Freeze frames are quick to create but they can be used as stepping stones to more sophisticated drama activities and performances. This video shows a group of teachers on a course with David Farmer developing a movement/dance piece from a sequence of three freeze frames about WW2 evacuees. It also shows how we used dance/movement to explore science themes.
Freeze frames can easily be used across the curriculum, for example:
- Fairy tale tableaux are a good place to start – simply ask small groups to choose a fairy tale and create three still images (beginning, middle and end)
- Improve students’ vocabulary skills by asking them to illustrate a word or phrase in a story using a still image
- Fun can be had making group objects that turn from one thing into something else – for example Cinderella’s pumpkin turns into a coach, mice into horses, a rat into a coachman, and lizards into footmen
- In Science, groups can develop a series of images showing the process of metamorphosis (e.g. caterpillar to butterfly or frogspawn to frog).
- Explore a work of art or documentary photograph by bringing it to life as a 3D Living Picture
- This drama lesson on refugees makes use of freeze frames to explore a real-life story
- For more advanced use of freeze frames with teen/adult students, take a look at this interesting analysis of a scene from Goodfella’s.
Read next:
