Music: Moving to music

Get into the groove: let children turn an improvisation into a choreographed piece

What is the best way to engage children in music with no obvious beat, or a beat that’s too slow, too quick or too changeable?

Let’s take ‘Morning’ from the Peer Gynt Suite by Grieg. This is much slower, smoother, calmer music than ‘Russian Dance’, for example, so actually doesn’t lend itself to actions that can be executed on a beat. Think instead of moving freely through the beat.

As an introductory activity, start by considering slow-motion ideas to inspire creative movement to this piece of music, for example circles. Any part of your body can make a circle – hips, head, wrists, shoulders, elbows, feet, legs, hands. Arms provide endless possibilities – from rolling hands over each other, drawing a cartwheel in the air, ‘stirring soup’, showing the action of a helicopter blade, and so on. Moving slowly and smoothly from one motion to another, let the class experiment with these circular movements in a random order as you play the ‘Morning’ music.