Dansen in de Nor

Test Case: Interactive Tour at the Middelheim Museum with 12-year-old students

During the test case of the interactive tour at the Middelheim Museum, first-year students from Sint-Ursula High School participated in a dance assignment to escape from De Nor. After the warm-up exercise during the walk there, I took on the role of a police officer. I guided them to the stands with a stern voice and had them sit according to the color of their name tags. I introduced the students to the artwork of Dennis Tyfus and told them that many events are organized here during the spring and summer months. I played several tracks from this Spotify playlist, a collection of songs by artists who performed at De Nor last year. The music was very unique and made a strong impression on them! In this way, we connected it to the dance assignment: How will you escape from this entertainment prison... by dancing!

ESCAPE DANCE

The students discussed and explored terms like high/low, angry/friendly, slow/fast, young/old, and how these can be expressed in movement. We broke the ice by crossing the stage in a specific way: high, angry, slow, young... "Walk as if you’re very tall, big, and long! As if you could touch the sky!"

Next, they were asked to plan a specific route from a certain starting point to the exit. Along this route, they would need to express at least three different types of movement and make a clear turn at each change. They were first given the chance to prepare and experiment in groups of 3 or 4 people and make a sketch to visualize their plan. I advised them to link different colors to different movements. Here you can see the sketches made by the students of Sint-Ursula.

The students then performed their escape routes, group by group, while the others watched. Everyone performed a wonderful dance and received permission from me, the police officer, to leave De Nor!

I think it would be very interesting to explore two things next time:
First, to go deeper into the link between colors and movements when the students brainstorm their escape routes. And second, to spend more time discussing the music of the artists who regularly perform at De Nor.

I believe that diving into the music and analyzing the diverse styles of the artists could have a very positive impact on the students' creative thinking process. They could be inspired by the feelings evoked by a particular song, and they could choose a specific track to link to their escape route. This could also lead to an adjustment in the assignment description: ‘Create an escape route from De Nor, dancing to one of the songs by the artists who perform here.’

There is still much to discover, although this assignment already sparked plenty of giggles and applause!