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Training: The Butterfly Lion

Every Bringing Books To Life dance workshop should begin with a retelling of the story via an Active Storytelling from the facilitator.

You will need to read the book before you deliver these workshops.

Workshop structure

Introduction - 1minute - Short introduction to the topic.

Warm up - 2-3 minutes - Physical warm up.

Storytelling - 3-5minutes - Interactive bringing the story to life.

Game - 5 minutes - Implementing some choreography and structure from dance.

Dance - 20 minutes - Teaching choreography and performing the dance.

INTRODUCTION -

Introduce yourself and tell them that you are a professional dancer/ choreographer and work in the theatre etc. 

• You love working in theatre as you get to tell stories, discover different cultures and traditions and create incredible worlds through dance. 

• Today, you are here to help them create a dance that explores a story.

• Why you love books and do they have a favourite?

• What story we are discovering/ exploring today?

  Keep this introduction short and use it to help understand the groups needs and abilities.

WARM UP -

Ask the group to find a space. 

• Explain that before any rehearsals, you always have to warm up to make sure your body and brain are ready. 

• Tell them to copy everything you do! 2-3 min Physical warm up. 

• Do a high energy, aerobic warm up, ensuring you warm up all the different areas of the body. 

• Try to keep it full of imagery and fun story telling, to wake up brains and to make them excited. 

• If you are able then introduce some of the trickier choreography from the dance.

ACTIVE STORYTELLING

• Get them into a circle. 

  • Establish how much they know about the book before you start and adjust your delivery accordingly. 

• Deliver the story, with plenty of energy and interaction. 

• Involve the group by using call and response, giving characters actions and gestures (use physicality from choreography)

• If they know it well then allow them to fill in some gaps.

• You have to tell the story for the dance to make sense, and so in shorter sessions you can cut 1 or 4, or save time by using the shorter game and keeping the warm up short.

• Every Bringing Books To Life dance workshops should include a retelling of the story via an Active Storytelling from the facilitator.

CHARACTER MOVEMENT - THE BUTTERFLY LION

Once you have set up each of the characters, pop on some music and run it like a call and response game.

• This needs a lot of guidance from you, it isn’t a test, you need to aid them to remember the characters by embodying them yourself in an over the top way. When they are getting into the shapes/ positions, count them down and act like you are amazed by how quickly they did it.

• These are characters and moments from the choreography but should be used here in an energised free game. You do not have to use all of them and should adjust your workshop to the groups needs/ability.

African Animals - Animals found on the African plains - Leopard, hyena, giraffe, etc. Setting scene of the story.

Friends - (FIND A PARTNER) Bertie and Lion cub playing together. Free style children’s games

Flying a kite - Standing, in pairs flying kite, being moved by the wind.

Trench - Injured solider in a trench.

Bertie and Millie - (Find partner again) Reunited gesture

Choreographer instructions

Bringing Books to Life - The Butterfly Lion

Ask the students to find a partner and remember who that is as they will be coming back together later.

Put the children in to 3 groups, keeping pairs together, it doesn’t matter is you end up with uneven groups, its more important that pairs are in the same group.

Talk though what is going to happen in each stage of the workshop, (the whole of it) without music, and doing the movements yourself whilst talking through the story.

Explain that when you say freeze everyone must crouch down.

Then go back and reiterate what each group is to do

Group 1

• Bertie saving the white lion cub from the hyenas at the watering hole, and Bertie’s mum trying to in turn save Bertie. Children become characters- Hyenas Bertie, Bertie’s mum and the lion cub.

Group 2

• Bertie leaving for boarding school in England and the lion Prince being taken to the circus in France. Children to become charaters- Bertie, white prince, Frenchman, mum and dad, and others saying good bye.

Group 3

• Bertie and soldiers in the trenches (this is not where the fighting takes place) Children to become soldiers- playing cards, reading letters, injured, scared cold wet n muddy and itching cause of lice, helping injured friends etc.

Each group come up with a freeze frame (picture) that shows part of the story then each picture comes to life by the children doing exaggerated and slow motion movements to tell their part of the story.

Watch each group

Start back at the beginning and split the class down the middle. Ask the children to stand in a line on either sides of the room waiting for the start of the music. Then they will move into there groups as African animals. Do this with the music. Work through each section with the music, pausing in between to explain the next bit or teach the choreography, then practice with the music.

4x10 African animals
counts 1 2 call freeze (they will all crouch down)
2x10 Group 1 picture
2x10 Group 1 comes to life in slow motion

call partners 1
4x10 Bertie and Cub Playing (get them to do things as if they are both children to show friendship)

call freeze
1x8 group 2 picture
1x8 group 2 picture comes to life in slow motion

call partners 2
3x8 Bertie and Millie flying Millie’s kite (get the children to work as a team one following the others movements as if they were one and were holding onto one kite)

call freeze
2x6 Group 3 picture
2x6 group 3 picture comes to life in slow motion

call partners 3
4x6 Bertie to crawl to his friend and help him back to the trench (get the children to crawl to their partner and help them up, injured moving around the room showing the emotion of war and the danger)

1-4 all face front right arm across chest
5-8 bow head (accepting victoria cross)

1-4 right side of room step turn step outwards end holding up their charts (they are the doctors and nurses)
5-8 left side step turn step outwards end holding the injury (they are the soldiers)

1-4 Right side turn in to face left side with arms open as if to hug (they signify Millie)
5-8 left side turn in to face right side with arms open (they signify Bertie)

1-4 both sides open arms wider and then bring arms across to hug them selves (this shows millie and bertie finding each other)
5-8 all turn from and repeat the hug- arms open and close (this signifies they need to find the lion together)

1-8 2x slow motion runs (running through france to find the lion)
1-2 drag to the diagonal
3-4 reach forward on diagonal lunge, arms sweeping open and grabbing to pull back and hug, leaning away from the lunge (they must bring the lion home to England to live with them)
5-8 arm sweeps right step right and then repeat left (searching through the woods for the lion)

1 lion pounce low (found the lion)
2-4 ripple up to mid way (shows the lion has grown up)
5-8 repeat pounce and ripple this time from middle to high (showing the lion growing old)

Sharp look up to the corner (pick an item in the room all the children can look to) (This is them looking at the lion head carved out in the hillside)

All children bring arms up as butterfly wings and all flutter down slowly, flapping wings (the buuterflies settling on the chalky water to drink, turning the white lion into the butterfly lion.)