In this lesson, students will create a narrative dance based on a personal story.

Lesson Overview

Estimated Time: 1-2 class periods

Learning Goals

By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

  • Understand that there are different ways to tell a story
  • Understand that narrative dance is a dance form that tells a story
  • Recognize that personal stories can be told through dance 
Readiness

If dance is taught by a rotary teacher, ensure that you communicate with the classroom teacher in advance of lesson 3 about which students might struggle with the concepts in Appendix 2 and Appendix 3, especially regarding safe stories to share and oversharing.

For lesson 3, the instructor should be prepared to connect with the school’s Child and Youth Worker and Social Worker will to support students who may wish to speak to a caring adult, though with proper scaffolding of these social-emotional learning skills, this should not be necessary.

Terminology
Materials
  • Projector, speakers and a computer to play videos
  • Narrative story cards or cue cards
  • The Masks We Wear video
  • False Confidence dance video (Junior)
  • Identity dance video (Intermediate)
  • PDF #7 Narrative Story Card
  • Loose parts for the construction of personal narratives - Suggested Loose Parts List

Minds On

Whole Class > Analyzing Dance Pieces

Remind students about the previous class where they explored non-verbal communication using facial expression, body language and movement. Tell students they will be watching a video that tells a story without words and without facial expression. Play for students The Masks We Wear video.

Ask students to reflect on what story was being told.  

Teacher prompt:

  • What happened in this narrative story?
  • What emotions might the director and actors have been trying to share with the audience? How were they communicated?
  • What might the masks be a symbol of?
  • How did the story connect to identity?
  • How did they communicate these messages if you couldn’t see faces because of the masks?

Remind students that not only can people use their bodies to express emotions, but they can tell a story through dance also. Show another clip entitled “False Confidence”.

Teacher Prompts:

  • What might be happening in the story told through dance?
  • What emotions did you notice being communicated by the dancers? (e.g., happy, scared, playful, confused, lonely and sad)
  • How were the emotions communicated?

Whole Class > Identifying the Elements of a Personal Narrative

Engage students in a discussion about how the story is communicated and what elements of dance are important for conveying the story in each of the videos.

Teacher Prompt:

  • What do you think the story was about?
  • How did the element of relationship impact the story?
  • What symbols did you notice? (Remind students that symbols can include gestures).

Identify the elements of a personal narrative for students by documenting them in an anchor chart. Important elements to include are: 

  • Tells a story from someone’s life
  • Has a beginning, middle and end in a specific order
  • Evokes emotion (communicates emotion or makes the audience feel an emotion)
Differentiation & Intermediate Adaptation
  • After giving students an opportunity to form an initial reaction to the piece, consider posing a prompting question before rewatching to give students something specific to notice.
  • Alternatively, invite students to write a few sentences summarizing the performance after the first watch through. Rewatch and invite them to consider what adjectives they would use to describe the performance and update your description. Repeat for any other enhancement to their description you feel would benefit their understanding of the performance.
  • For an Intermediate group, you might consider showing the “Identity” for the Whole Class > Analyzing Dance Pieces activity instead. If analysing this performance, ask students about the impact of formations and props on the message of the piece. Note: You may prefer to show only a smaller portion of this video as it is 7 minutes long.

Action

Individual > Spinning a Yarn

  • Share the following sentence with students: "He was spinning yarns about his adventures in the navy.”
  • If they are unfamiliar with the expression "spinning a yarn", invite them to infer (text + schema) what it could mean.
  • Explain that it is an idiomatic expression, meaning that it gets its meaning because of the context where it was first used.
  • Over time, it started getting used in other contexts and became a common phrase.
  • Share with them that “spinning a yarn” means “to tell a story”. 

Reference: “Spin yarns.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spin%20yarns. Accessed 30 Apr. 2025.

  • Tell students that they will be “spinning their own yarn” (building their own personal narratives) about a time where they felt a strong emotion. They will then have an opportunity to share that story with their group and communicate it through movement.

Invite students to think of a small moment in their life when they felt a specific emotion.

Teacher prompt: 

  • Think of a time where you felt _________ (happy, sad, afraid, angry, etc.).
  • Build me the beginning, middle and end of what happened in your experience.
  • If you are using names in your story, do not use anyone’s real name.

Give the students a variety of loose parts (see materials list for suggestions). Ask them to use the loose parts to construct the beginning, middle and end of their personal experience. When students are done, have the students share what they have constructed orally with the people/person closest to them.

Differentiation

If students do not have an idea that is acceptable to share (for example, because the classroom is outside their circles of safety), give students permission to embellish a story, the same way that “spinning a yarn” can also mean to tell an outlandish story or to exaggerate.

Alternatively, ask every student to include elements that are fictional so that no one can tell what is their real story and what is invented.

Whole Class > Creating Narrative Story Cards

Tell students that they will be creating narrative story cards to be used for movement. These cards will be based on the story that they “built” with loose parts and then shared with their partner. 

Give each student a copy of PDF #7 Narrative Story Card and ask them to create the beginning, middle and end of their personal narrative. Remind students to document the important details about the moment they were thinking of, but to keep it concise (e.g., no more than 1-2 sentences for each of the beginning, middle and end of their story).

Small Group > Sharing our Stories

Divide students into groups of 4-5 students. Invite students to sit in a circle in their small group and one at a time, read their story cards with the group. Remind students about the importance of a brave space where students take risks and share, and that sharing personal stories of any kind takes courage. Students should invite their group members to determine which emotion is associated with each individual story if it isn’t mentioned specifically when shared.

Individual Exploration > Connecting Stories to Movement 

Teacher Note: You should model the writing of a personal narrative using the beginning, middle and end framework and reminding students about their inner circle stories vs their acquaintance stories (Appendix 3). The example listed below is intended to be an example of what a personal story could look like. 

Sample Story Card: 

  • Beginning:  I was wearing my favourite necklace, but I had to take it off to play baseball so I put it in my backpack for later.  After the game, I went to get it out and I couldn’t find it anywhere. 
  • Middle:  I retraced my steps to everywhere I had been during the game - the ball diamond, the grass by the parking lot, and the trunk of my car where I put my bag.
  • End: When I got home, I decided to check the car one more time and I found it in the bottom of my bag! 

Tell students that they will be communicating the three parts of this story through dance. Discuss the difference between miming and dancing. 

Teacher Note: It is important that students understand this difference and that communicating through dance involves abstracting movement and focusing on the emotional context of the events. For pre-teaching suggestions see the readiness section. 

Begin by focusing on the “beginning.” Invite students to find a space in the room and ask them to individually create a movement to represent the beginning of their story. This will become the first section of their dance sequence.

Repeat this exploration for both the middle and end sections of the narrative story card, adding on to the dance sequence after each exploration. Invite students to reflect on the elements that make their piece successful. Optional: add a variety of music in the background to guide students’ movements.

Teacher Prompt: 

  • Did we use levels in our dance sequence?
  • How did you use energy to communicate what you were feeling at this moment? What about connection? 
  • How might we change our movements to clearly communicate the story without words?
Differentiation

Depending on student readiness, the last activity could consist of a non-locomotor movement or a short movement sequence (e.g., an 8 count sequence). 

Consolidation

Co-create success criteria for Identity Narrative Dance with students. Sample criteria:

  • Tells a “small moment” story about identity
  • Has a beginning, middle and end
  • Uses different levels
  • Uses the elements of dance to tell a story

Teacher Prompt: Did our class narrative dance sequence meet the success criteria?  Why or why not?”

Assessment as Learning / Assessment for Learning
  • Co-creation of success criteria for narrative dance presentation
  • Educator side coaching and giving feedback throughout the creative process and documentation of observations