The easiest way to make a puppet dance is to work with marionettes.
Puppets can entertain people of all ages, whether in the park at a Punch and Judy show or at home for family entertainment. As you learn more about your puppets, however, you might wish to have them dance, whether to music or on their own. The easiest way to do this and make it look realistic is to use a marionette, or a doll controlled by strings. By using a marionette, you can work your puppet in a way that will make it look like it is dancing.
Instructions
1. Make your puppet walk. Before your puppet can dance, it must walk. Take the airplane controller, or the T-shaped device that holds the puppet's strings, in one hand. Tilt your hand and lift one side of it up, letting the other side lower. Reverse this to complete the step by twisting the crossbar; this lowers the puppet's first foot, raising the second.
2. Add a wave to the puppet's walk. Identify the string that controls the puppet's hand and pull it upward. Similarly, you can put both hand lines through the crossbar to lift them at once. The amount of pressure you put on the string determines how high the puppet's hands go, just as it determined how high it walked in the previous step.
3. Combine the two movements. To make your puppet dance, you need to make it walk and wave at the same time in time to the music. Hold the controller with one hand from above, with your fingers curled around it. With your other hand, take hold of the hand control line, or the strings you used to make the puppet wave. With the controller hand, lift one side up and down in rhythm, preferably with the music if you have chosen to play it. At the same time, pull the hand line (or lines, if you want the puppet to lift both hands at the same time) up and down. You can also alternate hand lines to give your puppet a more complicated movement.
