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Mirrors is a paired activity that allows students to work on leading/following through collaboration and focus. Partners work silently to create mirrored kinesthetic movements. The activity involves shared trust and responsibility as partners work to keep each other safe.
Divide the group into pairs and asks that each pair decide who is Player A and who is Player B. Player A will be the mirror and B the actor. Pairs stand facing one another. Ask students to make eye contact. As Player B begins moving, A is to mirror B’s actions exactly. Both players should maintain eye contact, with Player A seeing B’s movement through his/her peripheral vision. Encourage slow and sustained movements to begin with and/or simple actions like brushing teeth or playing a sport in slow motion. After a set time, ask students to switch leaders. Eventually, pairs can be encouraged to switch back and forth between leaders on their own or to try and work together where neither person is leading.
- Which did you prefer: leading or being led? Why?
- How did you strategize to help your partner keep up with you?
- What does this activity have to do with trust and the work we are about to do together?
- Try your best to move as one unit.
- Try experimenting with different levels.
- Take turns shifting between leaders; find a natural way to switch who is leading and who is following.
- Remember to maintain soft focus throughout the activity.
- Have students explore feeling vocabulary (sad, excited) through their movements.
- Science: Have students explore different environments (the rainforest) or times of year (summer) through their movements.
- MATH: Have students explore different types of angle movement (acute, obtuse) or types of lines (parallel, perpendicular). Ask students to explore rotation, translation, and reflection and have them choreograph a dance that uses each form of movement, which they can teach to others.
- Reading/Writing or Social Studies: Have students explore literary or historical themes – like war or gossip – through their movements.
Violia Spolin