After the Dance

Capture the exhilaration and the exhaustion of exercise in a watercolor resist.

• 1.

  Play your favorite music, and exercise, move, or dance to it vigorously for about 10 minutes. When you finish, let yourself rest. How do you feel? If movement is impossible, watch an exercise or dance video.

• 2.

  On white paper, use Crayola® Crayons to draw yourself as you would feel after you have been exercising or dancing. Would you be relaxed or energized? Draw yourself in a similar position. How would your face look?

• 3.

  Cover a table top with recycled newspaper. Use Crayola Watercolors and Brushes to paint colorful areas of your drawing, using a crayon resist technique. Dry flat.

• 4.

  Discuss your experiences with classmates. Make a bar graph with crayon that shows students' different responses.

Benefits

• Students engage in exercise to demonstrate their commitment to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
• Students visualize their bodies engaged in exercise, through dance and movement, and then at rest after their workout.
• Students create an original artwork that portrays their visualizations.

Adaptations

• Videotape yourselves while moving. Or use a bright light to make shadows on the wall. What different poses do you see? Trace life-size poses of each other, captured in the midst of a movement.
• Draw a before-and-after series, such as dancing then resting, playing football and relaxing.
• Measure your pulse before, during, and after exercise. Chart it on several different days, while exercising for varying amounts of time. What patterns do you see?