Empathy is all about connection between humans. Playing mirror games and follow-the-leader experiences create opportunities for students to pay close attention to each other and follow their partner’s moves. When it’s time, the partners switch and the leader becomes the follower and the follower gets a turn to be the leader. Everyone gets an opportunity to dance, be seen, and feel like they’re being understood thanks to the nature of the game.
The simple act of mirroring and being mirrored builds empathy. Students who participate in these experiences remove their focus from themselves for a minute to see what someone else is doing. Students who are leading the mirror get to feel seen and understood as their partner follows their movement. While this is a simple exercise, empathetic ties, in addition to self-efficacy and trust, grow stronger without one word being spoken. Mirroring exercises can be utilized in many settings and contexts. They may be part of a warm up or an ice breaker. They can be part of a class’ closing ritual. They could be used to aid students in learning technique and dance vocabulary. Mirroring can happen one-on-one or can be expanded to a larger group with the leader changing from person to person as the entire group follows them.
Improvisation can be intimidating, especially when everyone is watching and following them, but elements like the music you choose can help dancers define what their movement looks like. Establishing a certain number of counts that students have to lead may also help. You could say every leader gets 16 counts of music and then they pass leadership to their partner or to the next person. I have also found that as a teacher, being the first to model something like this encourages students to try it. If students see you taking a risk, they are more likely to do the same. This element of risk also encourages deeper connection and empathy among students, because they feel they are “in it” together.
***There is usually no need to reinvent the wheel when creating activities that teach or reinforce social and emotional learning. Many of these lessons have been in circulation for years. In fact, if a student is familiar with the activity, it provides even greater opportunity to focus on the SE skill being explored***
Movement
Flocking is a form of mirroring or follow-the-leader that provides opportunities for students to move collectively in a space. If you have students who are aware spatially, they may find a flocking challenge fun. Flocking involves every student, and requires them to be paying close attention to the leader, to those around them, and to themselves. There can only be one leader at a time, but leadership passes quickly from one person to another depending on the movements they choose. As soon as a person cannot see someone in front of themselves, they become the leader. They may choose to keep leadership for a few moments, or they can continue to pass it to the next person. Again, as soon as a person cannot see someone in front of them, they become the designated leader. So a leader who wants to turn 180 or 360 degrees will be stopped soon after they begin turning because a new leader will have taken over.
Object: To practice following another’s expressive work
Supplies: Music and enough space for a group to move around in
Process:
Facing the same direction, the entire group creates a formation or a clump behind a starting leader. The leader can move in any way they want until they start to face a new direction.
The next person to lead will be the first person who loses sight of the leader. They take over until they pass it to the next person or back to the first person and so on.
When a group first tries this exercise, I recommend they stay in one place while they experiment with movements. As your group becomes more comfortable with this exercise, however, spatial, tempo, and energy changes in the movements are encouraged, as long as the rule of leadership continues to be followed.
Discussion Questions: What did you notice about your movements as you followed each leader? How did you feel when others were following you?
Visual Arts & Movement
Life Maps
Object: To present and respond to a visual representation of a person’s experience
Supplies: Colored pencils, markers, white copy paper
Process:
Invite students to draw a map of their life or an experience that they have had previously.
Have them use symbols to depict the good, bad, and everything-in-between times that they’ve experienced. Try not to use words!
They can use different types of lines, colors, shapes, etc. to help convey what the student felt as they experienced those things.
When students have finished drawing, have them practice walking through their maps.
As students become more comfortable with their maps, they can begin exploring different tempos, spatial changes, and movement qualities that fit each part of their map.
Divide students into partners and have them share what they feel comfortable sharing about their life maps. Remind students that if there are parts of their map they don’t want to talk about, that’s ok.
Allow time for each person to walk their partner through the map, including any tempo, spatial, and movement quality changes they choreographed.
Discussion Questions: What is one thing that stood out to you about your partner’s map? Why? How did participating in your partner’s map feel? What similarities are there between your map and your partner’s map? What is one thing you learned about your partner today?