Whole Earth Curriculum WEC

Lesson 07 — Devising a Concept: Movement That Means Something

Learners devise an original movement piece from a clear concept, choosing gesture, levels, and timing deliberately and storyboarding the sequence so the concept is visible in the movement — the first half of the movement-and-drama objective.

D07 P3: Intellectual & Cognitive Awareness D07.S3 55 minutes Draft

Objectives

Essential question

How do I devise an original performance piece that develops a clear concept through movement and expression?

deviseconceptgestureleveltimingtableausequence

Materials

Standard materials

Low-tech / no-cost

Enriched / lab & device

Works in different contexts

A storyboard of four frames showing one figure moving from low and closed to high and open, with a caption under each frame naming the moment — beginning, rise, turn, arrival
A storyboard of four frames showing one figure moving from low and closed to high and open, with a caption under each frame naming the moment — beginning, rise, turn, arrival

Lesson 7 — Devising a Concept: Movement That Means Something

Summary

Learners devise an original movement piece from a clear concept, choosing gesture, levels, and timing deliberately and storyboarding the sequence so the concept is visible in the movement. This is the first half of the movement-and-drama objective — craft in rehearsal and performance comes in Lesson 8.

Objectives

  • Devise and perform an original piece that develops a clear concept and demonstrates craft in movement and expression. (D07.S3.10.01)

Connection

You already speak a whole language without words: the shrug, the slow step of a person who does not want to leave, the sudden straightening of a spine when someone has had enough. Devising is taking that everyday language and making it intentional — a concept, told through the body, one deliberate choice at a time. Today you turn feeling into movement with a plan.

Materials

  • Movement storyboard sheet
  • Open floor space

Preparation

  • Retrieval: from Lessons 1 and 4, recall building a body of work and a piece around one idea. Movement works the same way: one concept, developed through choices.
  • Prepare one worked example: a four-moment sequence expressing “arrival” — low and closed, then rising, turning, opening — storyboarded frame by frame.

Facilitator note

This lesson is written to the learner (“you”). The idea to land: devising means starting from a concept and choosing movement to serve it — gesture, level (high/mid/ low), and timing (fast/slow, still/moving) — then storyboarding so the concept is visible in the choices. A storyboard (drawn frames with captions) is to movement what the graphic score was to music in Lesson 4: a universal, low-tech way to document an idea before it is polished. The unit’s through-line holds again — one motif, developed.

The ethics lens: devising your own concept is the honest starting point; it is the opposite of copying another culture’s dance and calling it yours (Lesson 9 makes this explicit). The egalitarian lens: every body is an instrument and every body can devise; the piece is built from your movement vocabulary, not a single imposed ideal. The global lens: across cultures, movement carries meaning — gesture, posture, and spacing communicate without words in performance and daily life alike (S-189). The technology lens: a camera lets a deviser watch and revise — but the storyboard does too, with no device. The environment lens: devising outdoors reminds us the body is part of place — terrain becomes part of the concept. The physical and social-emotional lenses: moving is how the body and feeling join; name the feeling first, then let the body speak it.

Model one worked example (worked example → guided practice → independent devising; S-011). Keep it short — four moments are enough to hold a concept.

Procedure

  1. Recall (5 min). You have made a visual motif and a musical idea. Today you make a movement idea and develop it.
  2. Meet the choices (10 min). Watch a worked example: a four-moment piece about “arrival.” Notice the choices — gesture (what the hands and face do), level (high, middle, low), timing (fast or slow, still or moving). See each moment storyboarded with a caption.
  3. Choose your concept (5 min). Pick one concept — leaving home, waiting for news, meeting an old friend, carrying something heavy. Write it: “This piece is about ______.”
  4. Devise the sequence (15 min). Build four moments: a beginning, a change, a turning point, an arrival. For each, decide the gesture, level, and timing that serve the concept.
  5. Storyboard it (10 min). Draw each moment in a frame and write a caption under it. Your board should let a friend read the concept without hearing a word.
  6. Close (5 min). Show your sequence once to a partner, who guesses the concept. Keep the storyboard in your portfolio. Next time: craft in rehearsal.

Differentiation

  • Support: Devise a three-moment sequence (beginning, middle, end) using only level changes, and caption each.
  • Extension: Add contrast — one fast moment against a slow one, or high against low — and write a sentence on how the contrast serves the concept.
  • Non-motor path (seated, limited mobility, or wheelchair): The piece lives in the parts of the body that move freely — hands, face, shoulders, eyes, voice, breath. Levels become close to the body or far from it, high becomes lifted hands or gaze, low becomes dropped head or closed posture. Devising with a partner: the deviser directs with voice while a partner performs the shapes, so the concept is still authored by the learner.
  • Non-visual path (blind or low vision): Storyboard in words and spoken captions rather than drawings, and have a partner read back each moment; the sequence can be devised and checked by touch and voice.
  • Neurodivergent support: Give the concept as a short menu, keep the four-moment frame predictable, and allow stillness or a repeated calming gesture as a valid moment — pacing and quiet are choices, not failures.

Assessment

  • Formative (self): Can the learner state the concept in one sentence, perform a short sequence, and point to at least two deliberate choices (gesture, level, or timing) in their storyboard?
  • Portfolio artifact (unit): The movement storyboard with its concept statement, added to the portfolio as the movement-piece plan.

Home connection

Watch for one moment of “body language” at home — someone’s posture when they are tired, glad, or worried — and name the level and timing that carry the meaning.

Resources