Cracking A Nut

Last Monday was the first day of my creative movement class at the local girls youth center. Some of the girls knew me because they had taken classes with me before. Then there were a few who I was meeting for the first time. The girls' ages range from 5-8. One of the girls who I was meeting for the first time appeared very hard. Her arms were crossed, closed-off. She looked angry. I went around the circle doing attendance asking each girl her age, what grade she is in, and how they liked school so far. She was 8 and she gave very short quick answers. Then we began the warm-up.

I asked the girls to sit criss-cross, hands by their sides,  with their spines long and straight. This one sat next to me slouched, arms crossed, no smile. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. She kept her eyes with me participating as much as she was willing to at that moment. A little breath in and out, and she was not going to be uncrossing those arms or sitting up straight. I didn't make any big thing about it. She was participating at her level. I accepted it fully and we continued the rest of the warm-up.

Our movement inspiration for this class was Autumn Leaves. The first movement exercise we did to instrumental recorded music.The girls created improvised movements to leaf-related words - shake, rustle, bend, jump-in, twirl, kick, and flat. This particular student had been participating with very little enthusiasm up until then. And then the drum came out. This changed everything.

They were instructed to create a leaf shape with their bodies when the drum hit. Bam! an image. In between I would play the drum in various ways encouraging them to use the movements from the previous exercise.  During this entire exercise with the drum, she had the biggest smile on her face. She was 100% actively participating. She was unclenched and open and free. She danced with other people.She made contact. And then, I think she noticed.

She started to walk away from the dance space to sit out. At that very moment, someone arrived to take her home, and she left before finishing the class.

I hope she comes back next week.