National Nutcracker Lesson 8

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: LET’S REALLY DANCE
8
LESSON OUTCOMES
To complete, refine and
rehearse the dance
To work as a team to
achieve the best
possible creative
outcome
To make decisions
about preferences and
describe the reasons for
them
CREATIVE CHALLENGE PROGRESS
The focus of this week is rehearsing and tidying up
any areas that look messy or unsure. If the music
has only recently been chosen, then the dancers will
need to become familiar with it. It may also mean
that certain moments in the music can be identified
as good prompts for entrances, exits and action.
Further to this the focus now is on presentation
skills, how faces, eyes, body etc. are used to convey
the meaning of your dance. Children are encouraged
to give positive feedback and encourage each other
in their contribution to the dance as a whole.
RESOURCES NEEDED FOR THE LESSON
©ROH/Bill Cooper, 2012

STARTER
Watch Episode 8 with the class and ask the
following questions;
• What does Drosselmeyer do and how do
you know?
• How does a character artist use their body
to tell the story?
• What is the spell that has been put on the
Nutcracker doll?
WARM-UP
Do a warm-up game that allows the dancers to
think about their performance skills.
Think back to the games from the INSET that were
useful for focus and the projection of movement
such as the 1-10 game and follow my leader, where
big movements lead to huge movements.
You can also identify a moment from your dance
and get the dancers to stand in a freeze-frame,
each dancer then has to think about how they can
improve the shape they are making and to think
about where they are looking.
CREATIVE EXPLORATION
Give the dancers plenty of opportunity to listen
to the music and to know it really well in relation
to different moments in the dance. Listening to
the music and talking through exits/entrances and
actions can be really helpful. You can do this in the
classroom too.
• As a class, share the refined sections of the
dance and run it through from beginning to
end.
• Prepare the class for filming next week.
Discuss the cinema screening they will see in
December and how the professional dancers
might prepare for their own performances.
TOP TIPS
If you have decided that there is one more strategy
you would like to try our with your dancers to help
organize the dance material you have developed
so far, make sure you have a clear plan of how to
implement the adjustment.
This week also provides the opportunity to tidy
up any entrances and exits the dancers need to
make. It is hoped that as the dance begins to take
a clearer shape, teachers will begin to focus on
rehearsal and performance skills.
WANT MORE?
Rehearsing can sometimes feel rather dull
compared to the process of creating/devising, so it
might be good to intersperse your rehearsals with
short film clips, such as the character of the Queen
of Hearts being created in the rehearsal room for
The Royal Ballet’s production Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland or ask which is their favourite National
Nutcracker film and watch it again.
http://bit.ly/1VgwxwS
• Encourage dancers to start thinking about
performance skills and dancing in character.
Have the trios and duets perform in front of
each other to help improve the dance.
• Encourage the dancers to move with greater
clarity and energy: really stretched arms and
legs or with curves, or generally with greater
energy.