Diane Louise Jordan has the first session based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
1. Down the rabbit hole
The children skip like Alice, hurry like the White Rabbit, stretch tall and kneel low in a hall of doors, then shrink small. As group caterpillars, they collaborate in threes (front-middle-back) to make long, wiggling movements.
Here are the shortened, adapted, story extracts:
A The White Rabbit "…Alice was tired of sitting and having nothing to do, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran by, saying to itself: “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” The Rabbit took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, looked at it, then hurried on. Alice jumped to her feet, because she'd never seen a rabbit with a waistcoat, OR a pocket-watch! Burning with curiosity, she skipped across the field, just in time to see the White Rabbit pop down a large rabbit-hole…”
B The Hall of Doors "…Thump! Down she fell on a heap of sticks and dry leaves. She found herself in a long, low hall. There were doors all round, all locked! She found a little three-legged table, with nothing on it but a tiny golden key…"
C Drink Me "…Alice opened the door. She knelt down and looked into the loveliest garden. She longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and cool fountains, but she couldn't even get her head through the doorway. Alice went back to the table, where she found a little bottle. Tied round the neck of the bottle was a label with the words “DRINK ME”. It wasn't marked “poison”, so Alice tasted it (a sort of pleasant mixed-up flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast). Suddenly, she was getting smaller and smaller! “What a curious feeling!” said Alice. “I must be shutting up like a telescope!..”
D The Caterpillar "…Alice looked round and saw a large mushroom about the same height as herself. She stretched on tiptoe, and her eyes met a large blue caterpillar, who asked, sleepily, ”What size do you want to be?” “Well, I'd like to be a little larger, Sir, if you don’t mind,” said Alice. The Caterpillar yawned and crawled into the grass, saying, “One side of the mushroom will make you grow taller, and the other side will make you shorter…”
Resources
Download the audio for this dance session as an mp3 file.
Guidance on using the dance sessions in this unit with your group (pdf)
Download extended music sequences for this unit (without presenter instructions)
Movement focus
Action: Skipping, stretching, curling, flexible bodies (bending and straightening), crouching.
Dynamics: Exaggerated gestures, fitting steps to music (creeping, hurried etc), stillness.
Space: Spinning within a circle, exploring large and small imaginary spaces, straight lines, low and high levels.
Relationships: Pair work, watching a partner carefully, follow-my-leader lines in threes.
Related units of KS1 Dance: Time to Move
Pinocchio. collection
A three-part unit taking the famous story of Pinocchio as the inspiration for children's dances.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin. collection
A three-part unit based on the traditional story, popularised by the poem by Robert Browning.
The Great Fire of London. collection
Pete Hillier has three exciting dance sessions exploring the Great Fire of 1666.
