SMCC > Learning > Drama

Using museums as a stimulus for dance and drama

Dance and drama activities are a way of offering museum visitors creative and enjoyable ways of engaging with objects and displays.

Dance and drama can also be successfully used in education sessions with schools.

Even if you do not feel dance and drama are your specialisms you can still run sucessful activities.

A few examples of dance and drama being used successfully

Dancing at the Tudor court

Intiate groups into the mysteries of the pavane, a slow and stately dance of the 16th and 17th centuries. Master two basic steps and perform the dance to music.

Object charades

Use objects from handling collections to tell a story. Create a tableaux which that tells the story behind the object and present it to the class.

Role Play

Facilitaors can create alter egos with groups. Encourage visitors to ask questions about their life. They could hear all the latest gossip about how Jane Seymour was caught betwitting on King Henry's knee (with disastrous consequences for Anne Boleyn)!

Add a sense of realism to the alter ego. A facilitator who has a Victorian explorer alter ego often explains to the children that she has just returned from the Egyptian desert and has taken the train from Waterloo to the museum that very morning. Later, she takes off her boot to shake out the sand. On one occasion, a boy whispered to another, 'She really has been in the desert!'