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Teaching artist Kylie Murray demonstrates the process of improvising movements and choreographing an original dance inspired by a work of art.

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Improvisation - Brainstorming in action.
• Choreography - A dance plan with set movement choices. 

Materials You Will Need:

• Nothing, just yourself!

How to Choreograph a Dance Inspired by a Work of Art

1. First, we’re going to observe the painting Imperfect Perfection by the New York artist Francisko, featured at around 1:40 in the video. What do you notice about the painting? What does it make you wonder? Kylie noticed the layers of circles and the gold shimmery background.
2. Next, we’re going to improvise movements based on the observations we made about the painting. 
• Think about the small black circles that were pressed into the canvas of the painting. Use your hands to press the air around you, above and below, and from side to side. You can also try pressing the air around you with your shoulders and pressing the ground with your feet. You can even try pressing all around you with multiple body parts at once! To see Kylie do this, scroll to around 3:00 in the video.
• Next, think about the bigger circles in the painting, which the artist created using a twisting motion. Can you twist different parts of your body? Try twisting just one side of your body or just the top half of your body. Keep experimenting with twisting your body in different ways. To see Kylie do this, scroll to around 3:45 in the video.
• Now we’re going to think about the smooth circular motions the artist created with their paintbrush. Can you make smooth circles with your arms or your hips? What about with your feet on the floor? Scroll to around 4:15 in the video to see Kylie do this.
• Finally, think about the shimmering gold background of the painting. Can you “shimmer” - vibrate or wiggle - your whole body in space? To see Kylie do this, scroll to around 4:40 in the video.

3. Next, we’re going to use what we improvised to create a choreographed dance. The dance will be created in an ABC pattern and performed to an 8-count. 
• For part A of the dance, step out with your left foot and press your hands out to the left then step out with your right foot and press your hands out to the right. This move should take up one 8-count. To see Kylie demonstrate this, scroll to around 5:55 in the video. 
• For part B of the dance, sweep your left arm high and wide in a large circle while extending your left leg. Then do the same with your right arm and leg. This move should also take one 8-count. To see Kylie demonstrate, scroll to around 6:10 in the video.
• For part C of the dance, lift your arms up and to the right and wiggle your fingers while moving your arms diagonally to the left. Repeat on the other side. This move should take one 8-count. To see Kylie demonstrate, scroll to around 6:30 in the video.
• Finally, we need to create an opening and closing pose for our dance. Kylie’s opening close is holding her arms in a circle, down and to the left of her body. Her closing pose is the same, but on the right side of her body. You can use these poses, or create your own!
• Now it’s time to put parts A, B, and C together with our opening and closing poses! To see Kylie do this with music, scroll to around 7:00 in the video.

In this video, Kylie takes us through the process of choreographing an original dance inspired by a work of art. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• Can you come up with a part D to the dance to add onto the end? What other movements can you create inspired by the painting? Maybe something using the twisting movement Kylie showed us in the improvised section?
• Can you improvise a dance from a different work of art? Look at a picture of a different painting or sculpture. What movements does this work of art inspire you to create?
• How did improvising the movements based on Imperfect Perfection help to choreograph the dance Kylie taught us? Do you think it would have been harder to plan out the dance without that improvisation?
• What other things do you think dancers get their inspiration from besides paintings and other works of art? Do you have any other ideas for things that you could use as a basis to create a dance?

Accessibility

Don't forget that you can turn on "Closed Captioning" to view the YouTube video with English captions.

More about the Teaching Artist

Kylie Murray is the co-artistic director of Local Motion Project, a nonprofit dance organization in Alexandria, Virginia, whose mission is to bring people together for meaningful experiences through the art of dance and movement. Kylie and her collaborator, Sara Lavan, have facilitated dance integration workshops for the Kennedy Center’s Changing Education Through the Arts program, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, and the National Dance Education Organization’s national conference. Kylie’s work brings people of all ages together in dynamic, collective movement experiences that affect personal growth and social change. She loves learning new things and using them as inspiration to create dance.

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Gifts and grants to educational programs at the Kennedy Center are provided by The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation; Bank of America; Capital One; The Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation; Carnegie Corporation of New York; The Ednah Root Foundation; Harman Family Foundation; William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust; the Kimsey Endowment; The Kiplinger Foundation; Laird Norton Family Foundation; Lois and Richard England Family Foundation; Dr. Gary Mather and Ms. Christina Co Mather; The Markow Totevy Foundation; Dr. Gerald and Paula McNichols Foundation; The Morningstar Foundation; Myra and Leura Younker Endowment Fund; The Irene Pollin Audience Development and Community Engagement Initiatives;

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