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Their smiles were genuine, their dancing was filled with pure delight, and the energy of their movement was contagious. Years ago I had a class of 5-7 year olds make a dance about Autumn. It was new for me, letting students have so much control over the choreographic process and I wasn’t sure what would happen. Over the course of a few weeks we came up with ideas together and I helped to put those ideas in sequence.

The end result was a stunning celebration of falling leaves and friendship.

But the place we started was most important. And that was a guided improvisation of the feelings and movements of Fall, using a pile of orange, yellow and red scarves for inspiration.

This month, I invite you to do your own Falling Leaves dance at home. Since I can’t be there to guide your improvisation, I’m sharing this activity to inspire you to Fall into dance at home. Enjoy!

Falling Leaves

What you need: A pile of “leaves”. These can be real leaves (if you’re outside or just adventurous about how much nature you allow in the house), fake leaves, paper leaves (you can use this template to color or print on colored paper and cut out), scarves, bandanas, tissues... There are so many possibilities.

What you do: Make a pile of leaves and sing the song below. During the first three lines of the song, SKIP OR GALLOP AROUND the pile of leaves. On the last line of the song, do the action in the words. Repeat as many times as you want, adding your own lyrics and movement ideas!

Song

*Sung to the tune of London Bridges*

All the leaves are falling down, falling down, falling down. All the leaves are falling down…

…let’s jump in them.

…let’s all toss them.

…let’s spin with them

…let’s all kick them.

…let’s fall with them.