Kandinsky Circle Dance - Upper Elementary Movement Lesson!

I had an amazing time presenting the the Manitoba Orff Chapter's Children's Day this past May. It is a day of making music with children from all over Manitoba. Students are seperated into groups and rotate through five one-hour sessions throughout the day. These include Basic Orff, Recorder, Choral, Movement, and sometimes Drumming and/or Boomwhacker sessions. The theme this year was music and art and I presented the movement session. It was such a great day working with the children!

I would love to share my lesson with y'all! It was a blast.

KANDINSKY CIRCLE DANCE
Inspired by Color Study: Squares with Concentric Circles, c.1913, by Wassily Kandinsky.


Kandinsky spoke of his experience attending Wagner's opera Lohengrin: "I saw all my colours in spirit, before my eyes. Wild, almost crazy lines were sketched in front of me.”

Materials

• •  emotion word cards 
• •  painted cards symbolizing emotions 
• •  posters of movement words (light, fast, strong, slow)
• •  a poster of Kadinsky’s circle paintings 
• •  scarves, hula hoops, balls, ribbon wands, other movement props 
• •  cymbal and hand drum 
• •  Sonata in B flat, mvt. 1 by Richard Wagner 
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Activate (Emotion Walk)

• •  Have students walk to the beat of the hand drum. Call out various emotions periodically while walking and have students demonstrate the emotion with their body language. 
• •  Using emotion word cards (and/or painted cards that represent emotions) and have students choose the different emotions for the class to move. 
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• Acquire (Kandinsky and Music) 

• •  Show students the Kandinsky painting. Ask what they see; do they know who painted it? What kind of art it is? 
• •  Share biographical facts about Kandinsky with the class, focusing on the impact of music in Kandinsky’s life and in the his artwork. Also, emphasize the affect that Wagner’s compositions had on Kandinsky’s choice to pursue his passion for art as a career later on in his life. 

Apply

A SECTION

• •   Explore the posted movement words with students.
• •   In scatter formation, teach the movement steps from the A section of the dance. Using those steps, have students move to Piano Sonata in B flat, movement I by Wagner.
• •  Share the inspiration of the The Kandinsky Circle Dance with the class. Next, add scarves and the circle formation and play the music. 
• •  Present the listening map and show the class how the movement matches the music. 

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  B SECTION 

• •  Split the class into four and have each group responsible for improvising, using one type of movement prop. Choices could be hula hoops, balls, ribbon wands, skipping ropes, etc. Place the movement props in the middle of the circle. 
• •  Providing a drum beat, have each group practice walking from their spot to the middle to take a prop, move in the middle of the circle with it, return it, and return to their spot, all in 32 beats. 
• •  Playing the sonata recording, have students move the improvised B section with each group having 32 beats in the middle of the circle with a prop. 
• •  Put the whole dance together with the music using ABA form. 

I hope you enjoy the lesson!