Today was all about exploring the many possibilities of dancing with hats. I wanted participants to feel free to try and test their ideas and other people’s ideas out using the hats. Over the past few weeks we have really started to develop creative interests and have become more and more comfortable with our own ideas and having the confidence to try them all. Today was a session to prove just that. We began talking about our hats and what makes them the same and different before beginning to try and test some Hat Tricks. There were hats pretty much everywhere, in the air, on heads, on the floor on elbows- Everywhere!
Once we’d had some time with the hats and dropped them a hundred times each we decided to group back together and learn some pretty nifty hat dance. The movements used a range of hat ‘Tricks’ in which the participants were to trust themselves and others to throw and catch their hats. We soon realised this was a real test of team work. We were all given shared responsibility to ensure everyone could send and receive a hat during each trick. After failing and laughing a few times we soon figured out a few strategies to help us to perform each hat trick. Before we knew it the group had mastered a couple of hat tricks that I had taught them.
Of course I couldn’t stop there. I asked the group to pair up and create their own hat trick, and later I asked them to work as a whole group to make an even bigger hat trick!
For their bigger Hat Trick I set the group a couple of rules;
- Only 2 people can have a hat on their heads at one time.
- Only 2 people can be facing each other at one time.
- You have to use a range of body parts not just hats on hands and heads.
The rules worked really well to develop the group’s ideas and get them really thinking.
Before finished we practiced the dance a few times, each time the participants would change a detail or give feedback to improve their performance- it was getting better and better and the hat tricks clearer and clearer.
Join us for our last session next week where we will be exploring a range of props for a fantastic finale!
