Interpretive Dance

Background: Jenni Pike, a STEP member, found a wonderful audio tape of rainforest music. Using the music and a little imagination this is what we created:

Grade Level: all grades (a mature audience) Duration: 3-4 minutes

Setting: Large area with access to lights and electricity

Objective: The destruction of the rainforest is not just a factual issue but also one that affects us emotionally as well. Students gain an understanding that he/she needs to do something to save the rainforest.

Cast of Characters

The Life spirits- the life of the forest (plant and animal) the rainforest's spirit.

Hope- the hope for the rainforest; especially the children that work so hard to save it.

Death- Everything that destroys the rainforest Materials: Blues from the Rainforest audio tape (available from Rainforest Action Network)

 

Life costumes: colorful jungle patterns with plastic reusable vines wound around the body and vines drawn on the face with snake-up (costume can be changed to what you feel is appropriate)

 

Death costume: black, black mask or snake-up. Cape and long flowing things preferably. Negative words about rainforest destruction such as: overpopulation, deforestation acid rain are displayed on-the costume.

 

Hope costume: preferably a child plays this role and is dressed in white.

Procedure: Life spirits -arrange themselves in compact positions some distance from each other on the floor. Once the music sounds like plants growing, one by one the plants grow and dance (slowly) around the room in the spirit of life. Thunder claps represent the evil (death) forces in the rainforest and plant spirits cringe when they hear that sound.

Death is wandering among the plants in an evil way and strikes down the plants one by one. The strongest life spirit takes the crowns off the dead life (crowns symbolize their life force) and expresses grief over the death of its fellow life spirits. When Death kills the strongest tree spirits, Death takes all the crowns of the tree spirits and triumphantly scatters them. Voices of the dead life spirits can be heard chanting "erosion, extinction, global warming, cultural extinction, " and words of that nature.

After a pause, Hope comes in and puts a crown on the strongest tree spirit supporting it into a sitting position and holding its hand. Hope starts another chant in which the life joins him/her. This chant makes Death’s power crumble (and this is demonstrated) and this gives life to the life spirits. The chant is "Hope, Life, Children" or any other words you feel appropriate.

STEP preparing for the dance

"Dancing is the loftiest, most moving, the most beautiful of the arts, because it is no mere translation or abstraction from life; it is life itself.”

“ The dance- it is the rhythm of all that dies in order to live again; it is the eternal rising of the sun."-authors unknown