Content Standard: Artistic
creativity, performance, and expression
Level: Intermediate
Specific Statement(s) from the Standard:
C. in dance, demonstrate characteristic dance styles
from more than one form or tradition; observe and discuss how
dances are similar in terms of elements of dance; demonstrate
more than one solution for creative movement problems; and use
basic movements to create and perform a sequence with a beginning,
middle, and end, with or without music
Product(s):
- Dance planning notes
- Guiding Questions for Creating Dance (if done individually)
- Dance performance
- Choreographer's Statement
- Dance evaluation
Task Description:
Overview: You will create
and perform a dance or series of movements that is 1 to 2 minutes
in length. The dance should support or enhance the expressive
qualities of your theater production. You may create your dance
to accompany the music you have selected to perform or you may
create a dance for a scene without music. You will make notes
and sketches to record your progress. Keep your notes in your
theater production file folder.
Planning your dance(s):
1. Your teacher will lead your class or direct your
theater group to brainstorm ideas to communicate in dance that
might enhance or support a theater production. Collect and organize
your notes and sketches in your theater production file folder.
Create word lists in categories like the ones listed
with examples below. Each theater production group should brainstorm
words and examples that will fit their theater production.
- feelings -- joy, anger, disappointment
- attitudes -- helpfulness, guilt, superiority
- activities -- traveling, cooking, picking flowers
- ideas -- nature, work, colors, solitude, togetherness
Create idea webs. Working individually, copy at least
5 words that interest you. For each word, create a web of related
words and symbols. Include some movement words and images. Add
as many words and images as you can. Talk about the ideas that
you get from your completed webs with other members of your group.
As a group select one or two webs that gives you the most promising ideas for creating a dance or sequence of movements to enhance or support your theater production. Develop the web(s) further by adding new words and taking words from other members' webs. Place your five individual webs in your theater production file folder.
When you have developed a group web(s) that you think
has a strong main idea and numerous related ideas, including movement
words, discuss your web with at least one other theater production
group. You may decide to add more words and images to your web(s)
after this discussion. Conference with your teacher when you are
satisfied with your group's web(s).
Using your completed web(s), discuss the main purpose
of your dance and explain what your dance is about and how it
will add to your theater production. Take notes as you discuss.
When your group has enough information to briefly identify what
your dance is about and how it will enhance your production, your
teacher will direct your group to create a written or oral description
of your group's dance(s), which you will share with your classmates
or at least one other theater production group. Place your individual
notes for the group's oral or written description in your individual
theater production file folder.
Selecting movements:
2. Select movements that convey the idea or purpose
of your group's dance(s). In this part of the planning, you will
determine what kind of dance you will do. Experiment with different
kinds of movements and different ways to create movements.
Ask and answer the questions (who, what, where,
when, why, and how) to start thinking about the kinds
of movements that will best convey the purpose and intent of your
dance(s). Use these sample questions to get started:
What is the dance about? What happens in the dance? What messages will be carried by the dance? What kinds of movements are needed to communicate the messages?
Who is the dance about? Who is (are) the dancer(s)? What parts of the body should be involved?
Where is the action taking place? What spaces and how much space will the dance use? What directions does the dancer(s) travel? What are the pathways?
When are the various actions of the dance happening (beginning, middle, end)? What time elements are in the dance? Does the dance have fast and slow action? What is the pattern of beats in the dance?
How does the dancer(s)
move? What actions must the body take? Is there tension, force?
What kind of energy makes the dance (tension, force, weight, and
flow)?
Try out movements as you work to answer the questions.
Use some ideas and movements you worked through earlier in movement
workshops and dance demonstrations.
Record answers to the questions in words and pictures
to show your thinking, and illustrate the movements that might
work well in your dance and for each dancer in the dance.
When everyone in your group has completed the answers
to the questions, combine and select the answers that best fit
the intent of your theater production. Place your individual answers
in your theater production file folder. When your group is satisfied
that the combined ideas for movement, the purpose and intent of
your dance will enhance or support your theater production, conference
with at least one other theater production group to get feedback
about your main idea, the meaning of the dance and the movements
you have selected, and the characters that will be in the dance.
Your group may adjust their work based on this feedback. Conference
with your teacher. Once you have clarified the main idea, the
meaning of the dance, and the movements that communicate your
idea, you will put the movements together to actually create the
dance(s).
Creating your dance:
3. Create your dance(s) in three parts: beginning,
middle, and end. Experiment with different combinations of movements
as you create the structure of your dance. Have different group
members experiment with several different combinations of movements.
Ask others to observe your work in progress and to give you feedback
about what the dance communicates. Use these questions to guide
your creation. Record your notes and keep them in your theater
production file folder.
Guiding Questions for Creating Dance
Your group must answer these questions for each
dancer in a scene. Each member of the group may choose one dancer
or you may do all the dancers in the scene. Your teacher will
direct you.
Beginning: How will the
dance begin? What is the first thing that the dancer's body must
do? What the first thing you want observers to notice about the
dancer's body, movements, the space? What might observers think
the moment the dance begins? What ideas might they be forming
about the dancer, the theme, the movement?
Middle: What will happen
as the dance moves along? How will the theme, mood, or story be
developed by the movement? What must the dancer's body do? What
are the patterns of actions that observers will see? What patterns
must be repeated to best convey the purpose?
End: How will the dance
end? How is the action resolved? What makes it clear that the
dance is over? What must the dancer's body do? What image will
be left in the observer's mind at the end of the dance?
As you build each part, make notes and/or sketches about how you are using the elements of dance. Use words and/or pictures to describe:
- the energy--the kinds of tension, weight, force, and flow in each part of the dance.
- how the dancer moves through time--the duration, speed, beat, tempo, accent, and rhythmic patterns in each part of the dance.
- how the dancer moves through space--place,
size, level, directions, pathways, plane, and focus in each part
of the dance.
Developing and refining the dance:
4. Develop and practice a first draft of the dance.
Begin a cycle of practicing the dance, performing for observers
(other theater production groups), obtaining feedback, making
refinements based on the feedback, and performing another draft.
The feedback from other theater production groups and your teacher
should give you clues about how the structure and elements of
your dance communicate your purpose. Repeat the cycle until your
group is satisfied that the dance(s) communicate(s) the message
and is/are interesting and engaging for you and observers.
Record the sequence of movements in the dance using
words and/or pictures.
Rehearsing the final draft of the dance:
5. At this point, all major adjustments have been
made and your group is rehearsing to ensure complete knowledge
of the dance and an expert performance during your theater production.
Ask other theater production groups to give you feedback about
your final draft.
Each member of your group should write a choreographer's statement. The statement must include the following:
- title of the dance
- theme or purpose of the dance
- brief examples of how you use the elements of dance in deliberate ways to communicate your ideas or purpose.
When each member has created a title and developed
brief examples of use of dance elements, combine and select into
one group choreographer's statement. Place your individual choreographer's
statement in your theater production file folder.
Perform and evaluate the dance:
6. You will perform your dance in the theater production your group has created. After the production, evaluate your dance, answering the following questions about your creative process and the dance you created:
a. What do you like about your dance? List the strengths of your dance.
b. What would you change about the dance or the sequence of movements? How would the changes affect how the dance communicates the idea or purpose of the dance?
c. How did your ideas and movements change as you
practiced the dance? Give examples of the problems you encountered
and how you worked to solve these problems.
Ask another group member to edit your final evaluation
and place a final copy in your production file folder.
Special Notes:
1. To achieve the dance portion of the Artistic Creativity,
Performance and Expression standard, the student will need complete
other tasks before creating a dance for the theater production.
Those tasks will meet the other specifications of the standard
and prepare the student to do the work required in this task.
Tasks which will complete the work required for the dance portion
of the standard can be found in the Intermediate Artistic Creativity,
Performance and Expression package Making and Performing Dance,
which is available on the Graduation Standards Web site of the
Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning.
2. Students must be assessed on all aspects of the
dance standard individually. Therefore, only those individually
observable portions of this task appear on the checklist.