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Teaching artist Erika Malone shows students how to use dance to explore their feelings, and demonstrates a choreographed dance that expresses four different emotions. 

Vocabulary You Will Learn:

• Gesture—Small movements of the hands, arms, and face that are used every day to help us communicate.
• Choreography—Dance moves that are memorized and performed. 

Materials You Will Need:

• Nothing—just yourself!

How to Express Your Feelings through Dance  

1. First, you are going to create gestures using your arms and hands for the emotions: happy, sad, angry, and peaceful. 
• For “happy,” point your fingers towards the sky with elbows bent and move your arms upward in a squiggly motion while wiggling your fingers. Or you can stand with your arms crossed in front of you at the wrist and then move your hands apart in a giant curving motion like a smile. Try one of these—or create your own gesture. 
• For your “sad” gesture, try placing your left hand on your face, leaning into it, bending at the waist, and then moving your upper body to the left. Or you can wipe one hand across your eyes, like you are wiping tears away. Try one of these gestures or create your own. 
• For “anger,” stand with your arms bent at the elbow and your forearms parallel, with one above the other. Then quickly reverse the positions of your arms several times. You can try this gesture or create your own.
• For the “calm” gesture, point your fingers towards the sky with elbows bent. Then gently move your hands and arms in a motion like the ocean’s waves. You can use this gesture or try one of your own.
2. Now, you are going to choreograph a dance that expresses these four emotions. Start with “happy.” First, bounce your knees so your body moves up and down. Then, move your arms in the second gesture you learned for “happy,” that looks like a big smile. Repeat this gesture once. 

3. Now, jump so that your legs are wide, and your feet are far apart. Do the first happy gesture you learned, where you move your arms up while wiggling your fingers.
4. Next, drop your right arm down towards the ground and put your left hand to your cheek to perform the first gesture for “sad” that you learned. Wipe your right hand over your eyes in the second gesture for “sad,” and then hug yourself with both arms.
5. Next, move into the gesture for “angry,” holding your arms parallel to each other. Reverse the position of your arms several times and then throw your arms out one after the other, as if you are throwing an object across the room. Finally, raise both of your fists in the air and bring them down twice, as if you are punching something at chest level.
6. Finally, bring your hands down toward the ground with palms touching, then lift them so they are folded in prayer in front of you. Then move into the gesture for “peaceful,” waving your hands and arms gently. Lastly, place your hands over your heart. 
7. Now, play some music and put all these moves together!

In this video, Erika teaches us how to choreograph and perform a dance based on four basic emotions that we all have experienced before. If you want to go even further, think about these questions: 

• What other feelings can we create gestures for to add to our dance? What about embarrassment? Fear? Worry? Pride?
• Think about an event that has happened to you that caused you to feel a few different emotions. For example, maybe you were taking a test that made you feel scared and worried, but then you did well and felt proud. Can you create a dance that tells the story of this event, and the emotions it caused you to feel?
• If you were going to create a story to go along with the dance we learned in the video—where we felt happy, then sad, then angry, then peaceful—what would that story be? What could happen to make someone feel all those emotions in that order?
• Erika talks about how dancing our feelings can help us to process and express them in a healthy way, so that we don’t direct them at other people. How does dancing your feelings make you feel? Does it help you to release your feelings and become calmer? What are other healthy ways we can express our emotions?

Accessibility

Don’t forget that you can turn on “Closed Captioning” to view the YouTube video with English captions.

Erika demonstrates the dance moves in the video standing, but all the moves can be performed seated. 

More about the Teaching Artist

Erika Malone (she/her) is a dance artist and expressive arts therapist based out of San Diego, California. She specializes in working with youth of all ages, empowering students to express themselves through creative movement, Hip Hop, and modern dance. Erika currently works full time at Monarch School, serving K–12 students impacted by homelessness. She believes that dance belongs to everyone, and that movement is a tool for self-empowerment, community-building, and personal/collective transformation.

Kennedy Center Education Digital Learning

Eric Friedman 
Director, Digital Learning

Kenny Neal 
Manager, Digital Education Resources

Tiffany A. Bryant 
Manager, Operations and Audience Engagement

JoDee Scissors 
Content Specialist, Digital Learning

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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;

Prince Charitable Trusts; Dr. Deborah Rose and Dr. Jan A. J. Stolwijk; Rosemary Kennedy Education Fund; The Embassy of the United Arab Emirates; The Victory Foundation; The Volgenau Foundation; Volkswagen Group of America; Jackie Washington; GRoW @ Annenberg and Gregory Annenberg Weingarten and Family; Wells Fargo; and generous contributors to the Abe Fortas Memorial Fund and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger, widow of Abe Fortas. Additional support is provided by the National Committee for the Performing Arts..

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