Creative movement is a widely used term in music education, but what does it really refer to and why is it good for children?
What you’ll find in this blog post:
- Explanation of what creative movement is and is not
- Four ideas for incorporating creative movement into your lessons
- Bonus phrase and question to ask which help to boost your students’ creativity
Let’s define creative movement
I think it’s helpful to take a step back and use an analogy for the creative process.
Imagine that you and I are sitting next to each other in art class. In one scenario, the teacher gives us step-by-step instructions on how to draw a monkey. We both end up with similar sized monkeys, rounded ears, same curly tail, both dark brown, etc. Our two drawings are almost exact replicas because we followed the same directions.
In another scenario, the teacher gives us parameters about drawing a monkey, but also gives complete flexibility about color, size, background, etc. We are allowed to make creative choices, and our final products look very different from each other.
Both scenarios are valuable in learning, but for creative movement purposes we want the second approach. We want to give children room to express themselves and make their own choices about how their body moves.
What creative movement is NOT: it is not asking all kids to do the same motions at the same time (like a line dance). That’s a perfectly fine activity, but it’s not creative movement.
What creative movement IS: it’s providing parameters but allowing kids freedom of expression. You might say, “Wave this scarf to the beat of the music” but you don’t dictate how they wave it. Each child will come up with their own interpretation.
Four ideas for creative movement
Scarves
Scarves are one of the most versatile props in music education. Give each child a scarf and play some music. You might provide a simple prompt like “move the scarf to match the music” or “show me what the music looks like with your scarf.” Some kids will wave it gently, others will whip it around — and that’s exactly the point! You don’t want everyone to look the same, but to set parameters and then let their imaginations flow!
Partner mirroring
Two kids will face each other; one is designated as the leader and one is the follower (or mirror). Partner A creates movement to accompany some music and Partner B needs to closely watch and mimic their motions like a mirror reflection. After a minute or two, allow the partners to switch roles. I really like to challenge kids to think about using their whole space. Referring back to the scarf example – what else can you do besides up/down/side-to-side? What if they move backwards or forwards, then what should their mirror reflection do?
Create one section of a larger dance
If you are already teaching a patterned dance (such as a line dance), why not allow students to come up with one section of dance entirely on their own? This works best with songs that have clearly defined sections, think part A/part B/wherever you hear a new change in the music. It could look something like:
Part A – a taught set of moves…everybody does the same thing
Part B – a taught set of moves…everybody does the same thing
Part C – a short interlude…ask students to create their own movement during this section…or to volunteer ideas for how the whole group can move
I find that students love it when they get to be part of choreographing movement for a larger dance.
Bonus phrase & question
Any time you’re using creative movement as part of your music lesson, there’s still a way you can bump it up a notch and get kids thinking outside the box. Begin with the phrase, “I notice that _____” and follow up with a question.
“I notice that you’re using a lot of spinning motions with your scarf; how else could you make the scarf move fast?”
The point here is not to critique the student’s movement, as if it were right or wrong. The goal is to get them to try new things and imagine different ways of moving.
Creative movement can be such a fun way to get kids’ brains and bodies working together. If you want to see more about how I teach this, check out the YouTube video from Morning Basket Music.