LESSON 3: DANCE
Overview:Students will create and perform a dance or series of movements one to
two minutes in length. Their dance should support or enhance the expressive
qualities of the theater production and accompany the music students selected to
perform.
Outcomes:
1) Students will create word lists (at least 5 words) that express feelings, attitudes,
activities and ideas that relate to the theater production.
2) Students will create idea webs of related words, images and symbols that connect
to the original word list.
3) Students will work together to create a group web with a strong main idea that
relates to and enhances the theater production.
4) Students will select movements that convey the idea or purpose of the group's
dance, ultimately determining what kind of dance the group will do.
Materials Needed
Disciplinary Concepts
Vocabulary
Preparation
Assessment
Evaluation
Materials Needed:
paper/pencil
space (open space for most of the work). You may move desks, etc.
Disciplinary Concepts:
1)Students develop an appreciation of different communities (similarities and
differences) and how these are expressed through the arts.
2)There are many ways to express and communicate ideas and movement. Dance
is one of these ways.
3)There is no oneor rightway to express an idea through movement.
4)When working in a group to communicate the aspects of their culture students
will use other disciplinary concepts which will help the creating process go
smoothly and help them to create something they will be proud of.
Vocabulary:
movement
gesture
isolations
choreographer
choreographer's statement
energy
Preparation:
1) Discuss with students how dance and/or movement can be used to enhance or
enrich the theater production.
2) Discuss the history and purpose of dance with the students. Ask students to
speculate about how dance may have been used in the past and how dance is used
now. Have students show how they dance,what dances they know, etc.
3) Utilizing the theater production groups, ask students to discuss similarities and
differences in communities, regions, areas, states and countries and how dance
could be used to convey meaning to the theater production. Could they express
what they have on paper about their community through dance/movement?
Does their community have a dance already that helps to communicate ideas
about their community? If so, what does it look like?
4) Ask students to plan a dance by answering the questions from thePlanning the
Dance Notesfound in the International Telecommunication Union Arts and
Technology Arts Creativity, Performance, and Expression performance assessment
package.
5) Have students try out movements as they work to answer the questions, "What,
Who, Where, When and How?"
6) When everyone in the group has completed the answers to the questions,
combine and select the answers that best fit the intent of your theater production.
7) Ask groups to share their ideas, gathering feedback and adjusting their combined
ideas for main idea, the meaning of the dance and the movements selected and
the characters that will be in the dance.
8) Have students create their dance in three parts: beginning, middle and end.
Ask students to experiment withdifferent combinations of movements as they
create the structure of the dance. Ask groups to give each other feedback about
what their dance communicates.
9) As students create the beginning, middle and end of their dance performance,ask
each individual to make notes and/or sketches about how they are using the
elements of dance,including:
a) basic locomotor steps
b) gesture
c) shapes
d) isolations
10) Ask students in each group to develop and refine their dance, obtaining feedback
making refinements based on feedback and performing another draft. Repeat
this cycle until the group is satisfied that the dance communicates the message
and is interesting and engaging.
11) Have each member of the group write a choreographer's statement about their
dance that includes a title, the theme/purpose of the dance and brief examples
of how the group used the elements of dance in deliberate ways to communicate
ideas or purpose related to the theater production.
12) Have each member of the group share their individual choreographer's
statement and combine and select into one group choreographer's statement.
13)Ask each group to perform their dance.
14) Ask students to reflect on the work, answering questions about strengths and
weaknesses of the performance, what changes in the sequence of movements
need to be made and how these changes affect how the dance communicates its
idea or purpose. Ask students to write comments about how their ideas and
movements changed as they practiced the dance. Ask students to write about the
problems they encountered and how they worked to solve the problems.
Assessment:
1) Cooperative group learning techniques: Have students separate into small groups
and discuss and define ways to communicate ideas through dance. Move from
table to table and ask students for input.
2) Snapshot: Through discussion, randomly pick students to check for understand-
ing of history and vocabulary of dance.
3) Randomly choose students to demonstrate their dance movements as they
develop their ideas.
4) Randomly check student plans and ask for an explanation of the process used
to develop their idea.
Evaluation:
Did students:
1) Clearly describe how they used dance elements in movement decisions?
2) Clearly describe how the dance elements affected the meaning of the dance?
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