At Home Learning

Let's Dance!

Let's Dance! But not just any dance. Let's do a Chair Dance!

A Chair Dance is a dance that you choreograph and perform on a chair. You can either dance on your own or dance with someone else.

Below are a few examples and tutorials on how to create your own chair dance. Give it a shot and see what you can come up with!

Record yourself doing your dance and if you want to show off you skills, share it with your family, friends and teachers!

There are also song suggestions below that you can use. Feel free to choose your own music to use if you like, but make sure it is school appropriate (no inappropriate themes, messages or language).

A few things to keep in mind:

- Make sure you use a STRONG and STURDY chair. If you can't safely stand, kneel or lean on the chair, do not use it.

- Most chair dances are done with a chair that has a back. You can use a stool if you'd like, but remember to keep up a good posture and don't lean back too far!

- Avoid chairs with arms or arm rests. They are harder to move around and get in and out of.

- Make sure there is space around you and the chair for you to move around. It might be a good idea to do your chair dance in a garden, court yard, lounge room or an area where other furniture can be moved out the way.

- Check the floor surface that your chair is on. You don't want your chair to slip around so make sure it will stay still. Carpet is the best type of floor to dance on.

- Just have fun! There is no wright or wrong way to make these dances!

How to create a Solo Chair Duet

Get some expert advice on how to start creating a Solo Chair Dance from a professional dancer and performing artist.

Top Tips:

- Improvise! Just try everything and anything.

- Remember not everything is going to work, and that is ok. You need to know what doesn't work in order to find out what does.

- Pick 8 movements in total and connect them together.

If you are stuck on ideas or how to begin, remember some of the Rules of Mr. A's performing Arts Room:

Lie, Cheat and Steal

Don't Worry, Be Happy

Take Risks, Be Safe

Tutorial of a Solo Chair Dance

Still a little stuck or not really sure what to do? That's ok. Check out this video below and see how a dancer puts together different movements to create a short dance performance piece.

A good starting point is to try and learn the routine below and then change some of the parts that you find tricky, difficult or uncomfortable. Once you have done it, try changing the order of the movements to create a different dance piece, and then, if you're comfortable and want that challenge, try and choreograph your own.

Song Suggestions

Below are a few suggestions of songs you can use to move to when you are creating your Chair Dance. Click on the links and you will be taken to a YouTube clip of the songs that you can listen to.

You might be able to find some of the songs on streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music, but others may not be on there.

You can also choose your own song to dance to but you need to make sure that it is 'School Appropriate'. School Appropriate means that there are no inappropriate language (this also means that clean versions cannot be used), no overtly inappropriate messages, no inappropriate content.

If you are unsure if a song is appropriate to use, ask an adult to check the lyrics for you, or pick something else that you know if appropriate.

REMEMBER - You do NOT have to create your dance for the whole song! Just create your 8 moves and then repeat it 3 to 5 times to the music.

Chameleon - PNAU - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78oRyyDxmM0

Sleepwalking - Beds and Beats - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Vn4J4RcyE

Mr. Beaker - Totem - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoF6-P2BMrk

Unity - TheFatRat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8X9_MgEdCg

How to create a Chair Duet

Want a challenge? Why not try to turn your solo dance into a duet?!

A duet is where 2 people perform something together. In Dance, a duet is where each person interacts with the other to try and tell a 'story'. They do not always do the exact same moves as each other, but their moves might compliment each other or be a reaction to the other person's movement (for example, if one person put their hand on the other person's shoulder a 'reaction' might be to push it off).

See if you can find a friend or relative that you can teach about chair dancing and then work with them to choreograph your own performance.

Examples of Chair Duets

If you need to contact Mr. A you can by sending him an email at: Michael.Aquilina139@schools.sa.edu.au