 I'm Kiara with Moving Minds Dance. I believe that we can learn all things through dance. So today we're going to talk about how to tell a story and clearly communicate an idea without using any words at all. Wherever you are to do this activity, all you need is your body. We're going to look at a story together and then figure out how to turn it into movement. The book that we're looking at today is called On the Ball by Brian Pinkney. While we read this story, I want you to think about the most important thing on every page. I want you to think about what the main character Owen is doing, how he's feeling, and where he is, the setting that the story is taking place in. All of those things could be the thing that we need to communicate to the audience. On the Ball by Brian Pinkney. Owen loved playing ball, but playing ball didn't always love Owen. And then one fateful day, Owen took his eye off the ball. When it escaped, it was up to Owen to track it down and get it back. It floated across a racing stream. Whoosh, whoosh. Then, Owen tracked it through tangled bushes. Pounce, bounce. Then he flew all the way back onto the field and into the game. And from that day on, floating, fierce, and flying free, Owen always kept his eye on the ball, the end. I love this story because it has a lot of things happening. There are a lot of feelings, there are a lot of actions, and there are a lot of dance words hidden in the text. So now we're going to read through the story again. And we're going to look at the pictures and we're going to think about the words and we're going to turn all of those ideas into movements, kind of like acting it out. Now, I can't hear the ideas that you have. So all of the movements that I do in my dance are going to show what I think is important and what I see, but you might have a different idea of how to show what's important to you. And I would love for your dance to look different from my dance. I want you to be in charge of the creation that you make. So let's start all together. At the first page, I'm looking at the illustration. I see that Owen is doing this really cool movement with his legs up in the air as he chases the soccer ball. So I can do that movement too at the beginning. Owen loved playing ball. I see he's falling here. I can fall too in a safe way, but playing ball didn't always love Owen. I can copy the same shape that he's making. And then one fateful day, when I look at that picture, I can see that he is feeling disappointed. So I can stand up and show a disappointed walk. Owen took his eye off the ball and then suddenly a surprise. That's what I see here. I see his face is surprised and he watches the ball. It was up to Owen to chase it down and get it back. He's reaching out. So my dance move might be reaching too. And then on this page, I see a lot of water twisting and curving. And I could make this part of the story a water dance to show how the water is moving and why it's important. It floated. That's a beautiful dancing word. We can make our bodies float too. You might see in the illustration that he has a fishtail. How could we move like a fish to show that Owen is also moving like a fish? Maybe you swim with your arms. Maybe you show your tail flicking. There are so many ways to do that. Across a racing stream, whoosh. So it's a fast stream. You can hear how fast it is. And you can see these swirls. Maybe you spin or maybe you move from one place to another place. That's a fun way to show that racing stream. There's another whoosh. And here we also see that Owen is coming to land. So maybe our whoosh, maybe we show him carefully climbing out of the water. Then Owen tracked it. Look at what animal he turns into. It's a tiger. You can think about how Owen would be moving like a sneaking tiger in this part of the dance. Through tangled bushes, how would you weave through tangled bushes? Would you go one way and then the other way? There are so many ways to think about that. Bounce and bounce. Those are clear dance words too. We could bounce and bounce with our bodies for that part. And then he flew. What a lovely dance word. How could you make a dance that looks like a bird? I think about moving my arms up and down. I might think about leaping in the air. Flying dance can happen for a long time without any words at all. I see he's traveling a far distance. We could show a far distance in our dance too. I also see when I look closely that he's holding the ball with his feet. I could copy that shape with my body as if I had a ball between my feet. So maybe we can go far across the stage or whatever room we're in. On to the field. He doesn't look sad anymore. He looks refreshed and happy and proud. So I see he's kneeling, but I also see that his coach is welcoming him back in. So I could be the coach for a part of the dance and into the game and now he looks really focused. But I could do the same movement that I did at the beginning to show that he's playing soccer again. From that day on, floating, fierce and flying free. I could copy his movements or I could think about the words, floating, fierce and flying free. Owen always kept his eye on the ball. I see that he's happy, he's proud. I might not safely be able to do a back flip like Owen, but I could still jump for joy and you can do. That is how I would finish the dance. Now, if we had more time together, I would say let's go through the book and dance without even reading the words. Just doing the movements that we thought of and we could have someone watch and see if our movements are clear, if they can see the water or the tiger or Owen's joy and pride at the end. You can do that on your own time but you can also think about other stories. On the ball is only one book that I love. There are so many books in the world that I think are important and that tell important stories. Maybe you have a favorite book or maybe your favorite story is something that you've heard a family member tell over and over again until you memorized it. That could be a dance. Maybe you love making up your own stories and you think you could create a dance based on something that you invented. That's a wonderful way to create a dance. A lot of famous ballets are based on stories that people made up just for the dance itself. So you can have a lot of fun playing with these ideas and creating new dances and new stories. I hope that you will. Again, I'm Kiara with Moving Minds Dance and today we learned how to tell a story through movement and without words. I hope that you'll keep practicing those ideas on your own and I hope that you'll come back and dance with me again soon. Thank you.