Developing Children’s Natural Resources:
Using Mime and Dance to Activate
Students’ Energy, Imagination, and Focus

My workshops and residencies are designed to activate children’s “natural resources,” which tend to be deactivated (even misappropriated?) by a sedentary, screen-centered lifestyle. These resources are energy, imagination, and focus.

Energy

From Day One, I encourage students to go to their “edge.” The edge is a feeling that kicks in when they use all their energy to do their best. The fear of making mistakes is often an obstacle to learning new things. Therefore, I constantly reinforce the idea that mistakes don’t matter to me as long as each student operates from this magical place called their edge.

While most young people go to their edge instantly. some may hesitate. As soon as a student’s body language suggests hesitation or uncertainty, I drop everything and show a mime illusion. (Over the years, I have found that mime immediately engages the whole class, maybe because I am not asking these students to perform or do or prove anything. They simply watch something that engages their imagination and focus in an extraordinary, even magical, way.)

Imagination and Focus

Mime engages my students’ imagination and focus in a way that other activities cannot. Once previously hesitant students “see” an invisible wall or a shrinking arm or any number of believable/unbelievable illusions, they seem to drop their reservations and become more involved in whatever we do next.

I customize my curriculum to match the students’ abilities and previous experience. I adapt my teaching to their strengths, apparent needs, and behaviors, etc. Alternating between mime and dance activities, I aim to bring out the best in each student. I look for signs of enthusiasm and engagement expressed through body language, facial expressions, and energy output.

At the end of the week, we produce a show that demonstrates how quickly students excel when their reserves of energy, imagination, and focus are wholesomely activated and expressed through movement. In the excitement of a live performance, the kids inevitably rise to the occasion and revel in a well-earned ovation.