New Victory Dance Arts Break: Dance Your Feelings

Every summer, New Victory Dance celebrates the artistry and diversity of NYC dance! Whether you’re preparing to attend a performance or are just in a dancing mood, New Victory Dance Arts Break offers fun and free dance education and engagement activities for wherever and however you feel like moving. In this first installment, we’ll learn how to express our emotions through dance!

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The video in this Arts Break was filmed at the New Victory Theater. We acknowledge that the New Victory resides on the seized homeland of the Lenape people and the intertribal territory of many First Nations. We celebrate and pay deep respect to all Indigenous peoples, past, present and future.

Have you ever felt a strong emotion but didn’t know how to express it? Were you embarrassed? Overjoyed? Scared? No matter the emotion, it can be frustrating when you don’t have the right words to explain how you feel. In moments like this, the language of dance is a great way to express yourself. Follow along with New Victory Teaching Artist Sun Kim and Siobhan from New Victory Education as they pop and groove their way through big feelings!

What emotions did you notice Sun expressing through dance? Take a look at our bank of emotions and see if you can remember how Sun danced them!

Take some time to create your own dance moves inspired by the above emotions, or choose other emotions from the sheet below.

After you’ve spent some time creating dances inspired by your emotions, you can experiment with choosing emotions at random and inspiring others to feel what you’re feeling! Gather some friends or family members, and get ready to make a box full of emotions, just like Sun and Siobhan used.

Step One: Decorate your shoebox using markers, stickers and whatever other art supplies you enjoy! Make your box feel like an extension of yourself. Add drawings of your favorite animals, foods or flowers.

Step Two: Label your box as a box of your emotions!

Step Three: On slips of paper, write down the names of different emotions. You can brainstorm your own or use some from the sheet above!

Step Four: Take turns pulling slips of paper from the box and expressing how those emotions make you feel by moving or dancing.

Don’t tell the other members of your group what emotion you pulled from the box. Continue moving and dancing through that emotion until they guess correctly!

Like Sun said in her video, you are the choreographer of your emotions. Dance can be a very emotional art form, so you’re well on your way to choreographing a truly captivating performance! We’ll see you soon with another installment of New Victory Arts Break. Have fun, and keep moving!

New Victory Arts Break Supporters

New Victory Arts Break is funded, in part, by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund, public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.