Classroom Application Document – The Classroom Process – Dance
Standard 1.1 The Creative Process: All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art. / Grades:K-2
Strand A. Dance
Essential Questions / Enduring Understandings
How do underlying structures unconsciously guide the creation of art works?
Does art have boundaries? / Underlying structures in art can be found via analysis and inference.
Breaking accepted norms often give rise to new forms of artistic expression.
Content and Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) / Classroom Applications
Content
Original choreography and improvisation of movement sequences begins with basic understanding of the elements of dance.
Original movement is generated through improvisational skills and techniques. / Instructional Guidance
To assist in meeting these CPIs, students may:
- Focus on movement invention and the use of movement for narrative. Experiment with the four sub-categories of Effort identifiedin Laban Movement Studies as space. weight, time, and flow; each of which has two opposite polarities:
- Space: Direct / Indirect
- Weight: Strong / Light
- Time: Sudden / Sustained
- Flow: Bound / Free
- Experiment with the qualities of movement using the 8 effort actions: Float / Glide; Slash / Punch (Thrust); Dab/ Flick; and Wring/Press.
- Practice using movement to create narrative.
- Seek out expertise on the use of Laban movement principles to teach dance in the elementary grades through organizations such as the Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies Institute (LIMS).
- Participate in a “distance exchange” video conferencing residency in partnership with organizations such as the Language of Dance Center housed at the Lincoln Center in New York City or THEPERFORMANCE LAB™
CPI
1.1.2A.1
Identify the elements of dance in planned and improvised dance sequences
CPI
1.1.2.A.2
Use improvisation to discover new movement to fulfill the intent of the choreography. / Sample Assessments
To show evidence of meeting these CPIs, students may complete the following performance assessment:
Workings alone or in small groups, tell a story in movement that uses a children’s story as stimulus. Use all eight Effort Actions in the dance and incorporate changes in weight, time, and flow. Set the dance to a musical score. Perform the dance for classmates in a school setting and share the dance with other students virtually, through distance exchanges in partnership with the Language of Dance Center.
Resources
Standard 1.1 The Creative Process: All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art. / Grades:
3-5
Strand A. Dance
Essential Questions / Enduring Understandings
How do underlying structures unconsciously guide the creation of art works?
Does art have boundaries? / Underlying structures in art can be found via analysis and inference.
Breaking accepted norms often give rise to new forms of artistic expression.
Content and Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) / Classroom Applications
Content
Musical and non-musical forms of sound can affect meaning in choreography and improvisation.
Compositional works are distinguished by the use of various body movements and sources of initiation (i.e., central, peripheral, or transverse). / Instructional Guidance
To assist in meeting these CPIs, students may:
- Focus on the relationship between the sound and music to dance.
- View a variety of dances that incorporate sound or music in different ways (e.g., dances by Merce Cunningham with music and sound scores by John Cage; Jerome Robbins Monotones that incorporate silence; dances that incorporate music visualization by modern dance pioneers, such as Ruth St. Dennis; African and Afro-Caribbean dances whose dance steps correlate to drumming or employ body percussion as part of the dance; the use of dance bells in either American Indian or Caribbean dances; and others.
- Compare and contrast the use of weight centers, body patterning, balance, contrasting and complimentary shapes, and range of motion in modern dance, ballet, jazz, African and Afro-Caribbean dance.
- Seek out expertise in the various forms of dance, and view either live or online examples of dances from each of the forms using resources such as TenduTV, and the Smithsonian Folkways Collection.
CPI
1.1.5.A.3
Determine how accompaniment (such as sound, spoken text or silence) can affect choreography and improvisation.
CPI
1.1.5.A.4
Differentiate contrasting and complimentary shapes, shared weight centers, body parts, body patterning, balance, andrange of motion in compositions and performances. / Sample Assessments
To show evidence of meeting these CPIs, students may complete the following performance assessment:
Create a simple sound score for a dance using a combination of text or poetry, sampled sound, and original or remixed music using software such as Garage Band, FlexiMusic Kids,orJamStudio. Working in small groups, improvise to the score and choreograph a dance that incorporates contrasting and complimentary shapes, shared weight centers, independent use of body parts, unilateral and contra lateral body patterning, balance, andrange of motion through high, middle, and low space. Perform and digitally capture the dance for an audience of peers and post the dances on the school website
Resources
- http://www.folkways.si.edu/explore_folkways/video_asia_pacific.aspx
Standard 1.1 The Creative Process: All students will demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles that govern the creation of works of art in dance, music, theatre, and visual art. / Grades:
6-8 & 9-12
Strand A. Dance
Essential Questions / Enduring Understandings
How do underlying structures unconsciously guide the creation of art works?
Does art have boundaries? / Underlying structures in art can be found via analysis and inference.
Breaking accepted norms often give rise to new forms of artistic expression.
Content and Cumulative Progress Indicators (CPIs) / Classroom Applications
Content
Numerous formal choreographic structures can be used to develop the elements of dance in the creation of dance works.
Dance employs various themes and arts media to engage the viewer, develop meaning, and communicate emotions.
Creating master works in dance requires ability to comprehend, articulate, and manipulate time, space, and energy across and within a broad spectrum of choreographic structures and through the use of many choreographic devices.
Interpretation of dance is heavily reliant on its context. / Instructional Guidance
To assist in meeting these CPIs, students may:
- Focus on dances from around the world by connecting with students worldwide though Epals.com (e.g., Bar-Lev Junior High School in Kfar-Saba is a small town in Israel whose 8th grade students expressed an interest in sharing Israeli dances with their EPal school partners in an ongoing project; Denka, from a youth center in Ruse, Bulgaria has students who are different ages with English speaking ability who recently posted interest in an ongoing cultural exchange focusing on folkloric and modern dance; Kikaaya College School in Uganda, East Africa, a secondary school with students from 14 –19 years of age is currently looking for a partner school from any part of the world which has an interest in student exchanges centering on Music, Dance and Dramawith “global dimensions”).
- Compare dance traditions through interactive dialogue and by sharing videos of indigenous dances posted by students on the web and through other online video resources.
- Seek out expertise about world dance forms from professional dancers and musicians.
- Correspond with past participants of NYU Steinhardt’s School of Dance education advanced dance practicum in Kampala, Uganda on global perspectives related to dance. (Students from this program take classes in traditional Ugandan dance, teaching methodologies, and Ugandan school structures at Makerere University. They also work with children from the refugee camp in Gulu at the Royal Ballet and Modern Dance School, teaching and choreographing).
- Discuss the origins and traditions behind the dances of each home country through EPal and/or other web-based threaded conversations by asking questions such as: Who are the dances performed by? What is their function? How old is the tradition? How is dance passed on from generation to generation?
CPI
1.1.8.A.1
Interpret the choreographic structures of contrast and transition, the process of reordering and chance, and the structures of AB, ABA, canon, call and response, and narrative.
CPI
1.1.8.A.3
Examine how dance compositions are influenced by various social themes and arts media (e.g., dance for camera, interactive, telematics).
CPI
1.1.12.A.1
Articulate understanding of choreographic structures or forms (e.g., palindrome, theme and variation, rondo, retrograde, inversion, narrative, and accumulation) in master works of dance.
CPI
1.1.12.A.3
Analyze issues of gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, politics, age, and physical conditioning in relation to dance performances. / Sample Assessments
To show evidence of meeting these CPIs, students may complete the following performance assessment:
Collaborate with EPal peers to create a dance in the style of the indigenous dance form of the home country (e.g., Israeli folk, Bulgarian folk, Ugandan dance).
Working in small groups, create a modern dance to share with Epals that addresses global dimensions, such as global citizenship, conflict resolution, diversity, human rights, interdependence, social justice, values, perceptions or sustainable development. Perform both dances for a group of live and virtual (EPal) peers, and compare and contrast the two in an interactive web-based discussion.
Resources
- http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/study_abroad/programs/Dance_Uganda
- http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/photo_essays/uganda
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