I am constantly looking for ways to help my dancers express themselves not only through the movement of their bodies, but also through their facial expressions. The student who is able to communicate all of this is a rarity and very often by the time children become pre-teens they start to become self-conscious and find it difficult to show expression on their faces when they dance. This often becomes even more evident as they go into their teen years and can definitely affect their performances in a negative way. Of course there are some who think that performing is simply plastering an insincere smile on their faces from start to finish, which is an attempt to mask the real problem of them feeling totally inadequate. Others perhaps will go through a performance 'mugging' or using a series of pre-rehearsed movements of the face that completely distracts the audience from what they are doing technically and is really not helpful to the dancers at all. It simply reinforces their feeling of inadequacy whenever they perform.
Dancers are, after all, actors and actresses and need the same kind of motivation. For dancers who are very shy or self-conscious it is often helpful to get them to develop an onstage identity that will make it easier for them to relax and get into the part. Most dancers spend a lot of thought on how they are going to warm up their bodies, but give practically no attention to warming up their facial muscles. I like to give dancers a series of facial movements that will help to loosen up their expressions. It is best not to have them face a mirror as they will feel embarrassed and that will defeat the purpose. Making the vowel sounds with their mouths, sticking their tongues all the way out and rolling their eyes are all good exercises and will also make them laugh! Giving them emotions to work with, showing a sad or happy face, demonstrating joy or defeat, asking a question with their eyes or being defiant (they usually like that one!) are all ways to get their faces to reflect their feelings in a genuine way.
Most preteens and teens are pretty animated facially when they are having a conversation, so it’s a matter of just getting them to understand that onstage you have a conversation with your fellow dancers and with the audience, just in mime version. Try using some class time to work on mime every now and again—it will be fun and help to loosen them up.
After doing all of the above, the next most helpful thing to do is to create storylines with definite characters for each of your dancers. Once you give them the character that they are going to portray, you can help them to find ways to develop it for themselves and, just like an actor or actress, become that character onstage. I encourage them to write down a profile of their character and give it a name. Decide what kind of clothing they will be wearing, depending on the location and period of the piece because that will affect the way they move. In my experience the students will really get into all of this and will end up feeling much more like performing. Then, when you do choreograph an abstract piece, they will be able to find themselves and their feelings more quickly.
One piece I choreographed that had a storyline was called 'India.' It was set in a village in India and I had some dancers as villagers fishing in the river Ganges and others in a street market. The two solo dancers saw each other from afar—one was a prince and the other was a village girl, and they fell in love. We were fortunate to have a number of good boys at the time and we had an exciting fight scene, a romantic pas de deux and all kinds of dance sections showing off the versatility of different groups. The dancers really enjoyed performing it and wearing the ethnic style costumes and found it easy because they were not playing themselves but someone else.
Most teens want to be in a school play so this gives them another alternative through their dance to develop themselves as actors and actresses. It also helps them to feel confident in themselves and their capabilities as performers which will in turn also help them to become better dancers. We all want to teach our students to achieve the highest level possible for them in their technique, but if we can also teach them how to use that technique to be able to get their feelings across to their audience, then we have taught them to become complete dancers.
Whether or not your students are serious or recreational they still will benefit from this help with their performance skills and those life lessons will definitely go a long way toward giving them the confidence and self-esteem necessary for them to be successful in whatever they choose to do in life.
