How to Experience Live Dance: A Kid’s Guide

In this video, Nicole Wong from New Victory Education breaks down how to experience a live dance performance.

Tips and Tricks for Experiencing Live Dance

Some dance pieces tell a clear, linear story with recognizable characters and a beginning, middle and end—this is called narrative dance. Others express a feeling, an idea or a state of being without any clear, intentional story at all—this is called abstract movement. And some pieces live somewhere in between—this is called non-linear storytelling. Like a dream or a memory, it doesn’t have to make logical sense to have an emotional impact. Encourage young people to let go of the question What is this about? and instead ask themselves What am I feeling right now, and why?

What to Know and Where to Focus

Live dance might be overwhelming at first. There’s a lot happening all at once. Below are a few lenses that can help everyone focus their attention. Consider the following:

• Shapes. What shapes are the dancers making with their bodies? Are they round and curved or sharp and angular? Are they expansive, taking up as much space as possible, or contracted and small? Shapes can carry meaning even when we can’t explain exactly why.
• Relationships. How are the dancers moving in relation to one another? Are they mirroring each other, moving in opposition or seemingly unaware of each other’s presence? The space between bodies, and what happens (or doesn’t happen) in it, is sometimes where the real story lives.
• Space. Where on the stage are the dancers, and how do they move through space? Are they spread across the full stage or clustering together? Moving toward each other or pulling away? A dancer standing alone in a spotlight tells a very different story than one surrounded by others.
• Silence is often part of the performance. Notice what happens in the quiet moments (between movements, between pieces, in a held pause). Dance (and drama) lives in those spaces, too.
• It’s okay to not “understand” everything. Dance isn’t always a puzzle to be solved. Part of the experience is sitting with not knowing while staying curious.
• Responses to live performance. If a young person laughs, gasps, fidgets or stays completely still, that’s great! Those moments are genuine responses and act as good entry points for conversation after a performance. Remember that the New Victory is a no-hush zone. As long as audible responses are offered with respect, kids are welcome to respond authentically to what they’re experiencing.

Questions to Ask After the Performance

• Was there a moment when you weren’t sure what was happening but you still felt something? What was that like?
• Which of the pieces felt more like it was telling a story, and which felt more like it was expressing a feeling or idea?
• What shapes, relationships or use of space had an impact on you? How so?
• If you could ask one of the choreographers a single question about their work, what would it be?