Swoop, Lift, and Leap to the Lore

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Arts Education
English Language Arts

Grade(s)

6, 7, 8

Overview

In this lesson, students will identify how animals and elements of nature are represented by dancers. They will read poetry by Indigenous and Native Peoples of North America.  Using basic locomotor movement, students will choreograph and perform a dance from a poem.    

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Dance

AE17.D.6.15

Determine meaning or artistic intent from the patterns of movement in a dance work.

UP:AE17.D.6.15

Vocabulary

  • artistic intent
  • genre-specific terminology
  • cultural movement practices
  • artistic expression
  • elements of dance

Essential Questions

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

Skills Examples

  • Read the artistic statement from a professional dance work before viewing. After viewing, discuss as a class what recurring movements were performed and how it contributed to the artistic intent.
  • Observe and reflect on the Rippling back and forth actions in the body parts and spatial design in Alvin Ailey's Wade in the Water.
  • Identify the elements of dance in a specific dance style or culture movement practice.
  • Document in writing a phrase of choreography and underline the elements of dance.
  • Discuss how the elements of dance help to communicate intent.
  • Create a short movement phrase that tells a story using the elements of dance.
  • Identify characteristics in ballet, tap and jazz dance styles and discuss how the qualities contribute to the artistic intent.

Anchor Standards

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

AE17.D.7.17

Explain how the artistic expression of various dances is achieved through the elements of dance technique, context, and production elements.

UP:AE17.D.7.17

Vocabulary

  • Compare movement patterns' relationships to dance.
  • Genre-specific terminology
  • Cultural movement practices
  • Dance Technique
  • Production elements
  • Context Cues
  • artistic criteria
  • Artistic Intent
  • Genre

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

  • Compare the minimalism and repetition used in Laura Dean's Infinity in relation to Petipa's Entrance of the Shades in La Bayadere.
  • Use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the elements of dance in two different dance styles or genres.
  • Brainstorm props, lighting design and costuming for a dance.
  • Discuss what style of dance would be best suited for a dance about war.
  • Collaborate to create a rubric to identify the elements of dance used to create intent.
  • Articulate the differences between works by different choreographers by referencing their historical or cultural contexts.

Anchor Standards

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

AE17.D.8.17

Observe a dance and explain how artistic expression is achieved through relationships among the elements of dance, use of body, dance technique, and context, and provide evidence to support your interpretation using genre-specific dance terminology.

UP:AE17.D.8.17

Vocabulary

  • Describe and perform recurring patterns of movement.
  • genre-specific terminology
  • elements of dance
  • genres
  • styles
  • culture movement practice
  • artistic expression relationships
  • Evaluate choreography using artistic criteria.

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

  • Improvise a short dance phrase that can be repeated and describe how it is related to the context of a dance and artistic intent.
  • Sustain the developpe in an adagio to extend the classical line.
  • Utilize plie to perform a hip hop skill.
  • Observe Alwin Nikolais's Noumenon and discuss how the movement, costuming, lighting, and sound score created intent for the choreography.
  • Write a critique on an observed dance work using an established outline of topics to cover.
  • Consider the use of musical form as patterns to express ideas, such as canon to express a fear that finds some relief but just keeps returning, or motif and development to express a nagging feeling that won't go away, and each time it comes back it gets worse. Patterns of movement by nature may represent ideas for the artistic intent.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 8: Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work.
ELA21.6.3
ELA21.7.3
ELA21.8.3

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

The Kennedy Center

License Type

Custom
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-reso…

Custom License Type (URL)

https://www.kennedy-center.org/terms-conditions/

Accessibility

Text Resources: Content is organized under headings and subheadings

Approved Date

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