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Moving Words

Northern Ballet Theatre have developed an exciting new poetry project for primary schools, entitled Moving Words, which they have delivered for the first time in four Leeds schools.

An innovative new way of teaching combines strands of national curriculum dance, music and literacy using poetry as a stimulus for creative dance workshops.

Pupils learnt about movement through creating dance with music in response to their feelings about the rhythms and imagery in the poems, which has helped them with their literacy skills. They worked mainly in groups, which encouraged them to really improve their teamwork and communication skills.

During the 3-week project, the pupils got to know NBT Dance Education Officer, Sophie Alder, and musicians Sam Bell and Kate Illsley. By the 2nd week, the pupils had memorised their warm-up exercises and were instructing the musicians.

Sophie Alder said of project:

It was really interesting to see how the children responded in different schools and how they created completely different sequences, even though they were working on the same poem. It was also nice to work in a different way with the musicians; they were very much involved in the session and working with the children, instead of just accompanying them.

Using dance in this way enabled the children who weren't so strong academically, to be able to access poetry and literature, allowing them to excel in a different way. This made it possible for teachers to see different strengths in the children.

I think ‘Moving Words’ was an adventurous project to undertake as it involved dance, music and English, but it has been great to find a different way of engaging children in poetry. We are going to developed this project further, working more deeply on specific skills and targeting a wider range of schools.

Moving Words will be offered to primary schools in January 2007 in Leeds.

To find out more about the projects Northern Ballet Theatre's Learning & Access department can offer, please contact Jo Dean, Learning Access Co-ordinator, on: 0113 274 5355 or email: jo.dean@northernballettheatre.co.uk.

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