From Ballet Des Moines' Jekyll & Hyde · Tom Mattingly, choreographer
An exploration of duality, identity, and contrast — through tableaux, performed poetry, and collage.
Three movements from body, to voice, to image — each one a different way of holding contrast at the same time.
Use tableaux to embody and observe contrasting emotions, then pair up for "When Opposites Meet."
Read Stevenson and Suzy Kassem aloud — explore duality through metaphor and voice.
Create a visual collage of your own identities and the symbols that represent them.
Contrast through tableaux — what the body says without words.
Ballet dancers use posture, gesture, and facial expression to make ideas visible. So do all of us — every day. The way someone walks into a room tells a story before they speak. A tableau is a frozen statue made with your body — a moment held still, like a photograph. In this Part, students will explore how their bodies communicate contrast.
Stand in a relaxed, neutral position with room to move. The teacher calls a word from Column A. Students freeze in a tableau showing that emotion or quality, holding for a 5-count. Return to neutral. The teacher then calls the contrasting word from Column B. Hold, observe, return.
Use observational language out loud — "I see shoulders back, eyes up, muscles flexed" — rather than judgment.
Q. Can you think of a time someone might be brave and afraid at the same moment?
Q. Which feeling shows on the outside? Which lives more internally? What evidence do you see?
Q. Do opposite emotions have to cause conflict — or can they coexist?
Ask students to create a single tableau that shows a person who is both BRAVE and AFRAID at the same time. After they practice once or twice, split the class — half perform, half become the audience. The audience describes what they see.
Pair up students. One represents a quality from Column A, the other their corresponding Column B. Each pair stages a short scene with four beats:
Coaching prompts — before pairs perform, ask: Where and when might your characters meet? How do they respond to each other? Does their relationship change during the scene — or stay the same?
Q. What choices surprised you or felt especially effective?
Q. In which scenes did the contrast create conflict? In which did the opposites find unity?
Q. Do opposing feelings need to cause conflict — or can they belong together?
Show students the photos taken from each pair's tableau. Imagine they appear in a newspaper or blog under the headline "When Opposites Meet." Each student writes a photo caption that hints at the story behind the encounter — drawing the reader in.
Contrast through voice — and the metaphors we live by.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 novella, has become a global shorthand for the duality of good and evil within a single person. In Tom Mattingly's ballet adaptation, Jekyll and Hyde are danced by two different dancers — letting the audience see the internal battle externalized on stage.
Read these quotes from the novella aloud. After each one, pause and let the words land.
Q. What other characters in books, movies, or TV struggle with their duality? (Bruce Wayne / Batman. Hannah Montana / Miley Stewart. Others?)
Q. What makes characters like these so compelling? In what ways do they reflect our experiences?
Suzy Kassem's poem Part Sun and Moon uses metaphor to name the contrasting qualities every person carries. In small groups, prepare a performed reading of the poem. Use gesture, facial expression, and vocal contrast to highlight the polarities.
After performing, compare the experience of reading the poem with seeing it embodied.
Q. What parts of yourself might you describe as sun and moon, earth and sea, salt and dust?
Q. What changed when you saw the poem performed — what did you see and hear that you didn't notice when reading silently?
Contrast through image — naming the many selves we hold.
Jami Milne, a Des Moines–based artist, works in photography and collage to explore identity and contrast. Her layered, mixed-media work models how one image can carry many meanings at once — a visual echo of the duality students have just embodied in tableau and voiced in poetry.
On a piece of paper, write or sketch all the identities you carry — student, sibling, athlete, musician, citizen, friend, dreamer, gamer, caretaker, artist, scientist… Then ask yourself:
Using magazines, colored paper, markers, and found images, build a collage that captures the diversity and complexity of your identity. Borrow Suzy Kassem's strategy from Part Two — use symbols and metaphors rather than literal pictures. What might be your sun and moon? Your salt and dust? Your earth and sea?
Display the collages around the room. Students walk silently first, then return to discuss. Respect that some students may not want to share personal details — focus discussion on the shared themes across the class.
Q. What surprised you about your classmates' collages? What did they reveal that you didn't know?
Q. Knowing how complex each person in this room is — what action might we take in our classroom, school, or community?
Assessment, differentiation, mature-content guidance, and resources.
The ballet's synopsis (included in the printable PDF) contains mature themes: lust, an attempted assault, a murder, and a character's death. The lesson plan itself stays focused on duality and identity — the ballet's plot is provided only as context. Decide in advance what you'll share with students; the lesson works without the synopsis.
The complete lesson plan — including the full ballet synopsis for teacher reference and student-facing handouts.
Download Lesson Plan (PDF)