9.7: Movement Stimuli

Visual

• Shape Play: Colored paper cut into different shapes/colors
• Collage Choreography: Pictures from magazines, books, postcards, art
• Pattern Utilization: line, circle, zig-zag, spirals, scallops or combinations of these
• Interesting natural objects, including shells, starfish, pinecones, leaves, kelp
• Light shows

Auditory

• Live music: drumming cymbals, bells, tambourines
• Body sounds: clapping, slapping, stomping, snapping, or combinations in rhythmic patterns
• Vocal Sounds: hissing, clacking, whistling, exhalations, inhalations, yelling, heart beat, pop bubbles, yawning, flutter tongue
• Recorded Music
• Key words/ Prose/ Poetry
• Nonsense syllables, baby talk/ tongues
• Animal sounds, nature sounds/ storms, rain, thunder

Tactile

• Objects having interesting qualities such as furry, slimy, slippery, sharp, or soft
• Natural objects with interesting natural qualities including shells, starfish, pinecones, leaves
• Objects providing for tactile AND spatial explorations such as:
• ballet barres
• a chair
• the inside of a large box
• the corner of a dance studio
• desk

(W.carter. (13 September 2016). Young soft juniper (Juniperus communis) needles and shots at Gåseberg, Lysekil Municipality, Sweden. The full-grown needles on this juniper are about 8-10 mm long. Note: The black background is not digitally added, it is my black jacket which I used to get a clean background.https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Branched_juniper_twig_with_shots.jpg)

Kinesthetic

• Pedestrian movements from daily life: walk, run, lift, hop, fall
• Gestural movements: wave, shake hands, salute
• Other life experience gestures “it’s hot,” “it’s cold,” “I’m tired”
• Movements from technique class such as leap, skip, turn + combination of these
• Pathways traced on the floor or in space around the body
• Writing words or names in space or as a floor pattern
• Words with Kinesthetic qualities: ooze, melt, soar, collapse, swoop, tart

Props

• Various pieces of clothing pulled from the costume closet or brought from home, scarves, skirts, capes
• Pieces of material draped on the body in various ways
• Hula hoops
• Scooters, skate boards, pogo-sticks
• Sticks +poles of various lengths and thicknesses
• Elastic bands, elasticized sacks

Imagery

• Beautiful scenery such as mountains, lake or plants
• Body feelings, laying on a warm comfortable mattress, laying on a cold sheet of ice, having your feet on a hot side-walk
• Dramatic situations such as: pretending you’re being chased or finding your way across a pitch black room
• Unusual environments such as the inside a block of Swiss cheese or the inside of a piano
• Individuals lay quietly and close eyes
• Instructor prompts students with 3 verbal cues to imagine
• Students react physically to the imagery
• Students remember and codify 3 movements to create a phrase