Our "Frozen-Inspired" Dance Camp: Activities & Games

This post is part of our "Frozen-Inspired" Dance Camp Series.

Activities / Creative Movement

Melting & Freezing
We explored the movement qualities of melting and freezing by pretending to be Olaf melting in the summer or freezing with Elsa's help.  We melted for 16 slooooooow counts, and froze again for 16 then repeated in 8 counts, 4 counts, 2 and 1!  We melted with a friend, froze into different shapes or poses, started on one leg, etc.  Lots of variations to be had with this one!
More Melting Inspiration from Maria's Movers Blog

Journey to Elsa's Castle
We pretended to be Anna and Kristoff making their journey to or from Elsa's castle.  We did this by playing Going on a Bear Hunt, but we changed the words to "We're going on a journey, we're gonna go get Elsa, I'm not scared, I'm not scared".  For the next part ("we can't go over it, we can't go under it, I guess we'll go... through it!"), we encountered :

• Deep deep snow - big slow marches to lift our feet through the snow
• A dark forest - tip toes
• A cold frozen stream - skating
• A big tall mountain - climbing actions
• An icy staircase - careful climbing actions

Until we got to the castle and knocked on the door and found... MARSHMALLOW (the snow monster)!  Reverse all the actions as fast at you can to go back to Arrendale and climb into bed with the covers over our head.

Creative Movement based on Scenes or Characters from the Movie
We did a lot of creative movement / free dance, based on settings and characters from the movie.  We would first describe the scene / character, then talk about the movements the characters did (running, rolling, climbing, skating, etc) and then dance them using those movements.  Some of our favorite scenes:

Olaf In Summer - skipping, laying (sun-tanning), swaying, blowing dandelions, floating

Skating on Elsa's pond - skating, twirling, sliding

Dancing like Marshmallow - "stompy", angry, slow

They also enjoyed pretending to be at the coronation ball, dancing like the trolls, pretending to be a snow-swirl created by Elsa, and of course, being Elsa.

Games

In addition to the usual run of camp games (Freeze Dance, 4 corners, relay races, etc), we added a few or tailored them to better fit our theme:

Obstacle Course - We set up various obstacles around the room relating to the trip to Elsa's castle.  We used cones to tip toe around like trees, a tunnel to go under, a gym mat to roll across, a "tightrope" (tape line on the floor) to walk on, ice puddles to jump over (little rugs)

Pin the Nose on Olaf - we had an Olaf-shaped posterboard and had the girls take turns being blind-folded and pinning their "nose" onto Olaf.  Since we had a large crew, we split them between three different groups so we could have three people going at the same time.

Our life-size Anna & Elsa was a
big hit for photos!

Red Light, Green Light, Frozen Variation - Basic Red light/Greenlight rules - in our version instead of being a redlight/greenlight, the "It" person is Elsa - and freezes people when she turns around.  We used the terms "WINTER" for STOP and "SUMMER" for GO.  If anyone was caught moving when the "It" person said WINTER, they had to go back to the starting line.  First person to touch the "It" person gets to be "It" for the next round.

One other thing that we used during the week was this Life-size Anna & Elsa - we found this great life-size cardboard cutout from Amazon.  They have other characters, but I really liked the two girls together.  We used them for a backdrop in our pictures and the kids loved "holding their hand" and just seeing them in general.


What other games / activities can be adapted to fit a "Frozen" theme?  Are you sick of the music yet?  Will you use it in your classes next season? Comment below!

Winter Olympics-Inspired Movement

While my studio is in the process of getting buried under a foot of snow, I figured I would spend my surprise free time planning some olympics-inspired creative movement for tomorrow's classes.

Pass The Torch - Traveling

You could pass an imaginary torch or a "real" prop (as simple as an orange scarf).  Have your dancers spread out around the room.  When the dancer has the "torch", them must dance the torch to the next person and then sit down to indicate they already had a turn.  The final dancer brings the torch to the designated "torch lighting station" (could be teacher, or spot in the room).

Pass The Torch - Stationary

Spread out in a line or a circle close enough to touch another person's out stretched hand.  Begin to pass the torch using different levels and different body parts until it reaches the end.  If you are using a prop, see how far the class can pass it without dropping.

The Slowest Bobsled Race Ever Won

Connect your dancers into teams of 2, 3 or 4 dancers and have them sit one in front of each other in a straddle (like a caterpiller).  Have them hold onto each other at the shoulders or hips so that they are connected.

The goal is to move as a unit over a certain distance (we used tape lines about 5-6 feet apart).  Give them time to practice--they will learn quickly they have to work as a team to move without becoming disconnected!

Line up your "bobsleds" and the first group to completely cross the finish wins.  Disqualify any team that separates.

Variations:  Try a whole-class bobsled!  Or backwards or sideways bobsled race!

Ice & Snow Improv

Adapt usual creative movement exercises to be set at the olympics.

• Community Brainstorm - Snow from Maria's Movers
• Snowman Dance
• Skiing, Skating & Snowboarding from Maria's Movers

Suggested Musical Tracks

• Song: Olympic Fanfare and Theme - traditional fanfare
• Album: Champions Will Rise - Audiomachine - if you like epic music, this is for you
• Song: Handel: Music for the Royal Fireworks & Water Music 

Have you been watching the olympics?  Have you done any lessons based on the olympics?  Is anyone else ready for spring?!

Dance Games, Part 1

Do your dancers ask to play games in dance class or request something "fun"?

As hard as I try to keep class engaging and entertaining, many of my recreational classes still ask for "games" to play.  Often, I will turn to creative movement exercises and label them as "games".  I also like to throw in some vocabulary builders.  If you're looking for some new ideas for dance games, here are some alternatives to Freeze Dance (although if you like Freeze Dance, here are a few these variations on Freeze Dance).

When I started gathering ideas for this post and putting together this list, I discovered a bunch of new games.  There are simply too many for one post, so I will spread them out in a few different posts. This post will cover games for Terminology and Vocabulary Review.

Terminology & Vocabulary Review

Dance Quiz

Tap Dance Flash Cards
From Dance Teacher Press

Basic vocabulary review.  Here are few ideas to keep it interesting:

• Pick-a-card:  Write down terminology or combinations of steps on note cards.  For younger students, you could draw positions or help them read it.  One at a time, have a dancer pick a card and they must do that step.  For younger students, they get to be the teacher in the front of the room and demonstrate the step while everyone else practices.

• The Line-Up:  Students stand in a line in the back of the studio.  Starting with the first person, teacher gives them a dance step.  If they do it correctly, they get to move up one step.  If they don't know it, they pass and the next person gets the same step until someone knows it. Continue down the line with a new term, going back to the beginning of the line when you run out of dancers.  Goal is to get to the front line (we usually play 3 steps). 

• The Line-Up, fast version: I play this version with larger classes. Students stand in a line (facing away from the mirror to discourage peeking) and all close their eyes.  Teacher says a vocabulary step and every does it in place (keeping eyes closed).  Dance teacher taps anyone who is doing it correctly on the shoulder and they get to move up one step. We usually open our eyes at this point and I pick someone to demonstrate what the step was.  Repeat process. Keep going until someone moves all the way up to the front line.

• Truth or Dare: Teacher asks dancer, "Truth or Dare?".  When dancer says "truth", ask terminology questions (how many sounds in a shuffle hop step, which direction is upstage).  For "dare", they must demonstrate a specific dance step.  You can add "double dare", which would be a harder dance step. 

Roll The Dice

Foam dice source
(I got mine from Amazon.com)

You will need some large foam dice.  Leave one plain (with dots or numbers) and the other add terminology (I used masking tape so that I could change the words for different classes).

For some classes its simple: skip, hop, jump, leap, shuffle, flap, maxi ford, buffalo and for the older classes more complicated, glissade pas de chat, pirouette, jete etc!

Here is how we use them:

• Dice Quiz:   Have a child roll the movement dice and the number dice and they have to do that many repetitions of the step. If they don't know the step you can call them out, and see who is left standing, or let them all remain. My kids love it and it's a great way to test vocabulary. 

• Dice Choreography:  Have each child roll the pair of dice and use the steps to create a dance in succession (two shuffles, four flaps, one buffalo). Sometimes it turns out great and is a very inventive way of creating choreography and other times it's silly or extremely difficult to transition but it's still a fun challenge.   You can expand on this idea for tap, by creating rules for rhythm.  For example, we play where every sound must have one count (so shuffle step would be "1 2 3"), and the kids had to figure out what count we ended on.  You can also add "hold" to one side of the dice, so they will need to count "holds" in the combination.

Dance Pie

(or Cake, or Pizza...or whatever you want to make!  Maybe a salad or smoothie? Cornucopia?)I like to use this with age 3-8 year olds in my tap classes - lots of creative movement.  We create a dance recipe using steps as ingredients.  

1. Form a circle and roll out the dough - we usually roll our arms like in Patty Cake or stomp on the ground in tap (for pie or pizza... maybe grease the pan for cakes?)
2. Ask for a dance step we can add to the pie. Ask how many and what foot to start with.
3. Dance the step all together and "lift up" the ingredients and throw them in the pie (I like to make different steps heavier or lighter... some are sweet, some are sour, some must be sprinkled, some must be tossed - it adds to the fun!)
4. Repeat until your "pie" is full!
5. We march (or another traveling step) around in the circle to mix the pie together, roll the dough on top and pop it in the oven - have to work all together to lift such a heavy pie
6. Wait.. then eat!  Sometimes we count to 8 or do another activity while it's "baking", then take it out and eat it up to make sure we remember all of our steps.

Hot Potato / Pass The Beanbag

Form a circle standing or sitting.  Pass the beanbag (or stuffed animal) until the music stops.  Whoever it stops on must do their favorite dance step.  Or you can have the teacher assign them a step.

Sometimes we play where they have to keep doing the step until the next person gets stopped with the beanbag.

The Airplane Game

Ages 3-6, Sung to the tune of Frere Jacques:

"Chasse chasse,
bourree bourree,
clap clap clap, clap clap clap
running like an airplane, running like an airplane
make a shape, make a shape"

Each time, replace the dance terms/clapping with whatever other dance terms you'd like to practice. Once they get the hang of it, you can add in directions (tip toe to the right or dance in a circle).

Here is an instrumental version of Frere Jacques in case you're not a singer :)

Dance Baseball - see this post for full explanation

Sources:

• Dance.net "Quick List of Kids Dance Games"
• Tap Dance Flash Cards - Dance Teacher Press
• Dice source

Do you have any "games" or activities do you play to review vocabulary?

Dance "Baseball"

This is a fun dance game that my students love playing in class.  I hesitate to call it a "game" because I try to make a lot of our exercises in class fun, and it also is a good review of technique.  Either way, the kids see it as a game and they love playing, so I like to save it for special times of the year.

As a side note, one of my 7 year olds who started playing softball in the spring was so proud that she was the only one on her softball team that year who knew how the game worked because we had played "ballet baseball" in class...wasn't exactly what I was hoping she would learn from ballet class, but hey at least she learned something!

Dance Baseball

Ages 7 & Up (dancers need a basic understanding of baseball/softball)

Class:  Adaptable to any style of class where the students have learned specific technique skills that they can be called upon to remember.  I will use a beginning ballet class in my description below.

My ballerinas lined up to play (purple cone is 1st base)

Set-Up:  Designate bases around the room (we use the traditional diamond shape, but your dance baseball field can have as many bases as you like).  I usually use small cones, but little rugs or tape mark would work.  The pitcher (usually that's me) stands in the middle.

The Goal: The whole class is one team and their goal is to get as many "runs" around the bases as a class as they can against the pitcher, who's goal is to stump them and get them "out".

How we play:  The first dancer comes “up to bat” (steps up to home plate) and I “pitch” them a dance step (2nd position demi plie). If they can do it, they move (we bourree) to first base.

The second dancer steps up to home plate and I "pitch" them a different step (degagé).  If they can do it, they move to first base and the first dancer moves to second.  If the do not know the step or do it incorrectly, the team has an "out".  Depending on the age, I will give hints or three tries to the dancer who is up.  If I'm able to stump someone, I keep using the same step until someone gets it.

This continues and if dancers know the step, they all move up one base, eventually getting all the way back home and earning a “run”.

We play to three outs and count up the runs.  We try to beat our highest score as a class the next time we play.

Stealing a base in ballet baseball

Advanced Dance Baseball:  "Stealing bases"
With my tweens and teens, I allow “base stealing”.  The pitcher holds a beanbag and dancers may attempt to steal a base by tiptoeing... however if they try to steal a base, I can toss the beanbag at them to try to get them out.  This usually causes lots of giggles since I have pretty bad aim ☺  

Just remind them that they are in dance class, not a field, so no running (or sliding).  Sometimes I allow multiple people on the bases - modify the rules as you see fit!

I hope you like our fun alternative to reviewing dance steps - make it your own!  Play ball!

Freeze Dance Fun

The cold weather makes my classes
excited to play "Freeze Dance"!

"Freeze Dance" is the first activity requested whenever we have a special day in class. My students know Freeze Dance as dance around the room and freeze when the music stops.

This past week in my beginning modern/creative movement class, we used our creative minds to come up with some new variations on Freeze Dance to try in class.

Here are some of the ways that we manipulated the game to be our own - hopefully some are new to you or inspire other new variations!

Shape Freeze

We've been using this version in our exploration of shape-making.

While the music is on, the teacher names a shape (circular, square, triangle) and the student must make that shape with a body part when the music stops.

Position Freeze

Similar to the Shape variation described above, but dancers must freeze in the position given - this was fun in ballet and jazz class.  Positions to try:  1st, 2nd and 3rd position, retire, arabesque, tendu, plie, lunge, etc.

This might also be fun to try with a class who is learning room positions and stage directions ("Freeze en face" or "Freeze facing upstage" or "point to corner 2").

'Dance Like This' Freeze

The teacher (or student leader) tells the class how to move during the dance part ("Everyone skip").  After each freeze, the type of dancing changes.  You can also give speed directives, such as "chasse really slowly" or "bouree quickly".

We like to play this in tap class for practice on our traveling steps:  running flaps, flap ball changes, shuffle hop steps, toe heels, etc.

Changing Music

Also know as the iPod Shuffle...!  After each freeze, change the song and dancers must move to the new song.

Now these dancers are REALLY frozen!

In creative movement, we played this after a few weeks of learning the concept of listening to the music and interpreting it in our bodies.  It really helped their improvisation skills.

You could also use this in tap or jazz class to work on rhythm and finding the beat in each new song.

Partner Freeze 

Dancers must freeze with a partner when the music stops.

You can give conditions such as "freeze connected to another person", or "Freeze in a group of three".  

I like to mix this one into the other types - "freeze in a round shape with another person", etc.

Beat the "I'm Out" Blues

For my younger classes we don't "get out" in any of the above games - we just play for the fun of it.  For my older students, they really like the games when there is a chance to be eliminated, so we play that way.

Sometimes my classes age 6-8 request to play the "out" version, but some students get very upset from being "out" whenever we play a game like this.

I like to soften the blow by letting them come over to the music player and telling me when to freeze the music next.  Or if they are a particularly enthusiastic class, they can also come up with some new ways to freeze.

What is your favorite movement or dance game to play in class?  Share in the comments!

Creative Movement: The Name Dance

One of my favorite activities to do on the first day of Dance Camp or the first day of class is to create a "Name Dance".  It is a simple and fun activity that helps us learn each other's names.

The Name Dance
To begin, start in a circle.  One at a time, each student says their name with a simple gesture. Encourage the students to do whatever movement they want - does not have to be a 'technical step'. Let them experiment with how they say their name - rhythmic, loud, soft, etc.


Go around the circle a second time; students may keep their same gesture or change it.  This time, when a student does their name gesture, the class must echo them in both movement and sound.

The third time around, build the dance.  Link a few name gestures together and practice saying / doing them in a row. See if you can make it all the way around the circle to finish the full Name Dance.

Bonus Name Dance Activities
If everyone is still enjoying the Name Game and you've gotten the hang of it, try going faster, in slow motion, facing outside the circle or going in reverse order.

This game is a lot of fun and students will remember their step for weeks to come - I've had students say "oh, now we're doing The Emma" or "can we add a Sophia in here".  Some of my classes like to greet each other with the other person's gesture.

And by the way, a "Miss Cait" is a very fancy curtsey :)

Rock Star Camp Day 4: Bling Bling

Read more about our camp here!


Day #4 Set List

• Warm-Up:  Jazz warm-up and across the floor progressions
• Class Time:  Jazz class - learn dance #3
• Craft Time:  Sunglasses & Necklaces
• Snack
• Class Time:  Tap class - learn dance #3
• Fun Time:  Relay Races

Playlist

On Day 4, we learned our final dances to "We Built This City"  by Starship and Hannah Montana's "Rock Star".

Since we needed more time to practice our dances, we kept craft time shorter than the other days.

Craft #1:  Blinged-Out Sunnies
Supplies:  Cardstock or Folders, Gem Rhinestones, Glue, Paintbrushes
Teacher Prep:  Cut out glasses from cardstock.

Using glue and plastic gems, decorate glasses.

Rock Star Camp Day 2: Rockin' Guitars & Hats

See more about our camps here - Rock Star Theme Camp.  

Day #2 Set List

• Warm-Up:  Jazz warm-up and across the floor progressions
• Class Time:  Jazz class - learn dance #2
• Craft Time:  Guitars, Hats, Microphones
• Snack
• Class Time:  Tap class - learn dance #2
• Fun Time:  Limbo & Beanbag pass

Microphone bases (left) and guitar necks (right)

Main Craft: Guitars
You Will Need:
- Various cardboard boxes (tissue boxes, shoe boxes, pasta boxes, etc) - 1 per guitar
- 1-foot piece of cardboard tube (wrapping paper or paper towel tube) - 1 per guitar
- Construction or contact paper to cover box
- Rubber bands (6 per guitar)
- Crayons (2 per guitar)
- Paint & paint brushes
- Hot glue gun
- Glue sticks for glue gun

1.  Paint cardboard tube.  Set aside to dry.