Human Tableaus

In our dance class with the 6th-8th graders my co-teacher, Miss Allie, and I are introducing the idea of improvisation through the guideline of negative space. If we consider our selves to be positive space, negative space is how we refer to the air surrounding us. To play with this idea, we asked the students to explore the negative space around each other. We split the students into groups of six and numbered them first to last. The first student improvises movement until settling into a pose, the second student then dances toward the first student and moves around their body until settling into a pose that relates to the first student's negative space. This continues until every student in the group has found a pose amidst the negative space created by the previous students, culminating in a human tableau. As Miss Allie and I say, "First thought, best thought," encouraging the skill of quick-thinking and promoting confidence in the choices the student's make.