Boxing choreography

The goals of this module are

to improve self-presentation skills,
to increase empathy for outsiders and victims of verbal and emotional abuse,
to develop strategies of social inclusion of outsiders in your peer and
to increase cohesion and a wider understanding for each other within the group.

Ideal Group size:

10-30

Duration:

10-20 minutes (plus discussion)

Preparation:

–

Material:

Small sheet of paper and pens (count depends on number of participants)
If possible, boxing gloves for choreography group

Materials for download:

–

External resources:

–

How it’s done

Introduction

Verbal and emotional abuse are a serious topic in peer groupsVictims often lack self-worth, self-esteem and social skills. Therefore it is important to create a common sense of empathy in young children and encourage them to include everybody in their community.
Often, verbal and emotional bullies lack anticipation and understanding for their victims and might change their behaviour after experiencing their side.

Notes: In this session, every girl should have the possibility to experience the role of victims that suffer from verbal and emotional abuse. This is important to increase empathy and create a feeling of necessity for victims’ inclusion into a peer group. At the end of the session, all participants are supposed to share a common sense for the importance of social inclusion of everybody in their community and know about possible consequences of verbal and emotional abuse.

Bring all the girls together in a semi-circle and ask them to close their eyes. Everybody should imagine they are in a boxing ring, standing in their corner, only seconds before the fight begins. Ask them to take a look around in the audience, because there are a lot of spectators. The bell rings and the fight starts. Let everybody focus on the sound of the screaming audience and listen to what they’re saying. All participants are allowed to open their eyes again and ask them immediately what the audience said/ screamed? Start explaining the exercise after a few answers.

Instructions and description of exercise

Step 1

Randomly divide the group in 2 – 5 teams (varies with number of participants, 6 person max./group)
Bring all the girls together in a circle and explain the rules:

There are 2 basic roles for every group in the roleplay: “boxing choreographer” and “spectators”
Every group has 10 minutes to develop their own boxing choreography, it can be a show boxing fight, a boxing dance choreography, different boxing combinations etc.
Choreography lasts a maximum of 60 seconds and a minimum of 20 seconds
Every group member needs to be actively involved in the choreography
After the 10 minutes the need to perform their choreography twice in front of the “spectators”
The “spectators” get special advice from the coach before every performance
In the 1st choreography, “spectators” are asked to cheer for the “boxing choreographers”
In the 2nd choreography, “spectators” are asked to boo and to anti-cheer for the performance
Ask the “spectators” to be careful and not personally offensive to the single performers
The groups change their roles after the 2 performance rounds

In the beginning, remind all girls that this is a roleplay and they’re actors. Nobody is supposed to get insulted due to the “spectators” booing or anti-cheering them.

Step 2

Hand out a small sheet of paper and pens to all participants

Ask everybody to write down 5 words about what they felt when the “spectators” where cheering for them
Ask everybody to write down 5 words about what they felt when the “spectators” where booingthem
Ask everybody to write down 5 words about what they felt when the were booing “spectators”
Ask everybody to write down 5 words about what they felt when the were cheering “spectators”

Reflection and discussion

Notes: After the exercise bring all the girls together and create a comfortable situation with everybody sitting in a circle and being able to see each other.

Thank everybody for their performance in both roles and start the discussion.

Everybody is supposed to be included into the discussion! Make sure to involve everybody and try to ask shy and more quiet girls directly. Encourage the girls to share the words they have written down before when you ask the questions.
Specific questions for reflection and discussion round:
- How did it feel to perform in front of cheering “spectators”?
- How did it feel to perform in front of booing “spectators”?
- How did it feel to act as “spectators” cheering for someone?
- How did it feel to act as “spectators” booing someone?
- What could a person feel if he/she gets booed or not included the whole time?
- How would you react if you would be in a situation like this?
- Has anybody been in a situation that felt like this before? How did you react?
- What other things might happen to you, if someone bullies you verbally or emotionally over and over again?
- Why do you think it is important to include everyone in your peer group?
- What can we do to assure that no gets emotionally hurt because of our words?
- How could a good communication help?
Explain a made-up example of a young girl getting teased or verbally and emotionally abused at school. Tell a little story about her and what she feels like after an “ordinary” day in school, full of verbal/emotional bullying and a feeling of being lonely and not belonging to anyone…
- What might be a way to make the girl feel better? How can we include her?
- How can we as a group and as a community benefit from the inclusion of the little girl?
- Do you know someone like the girl in your community (DON’T TELL NAMES)? How do you treat her/him?

Notes: This is just a selection of possible questions that could help to lead a discussion. It is important to react to the answers that are given in the discussion round and to be able to adapt your targeted guideline to individual experiences and perceptions.