How to Adapt Dances

Contact: adapteddances@gmail.com

There are different ways to adapt dances to suit diverse populations of dancers. One way is to take a known dance and change it. Another is to use music that your group members like, and create a dance to go with it. At Move N' Mingle, we use both approaches. We have a large varied repertoire and are always adding new dances. As time goes on and your group becomes more experienced, you may find that fewer adaptations are needed.

Here are some suggestions to try when developing adaptations:

1) Decrease Tempo - even simple movements take longer for the participants to accomplish. If the music isn’t slowed down, they may have difficulty keeping up and may become frustrated. This is especially useful when the group is new to dancing. As time goes on, the tempo may be increased.

2) Simplify the dance

• Change the steps to a level that most of the group can manage.

• If there are both arm movements and steps in a dance, I often have to choose one or the other. So for example, Tokyo Dontaku becomes a dance that we do in place,maintaining only the arm movements-it comes out looking a bit like Tai chi. In general, I find that large body movements or gestures are easier than any kind of footwork, for the group that I teach.

3) Increase the number of repetitions of a figure or a movement in a dance, instead of moving on to different movements or alternating movements. It’s easier for the participants to do one thing repeatedly than to keep switching.

4) Eliminate or minimize direction changes.

5) Maintain Eye Contact:

• Maintaining eye contact with the group, keeps their attention on the dance.

• Certain formations such as longways sets can be very confusing.

• A circle formation where the participants can see the instructor at all times works best, at least with new dancers.

• Dances that traditionally would be done in other formations, can be converted into circles.