Swan Lake Sculptures

In addition to sketching and acting out the movements of the ballerinas in Swan Lake, many of the children also worked in wire. They used wire to capture the body positions of the ballerinas and to create a scene from the ballet.

The children explored drawings of dancers in motion from ballet books, as well as their chosen internet photographs and a closer study of the video.

To begin building, we anchored wire to a wooden board using staples and duct tape.

The children used different pliers, such as the kinds used in jewelry making, to help them curl and bend the wire, as well as their fingers.

 

After a few weeks of hard work, the children decided we needed to add tutus to show they were swans.

Here is our finished piece:

A close-up of the central characters, the prince and the lead swan:

You can see here, from the intricately twisted wire, the amount of finger-work, effort and patience that went into creating each wire sculpture:

Movement Sketches

After watching a video recording of Swan Lake, the children were interested in the ways the ballerinas moved. They printed photographs of their poses from the internet and sketched them using charcoal.

Some of the children have been drawing Ninja Turtles. They use a manikin and their classmates to help them represent moving body parts. After observing their classmates sketch ballerinas they gave it a try, too. Instead of ballerinas, they sketched the poses of their friends and focused on elbows and knees.