Dance your story

Combining movement with storytelling stimulates imagination and facilitates the creation of narratives inspired by both the body and the shared experiences of participants.

Duration: 50 minutes. Introduction: 5 minutes. Movement exercises: 35 minutes. Summary: 10 minutes.

Difficulty level: 3/5

Preparation

• A room without obstacles (no tables), with chairs arranged in a circle along the outline of the room

• Comfortable workout clothes

• Music

• Speakers

Introduction

Invite participants to an exercise that combines movement with storytelling. This experience will stimulate their imagination, allow them to feel emotions in their bodies, and create narratives inspired by movement.

Instructions

• Warm-up (10 minutes): Start with a warm-up to help participants become aware of their bodies and prepare for greater expression. 

• For participants with limited mobility, focus on seated upper-body movements, hand gestures, and facial expressions. Incorporating scarves or small props can also help enhance storytelling through expressive hand movements or seated gestures.

• Ask participants to focus on different paces and with varying qualities of expression:

  • Pace: different speeds: slow, medium, fast, very fast.

  • Movement quality: flowing, reaching a destination, accompanying someone, imitating, moving alone.

  • Emotions: moving with different emotions: joy, sadness, anger, shyness, hope. Each emotion will influence how participants move.

• Free movement to music (5 minutes): After warming up, play music and invite participants to let their bodies guide their movement. Encourage them to move freely around the room, discovering which movements suit them best. Give them 5 minutes for this activity.

• Storytelling through movement (10 minutes): Invite participants to tell a story through movement. Emphasize how combining movement and storytelling can enrich their creative and emotional experiences. Let movement become the carrier of emotions that shape the story, while the story itself will influence how the body moves. Encourage participants to fully engage and experiment with body language. 

• Pair work (10 minutes): Ask participants to form pairs and decide who will be person A and who will be person B. Person A will start by telling a story using only their body – no words allowed. This could be a biographical story, an emotional experience, something from the “here and now,” or even a futuristic tale. Person B, using their own body language, can respond or ask questions during the storytelling. After 5 minutes, participants switch roles: now person B shares their story, and person A listens in silence, asking nonverbal questions. Once the exercise is complete, invite participants to reflect on and share their emotions and thoughts about telling and listening to stories through body language.

Suggested topics for the exercise

• The Hero's Journey: The story of a hero embarking on a journey. The movements should reflect the stages of this journey – from uncertainty, through overcoming obstacles, to triumph.

• Suspended Time: The story of a moment that stopped life. How do participants move in moments of suspension? What emotions arise? How does the body react to the suspension of time?

• Meeting Someone New: The story of meeting a stranger. What emotions does this encounter evoke? How does it affect movement – are participants open, shy, curious?

• Losing Yourself: The story of being lost in something – work, passion, or a relationship. How does this affect the body? Do participants feel overwhelmed, relaxed, or tired?

• Freedom: The theme of feeling free. How do participants move when they feel free, unburdened by pressure? How do these emotions affect their movements?

Wrap-up

Sit together in a circle. Encourage participants to share their experiences:

• What was the experience like?

• What did you feel?

• What did you take away from this exercise, and how can you use these experiences in the future?