Classroom Resource

Céilí­s: Exploring Irish Folk Dance

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5

Overview

Students will research Ireland and Irish culture, including traditional dance and music. They will work in groups to choreograph a Céilís to traditional Irish music. 

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

AE17.D.3.4

Create a dance phrase that communicates an idea or feeling and discuss the effect of the movement choices.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.3.4

Vocabulary

  • prompts
  • use elements of dance
  • movement problem
  • choreographic devices
  • structure
  • dance phrase
  • concept and inspirations for choreography
  • feedback and revision
  • dance study
  • notation
  • dance phrase

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 a variety of prompts for inspiration (i.e., music/ sound, text, objects, images, notation, observed dance experiences).
  • Find a way to travel across the floor only using a low level.
  • Select a choreographic device and create a dance phrase (i.e., retrograde, scramble/ deconstruct, transposition, inversion, or fragment).
  • Create a short movement phrase and perform with "sad" emotion then "happy" emotion. Discuss how the movement changed.
  • Discuss and use peer feedback or instructor feedback.
  • Create a floor map, using different colors for different levels of movement.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Dance

AE17.D.3.20

Present research about a key aspect of a dance in oral, written, or movement form.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.3.20

Vocabulary

  • Elements of dance
  • Compare dance relationships to non-dance relationships.
  • Connect dance to written and oral skills.
  • Relate dance to culture, society, and community characteristics and values.
  • Elements of dance
  • Cultural Movement Practices
  • Dance Literacy

Essential Questions

EU: As dance is experienced, all personal experiences, knowledge, and context are integrated and synthesized to interpret meaning.
EQ: How does dance deepen our understanding of ourselves, other knowledge, and events around us?

Skills Examples

  • Identify appropriate/ inappropriate touch in a dance and compare to other context such as working with friends in a school setting or with siblings at home.
  • Identify the beginning, middle, and end of compositions of dance and music.
  • Isolate and move fractional sections of the body (half, quarter, and whole).
  • Identify purposes of dance, for instance, to tell a story, build community, demonstrate a ritual, experience social interactions, or showcase movement for its own sake.
  • Identify smooth and/or sharp movement within a folk dance.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 10: Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Dance

AE17.D.4.1

Identify ideas for choreography generated from a variety of prompts and source materials.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.4.1

Vocabulary

  • choreography
  • prompts
  • movement problem
  • elements of dance
  • choreographic devices
  • dance study
  • artistic intent
  • dance phrase

Essential Questions

EU: Choreographers use a variety of sources as inspiration and transform concepts and ideas into movement for artistic expression.
EQ: Where do choreographers get ideas for dances?

Skills Examples

  • Use music, sound, text, objects, images, notation, observed dance, or experiences to create a dance phrase.
  • Perform a dance phrase using three different levels.
  • Perform a dance phrase that alters the timing of the movement.
  • Create a trio from a solo by performing movements in a three-part canon.
  • Create a dance based on the maid idea of "water" or "fire" and explain how the movement choices that were made express your topic.
  • After performing short dance study, reflect on possible changes that could have been made and use peer feedback to revise movement.
  • Draw a formation or pathway of dancers using symbols.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 1: Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Dance

AE17.D.4.4

Create a dance study that expresses and communicates a main idea and discuss the reasons for the movement choices.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.4.4

Vocabulary

  • choreography
  • prompts
  • movement problem
  • elements of dance
  • choreographic devices
  • dance study
  • artistic intent
  • dance phrase

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, sound, text, objects, images, notation, observed dance, or experiences to create a dance phrase.
  • Perform a dance phrase using three different levels.
  • Perform a dance phrase that alters the timing of the movement.
  • Create a trio from a solo by performing movements in a three-part canon.
  • Create a dance based on the maid idea of "water" or "fire" and explain how the movement choices that were made express your topic.
  • After performing short dance study, reflect on possible changes that could have been made and use peer feedback to revise movement.
  • Draw a formation or pathway of dancers using symbols.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 2: Organize and develop artistic ideas and work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Dance

AE17.D.5.16

Compare and contrast the qualities of style used in a dance from one’s own personal cultural practice to a style from a different cultural movement practice.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.5.16

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

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

AE17.D.5.18

Define qualities of dance that make a dance artistic and meaningful and relate them to the elements of dance in genres, styles, or cultural movement practices.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.5.18

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: Criteria for evaluating dance vary across genres, styles, and cultures.
EQ: What criteria are used to evaluate dance?

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 9: Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work.
Link to Resource
https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-reso…

CR Resource Type

Learning Activity

Resource Provider

The Kennedy Center
Accessibility
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

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

Approved Date

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