Classroom Resource

Human Body Systems Dance

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

6, 7

Overview

In this lesson, students will research and gather information about human body systems and functions. The students will explore creative movement. The students will examine the relationship between creative movement and the human body. The students will choreograph a series of dance phrases representing the human body systems and functions and then erform a choreographed dance for an audience.

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

AE17.D.6.3

Develop a dance study that supports artistic intent through exploration of choreographic devices and explain the goal or purpose of the dance.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.6.3

Vocabulary

  • prompts
  • movement vocabulary
  • artistic expression
  • movement vocabulary
  • choreography
  • utilize elements of dance
  • dance study
  • artistic intent
  • choreographic devices
  • structure
  • artistic criteria
  • dance study
  • concept, impact and inspiration for choreography
  • feedback and revise
  • notation

Essential Questions

EU: The elements of dance, dance structures, and choreographic devices serve as both a foundation and a departure point for choreographers.
EQ: What influences choice-making in creating choreography?

Skills Examples

  • Create a movement phrase and explore the movement to different sounds of music. Compare how the music changed the way the movement was performed.
  • Listen as the teacher plays different kinds of music. Create and perform movement that suits a particular piece of music. Then create and perform movement that contrasts with (does not suit) the music; discuss the difference.
  • Discuss the way that movements are suited to different social events (i.e., by comparing spectators doing the wave at a sporting event to students walking in pairs down the aisle at their graduation ceremony).
  • Implement practices such as fall and recover, pop and lock, contract and release into a movement phrase.
  • Create dances using choreographic devices, such as expansion, diminution, and reverse.
  • Choreograph a narrative dance that shows relationships, such as friendship.
  • Use inversion to create a dance about opposition.
  • Invent a simple system (such as a = jump, b = skip, and c = reach); then, mix up the order of the letters to explore the sequencing.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 6 - Dance

AE17.D.6.11

Apply basic anatomical knowledge and spatial awareness to prepare for warm-ups and dancing.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.6.11

Vocabulary

  • Spatial Design
  • Spatial Awareness
  • Dynamics
  • Dance phrase
  • sustained and percussive
  • Energy: bound and free-flowing
  • Embody
  • technical dance skills
  • anatomical knowledge
  • injury prevention and safety
  • problem solving
  • Performance etiquette
  • Production terminology
  • Production elements
  • Artistic intent

Essential Questions

EU: Dancers use the mind-body connection and develop the body as an instrument for artistry and artistic expression.
EQ: What must a dancer do to prepare the mind and body for artistic expression?

Skills Examples

  • Establish diverse pathways, levels, and patterns in space.
  • Convert inward focus to outward focus in an effort to project from the stage.
  • Demonstrate accented vs sustained movement by changing the music and performing a phrase with different quality.
  • Practice soutenu turns across the floor once with focus on an accented initiation, then with focus on a drawn out sustained ending point.
  • Practice changing the accented movement by repeating the same 8 count phrase with the accent moving from count 1, then count 2, and so on.
  • Use the practice of alignment, coordination, balance, core support, kinesthetic awareness, clarity of movement in dance phrases.
  • Discuss injury prevention and safety. Determine additional stretches or conditioning for meeting personal goals.
  • Design a group shape phrase: each member presents (teaches) 3 shapes using high, middle, low level. After presenting the group decides on an order. Next, use transitions to link shapes or series of shapes and incorporate at least 3 different pathways. Work out different ideas until reaching a successful solution.
  • Discuss and identify performance etiquette guidelines.
  • Use a variety of self-assessment methods for maintaining performance goals including journaling strengths and weaknesses, video assessment, journaling note, and feedback.
  • Discuss and identify production elements successfully used in several pieces crossing different genres of dance.
  • List, compare, and contrast qualities of production elements. Determine which would be more successful to intensify the artistic intent of a given or created piece of work. Present to the class and explain why certain elements were chosen.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 7 - Dance

AE17.D.7.4

Develop artistic criteria to choreograph a dance study that communicates personal or cultural meaning and justify how the artistic criteria serve to communicate the meaning of the dance.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.7.4

Vocabulary

  • choreography
  • prompts
  • codified movement
  • choreography
  • dance terminology
  • artistic intent
  • dance study
  • choreographic devices
  • artistic criteria
  • dance study

Essential Questions

EU: The elements of dance, dance structures, and choreographic devices serve as both a foundation and a departure point for choreographers.
EQ: What influences choice-making in creating choreography?

Skills Examples

  • Use Music, observed dance, literary forms, notation, natural phenomena, personal experience/ recall, current news, or social events to create movement.
  • Examine how the choreographic process parallels the writing process and how the characteristics of writing relate to the characteristics of dance.
  • Apply dance-related vocabulary/ terminology to compare and discuss the choices made by different choreographers as they sought to express the same theme.
  • Choose an emotion (such as happiness) and apply the elements of dance to perform movements that communicate the emotion to an audience.
  • Apply the elements of dance to perform movements that communicate the idea that they have just received a gift.
  • Draw at random pieces of paper on which devices have been written—draw one from a bowl of ideas, and one from a bowl of emotions (the bowls and papers having been prepared in advance by the teacher); then, perform movements in sequence to convey what is written on one's pieces of paper.
  • Explore the effect of variations in tempo by performing a dance three times; then, identify any parts that could be improved. Use this evaluation to differentiate between what needs more practice and what needs to be changed.
  • Discuss free-and-controlled-flow and sustained-and-percussive-energy when identifying and critiquing qualities of energy in a dance.
  • Examine Labanotation or Benesh movement notation.
  • Research Labanotation or Classical Ballet terminology.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 7 - Dance

AE17.D.7.11

Interpret knowledge of human anatomy to understand physical developmental stages in technical skills.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.7.11

Vocabulary

  • genre
  • styles
  • movement vocabulary
  • variations
  • use of energy
  • kinesthetic understanding of multiple genres or styles of dance
  • embody
  • healthy practices
  • alignment
  • kinesthetic awareness
  • performance goals and expectations
  • performance journal
  • production terminology

Essential Questions

EU: Dancers use the mind-body connection and develop the body as an instrument for artistry and artistic expression.
EQ: What must a dancer do to prepare the mind and body for artistic expression?

Skills Examples

  • Demonstrate proper execution of a Grande Allegro phrase.
  • Create a movement phrase (or practice a learned dance phrase) and manipulate timing to create 3 variations of the phrase using accumulation, repetition, augmentation and diminution to change the length of the phrase.
  • Identify descriptions of energy in requested movements a jazz walk should be free and accented, but ballet waltz should be lyrical and soft.
  • Maintain a food log for 4 days with each meal comparing levels of energy 30 minutes prior, also logging sleep practice. At the end of the week discuss which times energy was low and sluggish and how to make better choices to fuel life and activities.
  • Demonstrate functional alignment, coordination, balance, core support, kinesthetic awareness, clarity of movement, weight shifts, or flexibility/ range of motion in a variety of dance genres.
  • Identify muscular and skeletal components of proper alignment in an arabesque vs first position.
  • View live and recorded professional dancers and collaboratively develop group performance expectations based on information gained from observations.
  • Document rehearsal changes and feedback in a self-assessment journal or personal rehearsal journal.
  • View a professional dance with elaborate lighting or props. As a group, discuss and determine what changes to production elements would be needed to present the piece in a different setting and still keep the artistic intent. Multiple groups could watch and present a plan for different pieces then present findings to the class.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Link to Resource
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-reso…

CR Resource Type

Learning Activity

Resource Provider

The Kennedy Center
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License

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Custom License Type (URL)

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