Thread: something fun for intermediate students

Hi ya'll! With the holidays and everything coming up, I'm wanting to take a little break from technique and just do something fun and yet productive for the weeks before Thanksgiving. Any ideas of "games" or fun dance practice? I was thinking of doing the ABC's that Aziza does in her practice companion dvd-that is fun, a bit silly but a good workout at the same time. Thanks for any input.

Somebody out there in Bhuz Universe has to have Something!! :)

You can try a bit of role-playing of dancing at a party or restaurant. Bring in a few chairs and organise the students in groups or pairs. Get them to take turns being the 'restaurant dancer' while the the others act as the audience. The dancer has to make an entrance, dance around the audience, put on a show for them and get some interaction happening.

I sometimes do this when *I'm* bored with classes, and I'm always pleasantly surprised at how fun the girls make it. Some are shy, but others really go all out!

You can up the ante by giving the audience members cards which tell them how to behave eg: 'Interested audience member who claps and smiles'; 'Shakira wannabe who tries to take over the whole show.'

And in case you've any worries that you're encouraging dancers to go out there and strut their stuff too early... a few sessions with the Shakira wannabes and a discussion of all the things you have to deal with should give them some second thoughts!
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Another idea: everyone stands in a circle and takes turns doing 4 counts of a move. Next person does this move, then adds their own, next dancer does the same and adds her own, and so on. Everyone can follow along together. See how far you can get before no one can remember what to do.

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

another idea: Everyone stands in a circle and takes turns doing 4 counts of a move. Next person does this move, then adds their own, next dancer does the same and adds her own, and so on. Everyone can follow along together. See how far you can get before no one can remember what to do.

omg love doing this!!

you might try some theater games- acting is a great skill for dancers that often gets overlooked (and is definitely fun!)
something like "what are you doing" or story freeze tag, or even charades with emotions.

Do you have the Create A Combo cards pack from Gia al Qamar?

http://www.idreamofgia.com/CreateACombo.html

Not affiliated and don't yet have them myself, but there's a wealth of fun to be had there, I think! ..g.:

Originally Posted by wigglewhiz

Do you have the Create A Combo cards pack from Gia al Qamar?

http://www.idreamofgia.com/CreateACombo.html

Not affiliated and don't yet have them myself, but there's a wealth of fun to be had there, I think! ..g.:

Oooh, need to dig up my copy, thanks for reminding me!

Thanks for the ideas! I also found another game which I thought was kind of interesting: Figure out a move that starts with the letters of your name and string them into a combination- for beginner students I think I would just do their initials, so it's not too long!

I love all the ideas!

You can do a music quiz? ..a sort of guess the style then try and dance the style.. I have used this before and it is a good way of becoming familiar with wide rangeing styles within a style too.

Here are some things I do:

1) Musical chairs. It's a great way to practice a challenging travelling step -- the step drills into muscle memory while their minds are on the game.

2) Red light green light. I teach rules of 4 this way. Hmmmm... this is going to be difficult to explain in words only.... make up your own variation maybe. Great way to work on posing elegantly, or to catch awkward hand movements, etc.

3) Putting emotion into it. I got this straight from Kimahri, at her Stage Presence workshop. It's brilliant. I teach a very simple combination to the whole class, then separate them into groups of 3 or 4 dancers per group. Each group is given an emotion to portray (I have them draw a card, Kimahri just whispered to each group). Joy, longing, fury, flirtatiousness, etc. They get about 5 minutes as a group to work out how to put the emotion into the combo and then take turns dancing for each other and guessing the emotion.

I've been developing variations on #3 above for my musicality & expression class, but they're better suited to advanced dancers than intermediates.

My students also enjoy watching videos, learning rhythms (I have coffee cans for them to drum on), playing finger cymbals, etc. as a break from the regular routine.

My teacher does a really fun "change it for the music" exercise -- she'll give us a very short combo with 2 or 3 moves in it. She'll have us do it to a folky song, a pop song, a Big Drama Song, a very traditional song... then she'll come whisper in somebody's ear: change the direction or change the arms or add one move to the end -- we'll all follow that person. You really get the message that you can do a LOT of stuff with a few basic movements.

Originally Posted by jewelbellydance

You can try a bit of role-playing of dancing at a party or restaurant....
You can up the ante by giving the audience members cards which tell them how to behave eg: 'Interested audience member who claps and smiles'; 'Shakira wannabe who tries to take over the whole show.'

I love this idea!! Especially the bit about the cards. Thank you for sharing.

Even though I teach American Cabaret style, I like to do the tribal-style "Blob" exercise I learned from Sri Tara Sita when we need a break from choreography and technique.

I have the students form a close cluster together and ask for a volunteer/victim to start the dance. I'm usually merciful and choose a song that most people already know (or should know). She begins to improv, usually slower ooey-gooey movements so the others can follow along easily and no one gets hurt by flailing arms. She leads for however long she likes and when she decides she's finished, she umis clockwise and whoever is at the front/corner of that side of "the blob" is the new leader. Alternatively, if someone wishes to lead, she can also step forward, but working with shy beginner/intermediates, this rarely happens. "The blob" keeps rotating throughout the song as leaders switch. I encourage them to practice traveling steps and level changes during the exercise too.

It helps dancers learn to be comfortable in each other's personal space, is a great improv exercise, teaches cohesiveness for troupe members, and lead-follow skills. It's also a nice way to introduce newer students to music they may not have danced to yet but should know. For advanced dancers who are more comfortable with these skills, it's even meditative. When you get a group of dancers doing this exercise for awhile, it's almost zen-like to watch or be a part of...like a human lava-lamp! ..l;,

My teacher played a little game with us this week. We all went behind one another in a long line and the first student had to do an arm movement and lead us through the room, and we all had to imitate the arm movements. Then she'd fall back and the next one would take over.

Something else that's fun is having pairs. One of them stands behind the other one and you put on some nice, ooey-gooey music. The one in the front tucks her arms behind her back and is allowed to dance only with her hips and chest, the one in the back does the arm movements. It's really fun doing this in front of a mirror!

I really like the "restaurant dancer" idea. I have used this before with my intermediate class, and it's a create exercise--makes you aware of turning in different directions to face your audience in the round, and makes you change your dance to work for a small space. I usually just use chairs set in rows, with no one actually seated in the chairs, so they can all go at one time, or go in 2 sets if the class is too large.

Anotehr idea is to do some "special topics."
My intermediate classes usually have fun with these. Offer a night of "stage makeup." Do a mini-workshop focusing on "hipwork on the down." Teach zil patterns. Focus on shimmies for one night. Do a bellywork workshop--belly rolls, flutters, layering belly over maya, etc.

shakes it up and makes it new again!

love all of these and will use all of them---thanks everyone. i have used the restaurant idea---all of these are especially good for the last night of a session when everyone (including me!!) is burned out on our present topic.

Originally Posted by wigglewhiz

Do you have the Create A Combo cards pack from Gia al Qamar?

http://www.idreamofgia.com/CreateACombo.html

Not affiliated and don't yet have them myself, but there's a wealth of fun to be had there, I think! ..g.:

What a cool idea!!!!