Paloteo: Stick Dance with Pool Noodles and Cross Strikes

Paloteos, or stick dances, are performed at festivals in Aragon, Navarre, Castile and other parts of Spain, with dancers striking sticks to keep the rhythm. Here, cut pool noodles let groups practice strikes and figures safely.

How to play

1. Context: paloteo as a group dance tied to local festivals; every town has its own figures, called mudanzas (3 min).
2. Solo strikes: floor, overhead and stick against your own stick, on the beat (5 min).
3. Facing pairs: straight strike and cross strike with your partner (7 min).
4. Groups of eight in two lines: build your own four-phrase mudanza with line crossings (10 min).
5. Show the mudanzas, one per group (5 min).

Rules

• Strikes stay at chest height or lower, never toward the face.
• Only stick against stick.
• Use pool noodles, not real sticks or poles.
• When someone misses, the group stops and restarts the phrase.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: joins seated, and partners adjust the strike height.
• Students with visual impairments: partner strikes start with the partner's stick resting against theirs at the start of each cycle.
• Arm injury: uses one noodle and strikes with the healthy arm.

Learning goals

• Coordinate strikes with a partner while keeping the beat.
• Create a group figure with a phrase structure.
• Know paloteo as local festival heritage.

Equipment for a class of 25

• speaker: 1
• pool noodles: 30

Teacher tip

Cut each noodle into two pieces of about 50 cm so everyone has two sticks. Common mistake: hitting hard and throwing the group off; noodles are quiet, so the rhythm comes from the arms.

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