Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Storytelling Through Dance

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5

Overview

In this lesson, students will pantomime a variety of scenarios.  They will analyze The Nutcracker and identify how the characters tell a story through dance.  They will re-enact a scene from The Nutcracker. Students will emotionally and physically tell a story through dance and pantomime.

    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Dance

    AE17.D.3.17

    Identify specific context cues from movement that relate to the main idea of the dance using basic dance terminology.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.D.3.17

    Vocabulary

    • Identify patterns of movement to improve dance phrase.
    • Compare and contrast a variety of dance genres or styles.
    • Utilize dance terminology.
    • Identify movement relating to main idea.
    • Identify qualities of movement in genre: specific, style, or cultural dance.

    Essential Questions

    EU: Dance is interpreted by considering intent, meaning, and artistic expression as communicated through the use of body, elements of dance, dance technique, dance structure, and context.
    EQ: How is dance interpreted?

    Skills Examples

    • Explore and perform a variety of canons that include patterns of movement.
    • Identify recurring movements in Swan Lake.
    • Compare and contrast ballet and tap dance styles, focusing on the quality of movement in each style.
    • Compare and contrast modern dance and ballet, focusing on contract with the floor.
    • Create a dance phrase that tells a popular nursery rhyme and identify the movements using simple dance terminology.
    • Interpret a dance as sad because all of the movements are heavy and sustained.
    • View a live or recorded cultural dance and list the different qualities of movement [i.e., slash, punch, float, sink (Labon efforts)].
    • Discuss how ballet uses bound movements of the torso with free movements performed by the arms and legs.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Dance

    AE17.D.4.15

    Identify patterns of movement that illustrate style or intent in dance works.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.D.4.15

    Vocabulary

    • Identify patterns of movement illustrating style or intent.
    • Genre
    • Style
    • Cultural Movement Practices

    Essential Questions

    EU: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
    EQ: How is dance understood?

    Skills Examples

    • View a recorded dance work and identify patterns of movement and hypothesis the choreographer's intent.
    • View the rooftop dance in Mary Poppins and discuss how the repeated movements create style.
    • Compare the different modern dance techniques such as Martha Graham and Isadora Duncan.
    • List the differences ballet adagio and ballet allegro.
    • List the differences in two styles of hip-hop dance.
    • Select a section of a popular children's book, create a short dance phrase that tells the story of the section and explain how the movements helps the audience understand the story.
    • Explain why facial expressions are essential in Indian Classical dance.
    • Discuss how in some African dance movements relate to physical labor.
    • Explore and discuss ballet pantomime gestures.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
    Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Dance

    AE17.D.5.17

    Explain how the movements in a dance communicate the main idea of a dance using basic dance terminology.

    Unpacked Content

    UP:AE17.D.5.17

    Vocabulary

    • Describe/ demonstrate recurring movement phrases and discuss why they are used in dance.
    • Identify qualities of movement that enhance the artistic intent of a dance in a specific style or cultural practice.
    • Use dance terminology to describe how certain movements help tell a story in a dance.
    • Create criteria that makes a dance artistic and meaningful. Relate the criteria to the elements of dance.

    Essential Questions

    EU: Dance is interpreted by considering intent, meaning, and artistic expression as communicated through the use of body, elements of dance, dance technique, dance structure, and context.
    EQ: How is dance interpreted?

    Skills Examples

    • Discuss how the motion of rowing a boat could be used in a dance about boats or traveling by water.
    • Perform a dance phrase exemplifying a mother rocking her baby multiple times in a dance to communicate a nurturing environment.
    • View Jose Limon's There is a Time with its recurring circles in a relation to the cycles of time.
    • Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast a dance that the students are familiar with and a dance that are not familiar (i.e., cupid shuffle and the African Highlife).
    • Watch a clip from the ballet Sleeping Beauty and discuss what movements are performed that tell the audience she falls asleep.
    • Discuss as a class what qualities make a good dance, create a class rubric and use the rubric to evaluate a professional dance work.

    Anchor Standards

    Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
    Link to Resource

    CR Resource Type

    Lesson/Unit Plan

    Resource Provider

    Other

    Resource Provider other

    The Kennedy Center
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    License

    License Type

    CUSTOM
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