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Your students will love doing this playful warmup over and over. As they move their bodies like different animals, stretching, growing, and shrinking, they are actually building focus and self-control. Many students even love to make up their own Brain Dances! You’ll find this warmup and more playful ideas in the full Animal Themed Creative Drama.
The Brain Dance, developed by dance educator Anne Green Gilbert, is an 8-step movement sequence based on the developmental patterns humans naturally move through during the first year of life. Cycling through these patterns helps organize the central nervous system and integrate the brain and body at any age.
The 8 Patterns:
Breath
Tactile
Core-Distal
Head-Tail
Upper-Lower
Body-Side
Cross-Lateral
Vestibular (In these videos, we use “whole body” instead of vestibular)
Learn more about Brain Dance here:
Brain Dance Lesson
Brain Dance Video
