape with me?
Reaching up to the sky.
We can do a dance on a middle level,
which is kind of like crouching in a tunnel or a cave.
We have to stay down low,
but around kind of where the middle of our body is.
And then a low level is all the way down on the floor.
We can be flat on the ground for a low level,
or we can have a little bit of space to make some shapes.
Level is important in the setting of a story,
because it helps us understand what's going
on around the character, all around them.
So there might be something
in the sky above the character, or something kind of
on a characters level, or something underneath them.
And we have to know what's going on
in every direction to understand
why the setting is important to the character.
Let's look at some examples.
This is the book, "Here We Are" by Oliver Jeffers,
and it has some beautiful pictures of the earth
that we live on and the things
that are all around us.
Whoa, let's start on this page.
We can see all kinds of different parts
of the earth on different levels.
Up high, we see the sky.
I see the moon.
Could you make a curvy shape
like the moon way up high?
Maybe you hold your arms in a circle
or the clouds might be floating
on a high level.
We also see the mountains that are jagged and cold.
So we could make that sharp shape of zigzags with our body.
On the middle level in this picture, there's a volcano.
How would you erupt like a volcano?
What movement would you do?
I might jump and explode that way.
We also have some curvy hills.
I could make those shapes on a middle level.
On the low level in this picture,
we see things that are flat.
So either the flat grasses that are waving
or even the flat dry desert,
if I laid all the way down on the ground,
I could show that or the wiggly wetlands.
Let's look at another one.
This is the ocean, in this setting,
the animals can be characters or they can be part
of the setting.
At the high level, I see waves.
How would those move?
Can you show me a movement
that would reflect what you see in the picture
on a high level?
In the middle, we could think
about all the animals that are moving.
How would the octopus move?
How would the turtle move?
What about the jellyfish?
How is that different?
On the low level of this page,
we see different animals that live at the bottom
of the ocean,
like crabs and corals.
We can also see a ship wreck.
How would the pirate ship dance?
Would it wave?
Would it be big and wide?
What about the treasure chest or the manta ray?
On this page, the world looks very different.
The setting changes how the people are acting
and what they're doing.
On a high level, I see a tree.
I could balance like a tree
or I could stretch like the branches.
I could even wave my fingers like leaves.
I see people climbing the tree,
I see a bird flying.
We could jump and fly like the bird on a high level.
On the middle level, I see the waving river,
I see the cow moo
and on a low level, I see grasses and I see bugs.
I could buzz like a bumblebee way down low.
(buzzes)
Or I could crawl like a ladybug
or I could even, bloom like a flower on a low level.
Let's look at one more example of setting.
This is a busy city, it's very different
from the ocean and the very from the meadow.
In this setting, we see airplanes and helicopters
on a high level.
We even see a skyscraper and birds on a high level.
On the middle level, we see boats, we see a bridge,
maybe we see people who are doing things
in their own apartments.
And then on the low level,
we see people walking on the street
and a train going through the tunnel.
How would you show a train on a low level?
(huffs)
If you have a lot of people around you,
you can make a dance where you all work together
and show what's happening on different levels.
Maybe one person could do a high level dance,
one person could do a middle level dance,
one person could do a low level dance.
And when you work together,
the people watching can understand the scene.
They can understand the setting that they see.
I just have myself all alone
and maybe you are watching by yourself too.
So we are going to make a dance that
is called an ABC dance.
It has a beginning, a middle and an end, A, B, C.
And each movement in our dance is going to be different.
When we do this dance,
we're going to show a different level for every section.
So we're gonna do a high level dance at the beginning,
a middle level movement in the middle
and a low level movement at the end.
When we make this dance, let's look at our ocean setting.
I think this is a fun one to dance about.
I want you to look carefully at this picture
and decide three things that you want to put
in your dance.
One thing on a high level,
one thing on the middle level of the picture,
and one thing from the bottom of the picture.
While you decide, I'm gonna tell you what I'm putting
in my dance.
I'm going to have the waves in my dance,
I hope somebody picks the shark.
I'm going to have the turtle in my dance.
And then at the end,
I'm going to dance like the treasure chest on a low level.
So my ABC dance is waves, turtle, treasure chest.
What's in your dance?
What are your three parts?
I'm doing a high wave.
What will you do?
I'm going to do a middle turtle.
What will you do?
And then at the end,
I'm going to be a treasure chest.
All right, let's do those movements
one more time without the help of the book.
We are going to dance our A, B, C dances.
And that will be our last activity for the day.
Are you ready?
Let's start on a high level
and we'll do our movement for the number eight.
It's a magic number in dance.
Are you ready?
Here we go.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Your second movement,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Your third movement,
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, the end.
Good job, thank you so much for dancing with me today.
I had so much fun and I hope you did too.
You can keep doing this idea
of creating a scene dance,
a setting dance, again,
with the books that you have around you
or with the world that you have around you.
Think about how dancing
about the setting can change your perspective of it
and make you understand it in a new way.
I hope that it's fun for you to explore,
and I hope that you'll keep dancing, thank you.
(upbeat music)