Activity one: Design a floor pattern

Who is it for?: This could be done as a group activity (even the whole class), duets or solos.

Inspiration: Caterpillar and his mushroom which has dancing feet marking out a dancing/floor pattern on it.

Design a floor pattern (look at ours for inspiration) - Create and draw it out. Think of what direction the movement would go in, you can use numbers for the order and arrows for direction as we have done.

Activity two: Creating a movement motif

Inspiration: Pack of cards (see movement material below), floor patterns and formations.

Create a movement motif, there are 6 movements and film clips below to help you, you can choose any of the movements, put them in any order, and/or you can be completely creative and create your own.

Examples of movements: 

1. Pique March - marching with knees lifted high, feet pointed!
2. Changing direction - sharp changes in direction (think 2 dimensional cards)
3. Ball change step -  sweep one leg forward ball change
4. Ups and Downs - marching on spot, knees high feet pointed changing level, up tip toes - demi-pointe and down bent knees - plie.
5. Diagonal arms, different diagonals - changing
6. Trumpet arms (out, in, out) - arms stretched out in front of the face, palms flat, fingers stretched, space between the arms, bring them in to the chest with fists clenched and out again to trumpet position.

Transition: So that you can travel through your movement pattern also create a transition movement this could be a marching step, a pique, walk, jog, triplet step etc.  

Who is it for? : The movement motif can be created for a large group (the whole class), trios, duets or solos.

For the next layer of the activity, think of what character you would like to be?

Please note: If you have created the movement motif for the whole class then the pack of cards would be best. Use the characters of the Cheshire Cat, White Rabbit and Caterpillar for solo, duet or trio movement motifs and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee of course for a duet!

Characters

Here’s a list of characters to choose from (but there’s plenty more in the story for you to explore too).

Cards – Whole class

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum – Duets

Cheshire Cat – Solo, duet or trio with another character(s)

White Rabbit - Solo, duet or trio with another character(s)

Caterpillar - Solo, duet or trio with another character(s)

Create a character description of your chosen character using words and/or pictures to show this. How would they look, how would they act, how would they move? Here’s a look at our design drawings – but be inventive and create your own!

Find out about all the characters in Scottish Ballet's Alice!

Activities 3 and 4