National Nutcracker Lesson 7

THE CREATIVE CHALLENGE TASK
As discussed at the INSET, you and your dancers
are tasked with creating a dance of no more than
five minutes based on one of the themes below
from The Nutcracker:
1. Visiting faraway lands
2. Transformed by magic
3. Let the battle commence
The core focus of this activity is creative dance.
We have made suggestions about the theme and
the choice of music you might use to allow you to
keep your focus on the development and creation
of your dance. How you manage to develop your
ideas in your dance will be the most important part
of the assessment process.
Midway through, you will submit footage of your
dance so far to the Royal Opera House, with a
brief description of how you have interpreted your
chosen theme. You will then receive feedback
from experts in the field to assist your class in
their preparation for the final submission. This
is also a good opportunity to ask for help on
specific sections of your dance that you may need
guidance/advice with.
Depending upon how much class time and
cross-curricular activity you choose to do, you may
also consider:
• Securing and booking a rehearsal space
• Fitting rehearsal sessions into your school
calendar
• Costume design
• Use of props
• Building sets
Staging your performance
WHAT MAKES A GOOD DANCE
LESSON STRUCTURE?
Warm-up
Creative exploration
Performance
Appreciation and reflection
Cool down
Questions you could ask your dancers after the
lesson could include:
• How did you feel at the beginning/middle/
end of the lesson?
• Which was your favourite part? Why?
• Did you like (insert some example from
the lesson) and if so, why?
• How might we develop the ideas next time?
• What do we need to improve?
• What do you need to improve?
Always include some of the ideas you have relating
to your chosen themes in each warm-up and task.
Record all the dances and moments of
choreography that emerge during your session and
allow yourself time to review it outside the session.
Ask yourself these questions:
• What looks good / what do you enjoy
watching the most?
• What did the children appear to enjoy the
most?
• Which dancers are emerging as particularly
responsible and capable?
Make a note of all these points as this will
help you decide what to do in your
subsequent sessions.
We highly recommend that your class is given the
opportunity to perform in front of a live audience
at your school, as part of a school assembly or the
Christmas show.
PAGE 5

RESOURCES KEY
Digital resource: National
Nutcracker film
Look out for the Arts Award logo
for parts of the programme that
fit with Discover & Explore
Your chosen theme
Choreographic ideas, tasks for
your chosen theme based on your
INSET experience
Music from The Nutcracker –
found in the resources bank on
The Royal Opera House website
A means of capturing and
reviewing the movement material
created during the lesson
Clear empty space, free of
obstructions, such as school hall
Children to wear PE kit and have
bare feet for practical session
Copies of ballet mime images
Record of material created at
previous four lessons
Costumes
PAGE 10

LESSON: ENTRANCES AND EXITS
7
LESSON OUTCOMES
To respond to ROH
feedback – using
the suggestions
to develop and
refine the creative
response.
To develop the dancers’
awareness of the whole
dance, not just their
role in it as they stay in
character.
To explore how
transitions can be made
between scenes and
how the dancers interact
with each other and their
surroundings during
transitions on and off
stage.
CREATIVE CHALLENGE PROGRESS
This week you need to finalize the choice of music
for your dance. Hopefully you will have had helpful
hints and suggestions from the ROH team which
will provide a focus for your work over the next few
weeks.
RESOURCES NEEDED FOR THE LESSON
©ROH/Johan Persson, 2009

STARTER
Watch Episode 7 with the class and ask the
following questions:
• What three things should you remember
when you enter the stage?
• What verb was used to describe how the
Angels entered the stage?
• What adjective was used to describe how
the Snowflakes entered the stage?
• Was the ‘stately’ entrance fast or slow?
• What did it tell you about the character?
WARM-UP
When we dance we are performing to an audience
so it is really important that each dancer is aware
of where they are at every moment in the dance
and also how they get there.
Repeat the Stage Directions game from Week 4 or
another warm-up relevant to your dance.
CREATIVE EXPLORATION
Target a section of movement from your dance
and use some of the structural devices introduced
in our INSET to organize the material. A reminder
of some of the structural devices we used at the
INSET:
• Shadowing – a group of dancers perform a
phrase, then either a solo dancer or another
group mirror elements or fragments of the
movement.
• Allowing some dancers to be still – while
others are performing their duets/trios/
group work.
• Thinking about the beginning, middle and
end of the dance, repeat some familiar
material from the beginning somewhere near
the end. This creates consistency.
• Make sure you are using a variety of duets,
trios, group and unison phrases.
Remember you don’t have to use all the dancers in
the same space at the same time.
It is also important to remember that not all the
children need to be on stage all of the time so
think about when you want them to enter and exit.
Make sure you give the children cues either going
by the music, or by an action of another performer
in the group.
You can have children entering from one place on
the stage or from different sides to give it variety.
After experimenting and rehearsing this, watch
the whole dance as it stands and get feedback
from the dancers. Remind them that they need to
be aware of their character throughout the whole
dance whether on stage or not.
Play your music choices and either short-list a
couple or make a decision as to the piece that
will be used. Discuss ways of remembering the
changes made to the dance with your dancers.
COOL DOWN
Complete the usual cool down. Encourage a
discussion about your dance so far.
TOP TIPS
It is not expected that your class ‘company’ will be
on stage the whole time. This means you will have
to think about getting dancers in and out of the
performance space with as little fuss as possible.
Think about using static poses with some dancers
to frame the action of others. For example, you
may have five duets performing while ten dancers
stand around them.