Chapter 15

MY DANCE TELLS STORIES

I hope you enjoyed reading the Panchatantra story, The Lion and the Hare. Now, let us dance to it.

Activity 15.1

Animal Game

Let us first play a game based on animal movements. Think of all the animals and their actions and movements. You have to be quick, as no time will be given to think.

All of you stand in a circle, ready to follow your teacher’s instructions. But remember, when you show an animal, try to use the hastas taught to you previously. You can use sarpasheersha hasta to show the elephant’s big ears and simhamukha for the trunk.

You can also create your own hastas.

For example, the teacher says, “Elephant.”

All of you become an elephant and show different movements of elephants.

The teacher says, “Monkey.”

You show the actions and movements of monkeys. Think of what hasta you can use as you jump and move like monkeys. Mukula hasta can be used to show a monkey’s hands.

Activity 15.2

Guess My Secret Animal

Step 1: Divide yourselves into small groups.

Step 2: Think of different wild animals and keep your choice a secret.

Step 3: One of you dances like your chosen animal while the others guess. Keep going until everyone gets a turn.

Activity 15.3

Birds in Action

Good job! You did well. Now, let us make it more fun by including another Panchatantra story.

The Hunter and the Birds

There was a pigeon who led its flock with strength and wisdom. Once, a hunter scattered rice on the ground to trap the pigeons. As soon as the pigeons came down to eat rice, the hunter caught them in his net. The pigeons were in despair. They remembered their leader had said that if they all flew together, they could lift the net and fly away. As planned, they flew together into the sky with the net and the hunter could not catch them. Then they took the help of a mouse to cut the net and free themselves

What do you learn from this? The story teaches us about the strength of unity — if you can work together as a team, you can overcome any hurdle.

Note for Teachers:
Children can be encouraged to pick more stories from Hitopadesha and Puranas to do these activities and explore movements.

Can you imagine how you would fly if you had wings? How big and wide would the wings be? Now, pretend your hands are wings. Use your arms and hands to flap like a bird. Add head and neck movements, to act like a flying bird, as you previously learnt.

Divide yourselves into three groups. Each group will be assigned a different activity involving birds. Remember to perform the actions using dance movements.

Note for Teachers:
Let the children come up with more options or suggest other movements. The groups can then interchange the activity allotted to each one.

Activity 15.4

Bird Flight Formations

Have you seen birds flying in a flock in different formations?

Can you recall and describe it to the class? How many different formations can your class think of? Can you recreate these formations with the help of your friends?

• Form groups
• One group will create a “V” formation and show the movements.
• Another group will demonstrate a round formation.

Work together to create different bird flight formations. Coordinate and synchronise your movements within your group. Try this out to improve coordination within the group.

What you have just done is the first step in choreography. Creating formations and standing in structures will help you plan steps. You will learn more about this in higher classes.

Now introduce rhythm of 4-beats. Practise synchronisation of steps.