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Hollingworth Science Camp children learn Motif Writingand
danceatTeachers College, Columbia University, in 1994.
ing as it is embodied in their own
dance movement. It is a form ofdance
thinking that connects them to everyday
living.
Voices from the Field: Motif
Writing in the Dance Studio
and Classroom
In the dance studio or classroom,
teachers often begin the new year with
essential dance concepts to help develop
students' dance movement vocabulary.
Here Motif Writing may be
used to conceptualize the structure of
the daily warm-up-shrink/grow,
widen/narrow, inhale/exhale, increase/
decrease, bend/stretch, pull
in/reach out and go somewhere or
stay right where you are. It may also be
used to structure a short dance phrase
or study: "Make any action. Now make
another action. Now another. Turn.
Fall. Reach. Go into the air. Pause."
Motif Writing is used as a tool
for developing dance improvisation
materials at New York City's professional
dance training school, Ballet
Hispanico. Charlotte Wile (personal
communication, 1997) works extensively
with Motif Writing in her
creative dance classes with five- and
six-year-old children, in dance composition
classes for eight- through 14year-
olds, and through the Outreach
Dance Program in several New York
City middle schools. Wile has found
that using Motif Writing in conjunction
with Laban Movement Analysis
enables her students to understand
the conceptual framework of dance
movement and to integrate it into
their study of Flamenco, ballet, or
modern dance.
Elsa Posey (personal communication,
1997), founder, director and master
teacher at the Posey School in
Northport, New York, integrates MotifWriting
into the community's dance
studio curricula. Posey and colleague
Denise Cook, engage four- to sevenyear-
old boys and girls in theme-based
storytelling-in-motion-and-dance play.
Each creative dance lesson uses specific
Motifsymbols to depict the movement
ideas found in the narrative. One
dance, conceived by Cook, is Talesfrom
theSecret Garden. It focuses
on various ways
oftraveling,jumping,
pushing, pulling,
twisting, gathering,
and reaching, and
actions at low,
middle, and high levels
(figure 1).
California dance
educatorDori Jenks
(personal communication,
1995) has developed
simple motifs
based on the kindergarten
andfirstgrade
health curriculum and the
theme of fire safety. In her classes,
children invent various sequences using
movements to explore the concepts
ofstop, pause, or drop; collapse,
or melt and roll, somersault, tumble,
or turn. The basic message and movement
pattern that children learn if
they catch on fire is to stop, drop, and
roll (figure 1).
Jenks has also created The Dancing
Dude, a life-size skeleton that
moves at its joints, and accompanying
flash cards that depict various bodypart
symbols: shoulders, elbows, chest,
pelvis, and head (figure 1). Children
play The Dancing Dude Game, a variation
of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.
The goal is to pin the body-part symbols
on The Dancing Dude.
New York City dance educator Barbara
Bashaw (personal communication,
1995) developed body-part identification
strategies for preschool and
primary school children using Motif
symbols and a Halloween theme. Imagining
that their bodies were "scary skeletons,"
Bashaw placed sticky labels
marked with body-part symbols onto
each child's corresponding body parts.
In doing this, the children imagined
that they had come to life as the scary
skeleton and improvised on the "any
action" symbol, with the body part or
parts that had a sticky label on it.
Similarly, Linda Yoder (personal
communication, 1996), dance educator
at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education
Centerin Columbus, Ohio, teaches
anatomical analysis in her high school
dance curriculum. Yoder uses Motif
Writing to clarifybone identification and
employs a similar, but more detailed,
skeletal model for student manipulation.
Students attach and reattach
flashcard-type Motif symbols on their
own skeletal mobiles for immediate
feedback and experiential learning.
When using MotifWriting in dance
learning, it is important to realize that
the idea, the feeling body in motion,
and its representative symbol interact
with one another. At the Duxberry
ParkArts IMPACT Elementary School
in Columbus Ohio, dance educator
Amy Polovick (personal communication,
1996) created a symbol dictionary.
This dictionary is modeled on
one classroom teacher's vocabulary
word collection. Polovick drew Motif
Writing symbols on file cards and
placed them in large ring binders.
Each file card color depicted a different
movement concept; for example,
blue cards stood for direction symbols,
pink cards for actions, yellow
cards for turns, and green cards for
pathways. Just as flashcards are used
to reinforce the learning ofmathematics
or spelling, Polovick uses these
cards to invite second-grade children
to play symbol recognition games with
one another.
Through the construction of a series
of interdisciplinary dance lessons
that combined georgaphywith cultural
dances worldwide, I recently facilitated
dance-learning experiences with
DuxberryPark's fourth-grade children.
In dance, the aim was to accurately
September 1998• JOPERD • Vol. 69 No.7 31
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perform selected dances of people
from around the world. The geography
learning outcome linked the students'
ability to locate places on maps
and globes with their mastery of latitude
and longitude coordinates. Students
played a game that gave coordinates
on a world map and located the
dance to be learned that day.
The first day, we located the Czech
Republic and Slovakia on the map and
learned the folk dance, PolsterTanc.
This game-like process was repeated
over a five-week period. At the end,
six dances from, six continents were
learned. Students were then invited
to record the dances using MotifWriting.
Basic movement motifs-such as
step hop, step, step hop, jump-were
depicted as traveling, and spatial patterns
in circles and lines were written
as curved pathways and straight pathways
(figure 1).
Writing the timing or duration of
an action posed an interesting challenge.
Students discovered that the
length of the symbol denotes the
length of time the movement is done,
particularly as it is viewed in relation
to the other symbols (for example,
see "duration" in figure 1). The longest
symbol represents the longest
amount of time given to an action,
while the shortest symbol represents
the shortest amount of time given to an
action, in relation to the longest symbol.
It is important to note again that
the visual representation reinforces
the kinetic learning of the phrase.
Slavery and the pursuit offreedom
were recent fifth-grade social studies
themes at Fair Avenue Arts IMPACT
School in Columbus, Ohio. Using a
story, Follow the Drinking Gourd (Winter,
1988), dance educator Karen KingCavin
(personal communication,
1995) charted a course of action that
encouraged dance-making activity
around themes including fear, courage,
tenacity, escaping, chasing, hiding,
listening, capturing, breaking
loose, and celebration. In small
groups, the children created dance
studies that embodied various aspects
of the story.
During the dance-making process,
32
the children wrote their dances with
motif symbols. The reflection evoked
by this process improved the quality
of the subsequent dances. King-Cavin
states that
Motif Writing helps the children clarify
their own sequence of [dance] events,
in relation to the narrative structure.
Motif Writing also helps the children
analyze the dramatic moments of their
dances-from the breaking loose section
tothe fleeing section to the escaping
section and on to the hiding section.
With kindergarten children,
Polovick uses Maurice Sendak'sWhere
the Wild Things Are (1963) to outline
the story's plot line, retell the story in
sequence, and bring to life the most
notable features through dance. "Going
to bed without supper" and "waking
up in a new vine covered land" are
symbolized first by bending to a low
level, then by stretching to a high level
(figure 1). After extracting several linking
passages from the story, Polovick
depicts the sailing of mischief-maker
Max by an "any pathway" symbol, as the
children use various traveling motifs.
The young dancers then transform
themselves into Wild Things. Here,
Polovick uses "in place" symbols boasting
several level changes. She also
repeats the "any pathway" symbols.
During the "wild Rumpus" scene, the
children create quick, quick, slow
rhythmic patterns-usingjump,jump,
jump (figure 1). When Max declares
that he misses home and wants to
leave, the Rumpus is over. "Be still" is
quite literally denoted with the pause
sign. The children end the dance by
traveling directly on a straight path
towards "home." After the children
share their dance stories with one
another, Polovick facilitates the
children's discussion of the common
threads of the dance story and how
they were depicted in movement.
Since Motif Writing is an outline,
or plan of action, what do you do
when the children show you various
ways that they have written or interpreted
the symbols? Sharon Unrau
(personal communication, 1995), an
Ohio dance educator, tells us that,
Using Motif Writing reinforces the kinesthetic
experience within a visual medium.
There are many ways to write and
interpret a single Motif. This is a both a
blessing and a potential problem. What
is important to note is that each student
recorded or interpreted his/her own
movement idea(s). Each one picked out
what he/she thought were the phrase's
most important features. What is wonderful
about collective or multiple views
of the [same] Motif is that the general
perception of what was actually done
and what was perceived to have been
done grows. Class discussions stay focused
on movement facts rather than opinion
and only leads to more critical analysis.
I cannot think of a b