Thread: Class Activity Suggestions Please

Greetings all and Happy New Year.
I teach a very basic beginner class and am looking for some fun new activities to engage my students. We use a lot of the standard call & response, pass the movement, dance with yourself/eyes closed etc. Beyond teaching them the technique I would be very interested to learn what fun and different activities / techniques you are using with your class to reinforce technique and encourage them to be creative. Teacher lead or independent student activities would be most appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your assistance.
- Kimberly

Create simple combos and/or line BD dances that use the moves you teach.

The simple line dance could be incorporated as part of a choreo later (their first full length dance).

I'm gonna try out an exercise with my beginners tomorrow: gonna call it "killer drills" ..g.:

Basically, I'm putting some of the movements they need to work on on a piece of paper (big letters)
Then, I'm gonna hang those on the mirror, find an upbeat song of about 7 min. long and then drill the moves!
We'll start with a shimmy and whenever a student shouts out one of the drills on the mirror, we'll do that movement untill someone else shouts a drill, etc...

If nobody says anything, we'll have to shimmy for the entire song.... (that would be a killer drill too )

We'll see how that goes!

Originally Posted by LunaBelgium

I'm gonna try out an exercise with my beginners tomorrow: gonna call it "killer drills" ..g.:

Basically, I'm putting some of the movements they need to work on on a piece of paper (big letters)
Then, I'm gonna hang those on the mirror, find an upbeat song of about 7 min. long and then drill the moves!
We'll start with a shimmy and whenever a student shouts out one of the drills on the mirror, we'll do that movement untill someone else shouts a drill, etc...

If nobody says anything, we'll have to shimmy for the entire song.... (that would be a killer drill too )

We'll see how that goes!

That sounds like fun.

Nice to see you on bhuz Kim!
I do "The Belly Dance Name Game". Basically dancers use their body and Bd movement vocabulary to spell their name. Its a nice ice breaker & improv activity on the 2nd or 3rd week. We do it in a circle and dancers say their names first and then dance.
Later on in my sessions and for adv beginner/intermediate dancers I also do:
**Crazy Mixed Up Combos**. I teach combos every week to put whatever technique we've focused on that class into a danceable context. REALLY simple combos-4 to the right, 4 to the left, 2 up, 2 down, blah blah. In crazy mixed up combos they work in pairs or small groups to take any 2 or 3 combos and mix them up to create a new combo.
**Arm Me Drill** is kind of the same concept. I give them a move or short combo with my arms held at my sides or out to the side. Students work alone or in small groups to give arms, either stationary or posed to the combo/move.
**Music Mix Up** Give them a 2,4, or 8 phrase combination in a 4/8 or 8/8 song. Then play a different song with the same structure but at a different tempo or different genre and work the combo using that music.
For students who are playing zills, you can add that element to each of the above ideas.

All of these can be done with the teacher leading and showing examples of how to mix things up with students following along, or in small groups with less leading from you. Also, depending on your class the groups can share their work/creations with the class as part of your wrap up activity.
If my class is less familiar with these activities I will usually start with a demo where I lead and they follow (oh look, my arms can be here, or here, or here or...)

check out the hafla games thread ^_^

I teach a few basic moves and combinations, presenting them in very digestible, little chunks.

Then I divide them into groups, and assign each group to come up with a very very short combination to a very easy piece of music that I play over and over while I give them about 15 minutes to come up with the piece. Each group then presents to the class.

Originally Posted by LunaBelgium

I'm gonna try out an exercise with my beginners tomorrow: gonna call it "killer drills" ..g.:

Basically, I'm putting some of the movements they need to work on on a piece of paper (big letters)
Then, I'm gonna hang those on the mirror, find an upbeat song of about 7 min. long and then drill the moves!
We'll start with a shimmy and whenever a student shouts out one of the drills on the mirror, we'll do that movement untill someone else shouts a drill, etc...

If nobody says anything, we'll have to shimmy for the entire song.... (that would be a killer drill too )

We'll see how that goes!

Cool! I do this with calling on people around the room, (also helps me remember names) now I'm gonna try your idea of putting moves on signs! Thanx
It's a lot of fun & gets people engaged.
Also I haven't done the shimmy thing if no one says anything.... but now I will!

Wow! Thanks everyone - what a great group of ideas. Just what I needed to think of my class in a fresh new way. I really appreicate everyone taking the time to share their expertise with me. ..l;,