Mud, Grass and Bears

In ballet, a dancer’s imagination is the core of a spectacular creation. And with imagination comes stories; the true magic behind dancing. When you watch a ballet on stage the dancers are always telling a story…

‘‘Rapunzel is stuck in the tower and the only way we can get up there to rescue her is by making your assemblé so high that you fly through the tower window’’ I explained to my grade 1’s last week. ‘‘Hmm but that is just a story and we are dancing’’ one of them replied with a look of confusion across her face. This was my chance to jump in!’ ‘‘Every ballet ever created was based upon a story and all ballet dancers aim to tell a story through their movement.’’ This newfound knowledge added a great energy into this young dancers steps something which was once ‘just a story’ was now helping her to fly across the air creating the most marvelous assemblé!

But that’s not the only story that has made an appearance in my lessons over the last few weeks. The Royal Academy of Dance pre-primary syllabus (age 4+) invites the teacher together with the students to dance a story at the end of the lesson. I have tried out lots of different stories: Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Peter Pan but the children’s favourite story is much more sinister: ‘We’re going on a bear hunt!’. During the bear hunt we march through the forest, skip through the swooshy grass, tip toe run through the cold stream and lunge in the oozy mud. This is followed by squeals and shushing at the end of the setting when we come across ‘the bear’. I love this story but never thought it would win above classic princess fairytales. Turns out I was wrong and bear hunts are much more popular!!