The dance activities in this programme begin by contrasting 'town' and 'country' in the summer of 1914. There are also some simple steps to learn from a contemporary dance called 'The Castle Walk' before the declaration of war takes us to the parade ground for some military drill steps.
The activities in the programme can be used to support your on-going work in dance at Key Stage 2. They also support a performance of our play 'Archie Dobson's War', commemorating the outbreak of World War 1.
Dance - Part 2: Over by Christmas
Summary
Warm-up
Digging trenches. Rhythmic ‘dig and throw’ actions – march to a new space and repeat.
Sequence 1: Life in the trenches
Walking along the zig-zagging, muddy trenches with small, careful steps. Joining one or two people nearby to create a short sequence based on a selected trench-life activity – eg playing cards, writing a letter, eating a meal, sharing a story.
Sequence 2: The Homefront – munitions workers
Groups of about 4 form munitions production lines to perform set actions (push, pull, jump, turn) – one after the other and then together in unison. Each group develops their own production line sequence, varying the size, direction and speed of the actions.
Sequence 3: Christmas truce
Class divided into 2 equal group lines; sitting along opposite ends of the room. ‘Silent night’ cues slow, cautious steps towards person from opposite line – to shake hands and perform slow-motion footballing sequence together.
Cool down
Walk to a space for a series of slow, gentle stretches – back, legs, arms, whole body.
Resources
Teachers' notes document
Complete guidance notes for the WW1 Performance Pack music, dance and drama programmes
Archie Dobson's War - The Playscript. document
The script of 'Archie Dobson's War' to read online, print or download.
Music cues and SFX. audio
Download all the music cues and sound effects for the play as a zip file (52 MB)
More from this series
Dance - Part 1: Countdown to war. audio
Dance resources linking to World War 1. The dance activities in this programme contrast 'town' and 'country' in the summer of 1914 and build towards parade ground drills.
Dance Part 3: Over the top! audio
The third programme of dance resources linking to World War 1
Music - Part 1: Listen to the fields. audio
Music resources linking to World War 1. Including a medley of songs and an original song.
