Home Activities for Any Level
Seeking a creative outlet for your performer? Take a look at these Stagelight Home Activities that are broad in opportunity for any age and any level. Make sure your camera is ready. You don't want to forget these sweet moments when they're walking across the stage at college graduation!
3/27/20: “Si ma ma ka Scola” Song and Rhythm
Hey Stagelighters, try your hand at this one! Spend some time memorizing the song and rhythmic patterns, and put it together for a performance for your family tonight!
Don’t forget to send us your videos and pictures to stagelightathome@gmail.com, or tag us on social media @stagelightarts.
Have fun!
3/25/20: Emotional Contemp./Modern Dance
Ms. Anna has created a beautiful contemporary/modern dance that can “be very emotional.” It’s for you do perform when “you feel sad, or scared, or maybe you don’t know how to feel and you’re trying to sort that out.”
Ms. Anna has broken the entire dance down into very learnable sections. Feel free to pause and rewind as needed until you’ve learned the movement well. Keep in mind, she is mirroring you while she is teaching. Which means, when you learn it from the video, you should be her mirror. For instance, when she starts the dance facing “down stage left,” you’ll notice she is actually facing down stage right. Make sure you face down stage left, and you’ll be all set to mirror her movements.
Enjoy this process. Enjoy moving. Enjoy letting your emotions carry you through the dance.
Send us your videos performing the dance to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social media @stagelightarts. We can’t wait to watch you dance!
3/24/20: Show Your Emotions
This is a quick and easy Acting exercise you can do at home. The challenge is in changing the emotion and really committing to the delivery and performance of each emotion.
Here’s how to play: Memorize a short poem or Nursery Rhyme. Once you have it memorized, choose at least three different emotions. Perform the poem or nursery rhyme with those three emotions, really jumping fully into the emotion. Here are a few basic emotions to get you started:
After you performances, discuss with your family which emotions worked well with the poem or nursery rhyme, and which emotions didn’t. Were some combinations funny? Or authentic? Which emotions felt the most natural to you?
Send us a video of your favorite emotional performance to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social media @stagelightarts. As always, have fun playing!
3/20/20: Pop Star-Inspired Basic Music Theory
Inspired by the melodies of Taylor Swift’s Trouble and Meghan Trainor’s All About that Bass, these two catchy songs will introduce young musicians and performers to the Treble and Bass music clefs.
Print out the lyrics, and follow along with the YouTube recordings. Any time we get the opportunity to use fun mnemonics to help students understand a concept, we’ll take it!
Have fun with this one! And give us a glimpse of your progress with this activity by emailing us at stagelightathome@gmail.com or tagging us on social media @stagelightarts.
3/19/20: CLI Studios FREE Master Classes
One of the coolest things we’ve seen during this quarantine is a number of different organizations stepping up and offering free or highly discounted material, all in an effort to come together and support one another during this trying time.
CLI Studios is no exception. Normally costly, CLI Studios is offering their daily classes FREE– you just have to jump on their website, clear some space in your room, and DANCE.
Starting at 12:00 pm our time today (PST), they’re offering exciting classes: Adv. Contemp., Int. Ballet, Beg/Int Tap, Int. Jazz, and Beg. HipHop.
Don’t forget to send a picture or video of yourself “in class” to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social @stagelightarts. Have fun!
3/18/20: Theatrical Mask Craft
For today’s creative project, let’s create a theatrical mask, either based on one of your favorite characters from a story, book or movie, or a character you invent! Follow the instructions below, and make sure to send us pictures of your final creation to stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us on social media @stagelightarts.
1. Use found materials in the house. Get creative!
2. Try to make eye holes (they can be as small as a pea or as big as an eye). Find some string or elastic for wearing the mask if you can.
3. Use crayons, markers, stickers, craft supplies… whatever you can! Add as much detail as possible. Be creative. Have fun with it!
4. Now, don your mask, act out or improvise a scene, and take a bow! Don’t forget to send us pictures of your creation so we can see you progress during these Home Activities!
Traditions: Talchum (Korea) Kolam (Sri Lanka) Topeng (Indonesia) Lakhon Khol (Cambodia) Kohn (Thailand)
3/17/20: St. Patrick’s Day Music Theory Worksheets
It’s time for a little holiday fun! Download and print these St. Patrick’s Day worksheets and test your music theory knowledge!
Have a piano or keyboard at home? Tap out the notes too! Send us pictures of your final worksheets or a short recording of you playing the notes: stagelightathome@gmail.com or tag us @stagelightarts on social media.
Have fun, and best of luck!
3/17/20: Dance Your Name
Today’s activity is more challenging than it appears, IF you really work creatively. Shape each letter in your name as creatively as possible and with your whole body. Practice moving from letter to letter smoothly until you have your “dance” memorized.
Play with the transition from letter to letter to make your dance as interesting and creative as possible. For example, will you move sharply from one letter to another, or smoothly? Will you move fast or slow to each letter? For an added challenge, use different transitions between each letter, sometimes turning, jumping, or rolling.
Choose a song that you want to perform your dance to and practice it ten times. Make sure you hold that end pose! Then, have someone film your dance and send it to us at stagelightathome@gmail.com or post it on social media and tag us @stagelightarts.
Once you get the hang of this activity, try spelling out other words or maybe work with a sibling to create letters! Other words you might try are lucky, love, dance, or perform!
3/16/20: Dramatic Acting: From Power Ballad to Monologue
Turn one of your favorite Musical Theatre power ballads into a dramatic monologue. Spend some time memorizing the lyrics (if you don’t already obsess over the song every day!). Think about the emotion this character is portraying. Now, once you have it memorized, don’t sing it, just talk it! Perform it with full emotion and complete commitment to the character. Let us see how you can really show your acting skills! For a challenge, consider choosing a duet and act this out with a sibling or friend. Send us a video of your performance to stagelightathome@gmail.com.
Need some power ballad suggestions?
And I Am Telling You from Dreamgirls
Home from The Wiz
On My Own from Les Miserables
I Still Believe from Miss Saigon
Part of Your World from The Little Mermaid
And likely super relatable at this time of uncertainty:
Tomorrow from Annie and although not a ballad, you might really connect to the lyrics in When Will My Life Begin from Tangled right now!
For additional ideas, check out this curated Spotify playlist. Don’t forget, send us your videos to stagelightathome@gmail.com so we can applaud your acting chops and share with our virtual audience!