Hello my dears . . . I'm curious, what are your students talking about these days? To my surprise my students are talking about (you guessed it) Star Wars!! Now it's time to ask me if I know anything about Star Wars . . . answer - nope, not a thing. So tonight, here I sit, studying the characters and of course how they move.
Today we traveled to the mysterious (to me) land of Star Wars. I tried to have the kids explain it to me, they did a good job, but I still want to study it for myself. I had promised a little boy that we could travel there today (which, I forgot about). Some of the girls resisted until I told them there was a princess in Star Wars. The boys wanted to dance with guns (hmmm, guns?). I tried to tell them they could be robots or dance with the light sabers (light sabers? is that what they are called), but they were not buying it.
I am wondering how exactly we can do a dance about or in the land of Star Wars? Have any ideas? I would love to hear...
P.S. Did you have any idea there was a cartoon about Star Wars? I never knew this!! (Big thanks to Dan for clueing me in on this one!)
I can't figure if it is your youth or age showing with this post! LOL You're in that strange generation in the middle I guess that somehow missed out on the Star Wars phenomenon!
ReplyDeleteIn the Star Wars saga the laser guns are called blasters (geez what little boy could resist that!?!) but yes, the lightsabers will be way more movement oriented - a combination of fencing and martial arts.
Something that comes to mind as a way to apply Star Wars to movement is the concept of "the force." In the movies (and show) the force is something that moves through everyone and everything, connecting them. In the original Star Wars movie Luke must feel the force moving through him and connect to this as he attempts to block the blasts of a practice "droid" -not robot :)- while blindfolded. In dance we have to have a similar kind of sense as we move through the space or move in unison. Might be a little advanced for really young ones but they'll probably understand the force also gives the "jedi" great power. They could practice moving with the grace, control, and athleticism of the jedi (with or without lightsabers!) :)
And I haven't watched much of the tv show. It deals mainly with prequel characters (like Anakin before he became the Darth Vader baddie) so watching a few of those to catch up with the kiddos will be a good idea. I'm old school Star Wars so can't help you with that! lol Good luck!
Thanks Nichelle for all the insight! This has really helped! The force sounds like it will be fun! Will try it next week and report back!
ReplyDeleteMaria this post of yours made me laugh a lot... I think this is a great avenue to movement. My high school kids wanted to make a dance about Toy Story the other day (I wish I was kidding, lol, they are nuts) and I was like... um, no. But Star Wars is a great idea. xoox
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