The Dance Laboratory

The scientific method is a technique used to better understand the world around us, and so is dance! Take a page out of your science textbook and head into the dance laboratory by experimenting with all the different ways your group can move their bodies.

First, review the different steps of the scientific method. Typically, this includes asking an essential question, crafting a hypothesis, experimenting, collecting data and sharing the results. Next, prompt each kid to think of a question they have about movement, knowing they’ll be answering it not with equations, but with dance! This could be something literal like: How many spins can I do? or What’s the slowest I can move my elbow? or something imaginative: What would it look like if a 12-foot-tall praying mantis tried to dance tango?

Once kids have their questions, ask if they can think of a hypothesis, or proposed answer, and challenge them to express it through a dance phrase. Ask them to experiment with their “dance hypothesis,” using different movement qualities, like speed, levels, weight, etc. After each experiment, prompt your kids to collect data by seeing how the steps felt in their bodies and if they need to add, edit or alter their dance phrase at all to better answer their question.

Once everyone has finished experimenting and fine-tuning their dance phrase, end the unit by having each class share their “findings.” Make sure kids not only present their dance work, but share how their choreographic process in the “lab” bubbled to fruition!