Butterfly Released From Cocoon

Hatching Experienced in a Poetic Movement Perhaps With Sound

© Jo Murphy

Mar 10, 2007
Butterfly, MorgueFiles.com
Students will work through dance movement expressing the birthing of self as a butterfly in an Easter theme. Further exploration of other mediums will be encouraged.

This Easter symbolism is about working through difficulty and release to new life.

Teachers may want to refer to the pathway to emotional maturity.

Guided Imagery

  • Gently and with relaxed rain forest music talk to the students imagination about the stages of becoming a butterfly.
  • They will be lying on the floor relaxed as you invite them to see them selves scrunched inside an egg.
  • Assist them to experience this curled feeling by asking them to squeeze into their own body.
  • Gently move through the stages of becoming a butterfly - until as a group you evolve towards the experience of hatching.

If you would like to read up on the life cycle of the Monarch Butterfly before creating your script click here.

Before you invite the students to draw imagery of this experience break them into pairs and ask them to tell each other about the experience of hatching.

  • What was it like?
  • How did it feel?
  • What would it look like?
  • What was the birthing experience like?
  • Suggest they show each other their experience of the cycle
  • Gently lead them to the idea of moving about and through the experience together.
  • Ask them to map this experience in a colourful way. They may want to choose colours and materials that are appropriate to the felt sense of the experience. They can change colours and materials as the experience changes for them. Lines and the quality of lines will change as they change form.

The purpose of the map is to help them record the way their dance evolves. Tell them to use any of the creative tools in their repertoire to record how the movement unfolds.

  • They may hum and change intonation as the dance evolves. If so encourage the use of a tape recorder or record sounds into the computer itself as this will make using Audition easier later.

At some appropriate stage capture the felt sense of the experience in haiku or a longer lyrical form of poetic expression. If the music and words come together in sound this is ideal.

How the students present their formation is open to fluid experimentation. Perhaps one will move and the other recite the poetry, play an instrument, sing or narrate. perhaps painted backgrounds will fuse into part of the imagining.

Be sure to record their artistic offering with a video or capture the movement in animation. This can be recorded in their

  • Online Journal
  • Youtube
  • Squidoo

If this is not possible perhaps still shot photography accompanied by poetry will enhance their Visual Journal.

If you are looking for other Easter Activities


The copyright of the article Butterfly Released From Cocoon in Dance Education is owned by Jo Murphy. Permission to republish Butterfly Released From Cocoon in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.




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