An Inclusive Dance Class_Empowerment

Warm-up (including the pass touch) (5 minutes)

Warm up is done in a circle so that everyone is able to see everyone, allowing the face and eyes to open towards the group. Physically wake up the body with the inclusion of imagery. Eg. Squeezing the body like a sponge, stretching like an elastic band, being under a cold shower etc.
Copy me style warm up: Leading into Pass the touch, where you touch a body part of a participant next to you, and that participant passes the touch to the one next to him/her.
Outcomes: Getting to know your body, Interaction, Visualization

Fold and Float (10 minutes)

Pass the touch leads into an exploration of images that help participants visualize stretching and bending. Try using images about floating and folding, which will help the participants visualize stretching and bending. Eg.‘Find a way to reach up above your head for 4 counts then find an expansion for 2 counts. Simple playfulness can quite easily turn into a dance exercise this way.
Outcomes: Use a visualization to conduct a dance exercise.

Articulation (10 minutes)

Layer movements on top of each other, starting with a simple version with the option of making it more complex for those who desire it. Within the exercise, add moments of a shared timing and quality to allow for movements to be reflected by all participants.
Outcomes: Learning to develop movement from simple moves to more complex ones.

Streaming (10 minutes)

Use different music and an image to accompany to inspire different movement qualities. Let them decide how the music encourages them to move, if they are having difficulty with this, the image allows them to also be inspired by something visual.

3 pieces of music. Fast, Slow, Atmospheric etc.

Moving on from this, get the group to split into 3’s, 4’s depending on the size of the group. From here, get them to move together across the space to find a quality universally and to encourage dancing together. Depending on how together they can be, add changes in music half way across the space.
Outcomes: Learning to use music as an inspiration for a movement idea.

Creative Task (20 minutes)

Give the group a stimulus then split them into appropriately sized groups depending on number. Each person in the group creates one move and everyone learns it. While this is happening, as the teacher, look around and start to see which movements you like/catch your eye. When the group is comfortable with the movements, bring everyone back together and create a phrase together. Choose movements from each group and allowing them to teach their moves to each other. Whilst doing this, look for individual quirks and qualities to encourage the whole group to try. If there is a wheelchair dancer, attempt how his/her movement can be copied by non-wheelchair dancers keeping the same dynamics and qualities of the wheelchair user.
Outcomes: End result of the task is that we have group phrases and a big phrase that can be all together. It will give them a chance to dance as a team.

Sharing (30 minutes)

Put the phrases in some kind of order to form a mini choreography allowing them to have a sense of sharing their work and performance at the end of the session.
Outcome: Invite parents or support workers to come watch, so that the participants have a sense of occasion and achievement.

Cool down (5 minutes)

Taking a similar format to the warm up, return everyone to a circle and go through a calming cool down involving short stretches and a chance to come together for one last time in the class.
Outcome: Interact, getting to know tour body, visualization.

Tips

1. Have a set of group rules (get them to come up with these)
2. Have an assistant if the group is large
3. Opportunity for dancers to bring in their own music to use for dance classes