Grade by Grade
A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Dance: Telling Stories with Time and Energy

A1.2 A2.2About 35 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can find the big ideas in a poem, story or legend and show them with dance.
  • I can use time (freeze, slow, sustained, fast) to show what is happening in a story.
  • I can use energy (strong or light force; pressing or gliding; smooth, careful, jumpy or hitting moves) to show feelings and characters.
  • I can explain how time and energy helped tell the story.

Words to know

literature
Stories, poems, legends, fables and other writing we read or listen to.
tempo
The speed of a movement: fast, slow, or sustained.
energy
How a move is done: its force (strong or light), its effort (like pressing or gliding) and its quality (like smooth or jumpy).
cautiously
Carefully, as if you might be in danger or might break something.
erratically
In a jumpy, unexpected way that keeps changing.
interpret
To decide what something means and show it in your own way.

Dance can tell a story without words

In Grade 2 you used body shapes and space to show the main idea of a poem or story. This year, you will add two more powerful tools: time and energy.

Think about a character tiptoeing past a sleeping dragon. How would they move? Slowly. Lightly. Cautiously (carefully). Then the dragon wakes up! Now they run fast, with strong, erratic steps.

The story changed, so the time and energy changed too.

A red fox stepping carefully through deep snow in a winter forest, one front paw lifted.
A red fox moves slowly and lightly so it will not be heard. Dancers use time and energy the same way to show a careful character. AI-generated image
ElementChoicesWhat it can show in a story
Timefreeze, slow, sustained, fastFreeze: surprise, fear, hiding. Fast: excitement, danger, chasing. Sustained: dreaming, growing, sadness, magic.
Forcelight ↔ strongLight: tiny creatures, snow, happy floating. Strong: giants, storms, anger, determination.
Effortpressing, glidingPressing: pushing through deep snow, lifting something heavy. Gliding: skating, flying, sailing.
Qualitysmoothly, cautiously, erratically, percussivelySmoothly: calm, gentle. Cautiously: sneaking, worry. Erratically: confused, silly, buzzing. Percussively: stomping, knocking, marching.
Time and energy choices change the feeling of a dance.
forcelightsnowflakes, tiny creaturesstronggiants, stormseffortglidingskating, flying, sailingpressingpushing through deep snow
Two energy choices as sliders. Pick a spot on each one to match your character.

How to dance a story

  1. Read the story or poem (or listen to it).
  2. Find the big ideas: Who is in it? What happens at the start, the middle and the end?
  3. Ask: How fast is each part? How strong or light is each part?
  4. Choose moves and interpret (show it your own way). There is no single right answer!
  5. Practise, then perform, and explain your choices.
Worked example

Example: Dancing a poem

Let's dance this short poem:

The snowflake falls so soft and slow, it twirls and drifts to the ground below. Then WHOOSH! The wind begins to blow, and snowflakes race where wild winds go!

  1. Big ideas: a snowflake falls gently, then a strong wind blows it around.
  2. Lines 1 and 2 (time and energy): sustained time and light force. Twirl slowly from a high level down to a low level, gliding smoothly.
  3. "WHOOSH!": a sudden freeze in a stretched shape, as if the wind just hit you.
  4. Lines 3 and 4: fast tempo, strong force, erratic quality. Spin and dart in zigzags, changing direction without warning.
  5. End: the wind stops. Sink and freeze in a still shape on the ground.

The calm part uses sustained, light, gliding moves. The windy part uses fast, strong, erratic moves. The changes in time and energy match the changes in the poem.

Worked example

Example: A fable with two characters

In the fable The Tortoise and the Hare, a fast hare races a slow tortoise. The hare stops for a nap, and the tortoise keeps going and wins. How can time and energy show the two characters?

  1. Tortoise: slow, steady tempo and a pressing effort (heavy, determined steps). The tortoise never stops.
  2. Hare: fast tempo, light force and erratic quality: quick hops this way and that, showing off.
  3. The nap: the hare freezes in a lying-down shape (a long pause).
  4. The ending: the tortoise keeps pressing forward slowly to the finish line. The hare wakes up and runs fast, but it is too late!

Time (slow vs fast, freeze for the nap) and energy (pressing vs light and erratic) show who each character is, without any words.

FINISHHare: fast, light, erraticfreeze: napZzzwakes up... too late!Tortoise: slow, steady, pressingsmall, even steps that never stop: arrives first
The two characters as dance pathways. The hare's zigzag shows fast, erratic energy and a long freeze; the tortoise's even dots show slow, steady time.
Just for fun

Just for fun: To this day, the hare says he didn't lose the race. He was just doing a really, really long freeze!

Stories belong to people

Many First Nations, Métis and Inuit stories are shared by Elders and storytellers. Some stories may only be told at certain times of year (for example, some Anishinaabe stories are traditionally told in winter) and some belong to a family or community. Before you dance a story from a community, learn it from a book or video made by people of that community, and ask whether it is a story that is shared with everyone.

Hands-on activity

Dance a story from your bookshelf

You need: a favourite picture book, poem or fable, and open space. Clear away anything you could trip on.

  1. Read the story with a grown-up.
  2. Choose three moments: the beginning, the most exciting part, and the ending.
  3. For each moment, choose a tempo (freeze, slow, sustained or fast) and an energy (strong or light; pressing or gliding; smooth, careful, jumpy or hitting).
  4. Make a move for each moment. Join them into a dance.
  5. Perform while your grown-up reads the story aloud. Freeze at the end.
  6. Explain one choice: "I used fast, erratic moves when the puppy ran away because it was wild and excited."

Your turn

1

Show a character sneaking past a sleeping bear. Which quality of energy did you use?

2

Show a giant walking through a village. What force fits best?

3

In a story, a girl is surprised to see a moose in her yard. Show the surprise with time.

4

Which energy fits a hockey player gliding across the ice: pressing or gliding?

5

Which energy fits someone pushing a heavy sled up a hill: pressing or gliding?

6

Show a bumblebee buzzing from flower to flower. Name the tempo and quality.

7

Show a sad character slowly walking home. Which time choice fits?

More practice: warm-up

1

Name the four time choices in this lesson.

2

Is a tiptoe strong or light?

3

What does erratically mean?

4

Which is faster: sustained or fast?

5

True or false: there is only one right way to dance a story.

More practice: on your own

1

Read: "The kitten pounced on the yarn, then curled up and fell asleep." Choose a time and energy for each part.

2

Why might a dancer use a freeze in the scariest part of a story?

3

In The Three Little Pigs, how could energy show the wolf huffing and puffing?

4

A dancer shows a robot with smooth, gliding moves. Does that fit? Explain.

5

Show the ending of a story where everyone is calm and happy. Name the time and energy you chose.

Challenge

1

Choose a story you know. Make a dance with three parts that each use a different tempo. Explain why.

2

Two dancers show the same poem about a storm. One uses light, smooth moves, the other uses strong, percussive moves. What different ideas might each show?

3

Describe how time and energy could show a seed growing into a sunflower (from a story or a science book).

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

A story character tiptoes past a sleeping dog. Which energy fits best?

2.

Which time choice best shows surprise?

3.

Pushing a heavy sled up a hill uses which effort?

4.

In The Tortoise and the Hare, which move best shows the tortoise?

5.

Sustained movement is ___.

6.

What should you do first when making a dance from a poem?

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Grade 3 students use dance as a language to show ideas from stories, poems, fables and other literature, with a focus on time and energy (A1.2). Time in Grade 3 includes freeze and tempo (slow, sustained, fast). Energy includes force (light or strong), effort (pressing, gliding) and quality (smoothly, cautiously, erratically, percussively).

How to help at home:

  • While reading together, pause and ask: "How would this character move? Fast or slow? Strong or light?"
  • Act out short scenes from favourite books with movement only, no words.
  • If you share First Nations, Métis or Inuit stories, choose books by Indigenous authors and storytellers, and talk about how stories belong to communities.

Common difficulties:

  • Acting out every word. Encourage choosing a few big moments instead of miming the whole story.
  • Mixing up "slow" and "sustained". Sustained is slow and smooth and continuous, with no stops.
  • Using the same energy for everything. Ask: "How is this part different from that part? How can your energy show the change?"