Making Waves
ANTICIPATION
The Making Waves project took place in spring 2012 during the lead up to the London 2012 Olympic and
Paralympic Games. During the project, children drew inspiration from the Games and from the displays
at the National Maritime Museum to develop creative responses through music and dance.
Taking the Making Waves project as an example, the Making Waves resource illustrates how learning can
be structured around museum visits to support high quality creative outcomes. This step-by-step guide
follows five groups of Key Stage 2 children, from their initial visit to the Museum, to generating and
developing their ideas for dance back at school, to rehearsal and their final performance at the National
Maritime Museum. It also follows the Animate orchestra as they develop and perform music for the
project.
The resource includes films, lesson plans and hints and tips to support and inspire teachers and children
across the different stages of development: Anticipation, Inspiration, Generating Ideas, Developing Ideas,
Rehearsal, and Performance.
The resource focuses primarily on children using the displays in the Museum’s Voyagers gallery as
inspiration for dance. However, the resource can be adapted to a wealth of other themes and displays in
the Museum and used to inspire a variety of creative responses including music, art, drama, and creative
writing.
Why is using the Museum as a stimulus beneficial to dance?
The National Maritime Museum collection offers a wealth of stimuli, ideas, and starting points for dance
and movement. From the journeys of famous explorers and the instruments they used in navigating to
new lands, to everyday people migrating to new homes; to pirates, traders and battles at sea. This
abundance of inspiration, which does not specifically relate to dance forms or styles, allows for
imaginative and creative movement responses, taking into account the intentions, feelings, and
motivations of the people, artefacts, or topics. This in turn allows the children a deeper involvement and
connection to the themes of their dance.
In generating material and creating your dance, it is not necessary to have a linear theme that tells a story.
Focusing on how the body is moving in response to an abstract idea or interpretation can be powerful and
expressive, communicating to its audience through the dancers’ physical intention. Ideas can come from
looking at just one object or painting in detail, to exploring a whole gallery or theme.
There are various types of stimuli on display at the Museum that can inspire and ignite creative responses
including:
Visual
Objects, paintings, photographs, installations, manuscripts, gifts and trade items from around the world,
personal tokens and objects belonging to sailors, clothes and food used at sea, letters from loved ones
away at sea, historical paintings from around the world, model ships and boats.
Themes
Tales of great voyagers, stories, poems, historic events, the sea and its environment, feelings and emotions
of being at sea, pirates, explorers, people and places around the world.
Music and sound
Sound of the water moving, waves crashing; ‘talking heads’ telling us ‘what the sea means to me’, music
compositions inspired by the sea and maritime history.
Abstract stimuli
The idea and sensation of floating, angles and shapes of ropes, masts, sails etc on board ship; sea sickness!