Bare Bones Dance Company

GCSE Level Lesson Plan

Hinterland
Choreographer: David Massingham

Objective To introduce some of the creative ideas behind Hinterland by

David Massingham
Key Elements • Exploring dance ideas/concepts in response to resource
material
• Investigating the potential of chosen ideas/concepts for
choreographing solos and group dances
• Improvisation and selecting movement material
• Structuring and Reflecting
Activity Outline • Warm-Up
• Individual Creative Task – Response to Stimuli
• Group Creative Task – Improvisation and Refining
• Cool Down
• Reflection
Key Words Response to resource material: kinaesthetic, style, motif
Space: direction and pathway orientation in the stage space
Choreographic devices: improvisation, structuring, refining,
motif, phrasing, chance, complementary or contrast
Bare Bones Dance Company
GCSE Level Lesson Plan

Hinterland
Choreographer: David Massingham
Warm-Up Include aerobic warm-up, joint mobility and
stretching. Concentrate on travelling through space,
with and around other bodies, dodging and reacting
to each other as bodies pass, building an awareness
of each other moving. Include moving in and out of
the floor and some travelling jumps, once warm.
Introduce simple contact and non-contact inter-
actions when dancers meet – e.g. walking around
each other, dodging, moving through the legs of
another, clasping hands and pulling past each other

Ask dancers to find a space facing any direction. 60 word/

Call out random images from the sixty-word/image Image
bank and ask students to respond immediately by bank
representing the word/image with a movement.
Encourage them to react without planning,
encourage a range of single limb to full body
responses, encourage conceptual as well as
realistic imagery. Draw attention to interesting
responses.

Main Activity

Introduction Ask students to lie out 15 words per side of the

studio (in order) to create a square dancing space in Images
the middle. Note images could also be used instead can be
of or as well as words. used as
well as
Ask individuals to choose 6 numbers randomly
words
between 1-60 (need to be spread out so could pick
one between 1-10, one from between 11-20 and so
on)
Write order on a post-it and ask students to put in a
random order. Post-its

Ask individuals to walk their pathway until they have

visited all 6 numbers, reading the words on their
number.
Individual
Creative Task Repeat walking this pathway, this time ask creating
a movement for the word – each movement will
become a 3-5 second motif.
Give students time to refine their 6 motifs and share
a few examples of good practice. Try to encourage
them to use a range of levels and a range of body
parts and to refine/experiment with dynamic
response.
Repeat journey, finalising a route map from 1-6
points.
Creating a route map
Ask students to think of a new way to travel between
their words. They could use their motifs as
inspiration for this.
Split into groups of 5, using one group to
demonstrate. Allow the group to perform their route
Group Creative maps at the same time and ask the rest of the class
Task to look out for interesting moments that happen by