The Art and Depiction of Dance, Beginning

Learning Resource Type

Classroom Resource

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

3, 4, 5

Overview

Students will use a sketchbook to draw lines of ballet dancers.  They will rehearse ballet steps.  

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

AE17.D.3.6

Illustrate directions or spatial pathways in a dance phrase by drawing a picture map or using a symbol.

UP:AE17.D.3.6

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: Choreographers analyze, evaluate, refine, and document their work to communicate meaning.
EQ: How do choreographers use self-reflection, feedback from others, and documentation to improve the quality of their work?

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 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 3 - Dance

AE17.D.3.10

Replicate body shapes, movements, qualities, and movement patterns in a dance sequence with awareness of body alignment.

UP:AE17.D.3.10

Vocabulary

  • Space
  • Positive and Negative space
  • Tempo/ Tempi
  • Rhythm
  • Energy
  • Using Intent
  • Embody
  • Alignment
  • Dance phrase
  • Stage directions
  • Performance Space
  • Production elements

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

  • Observe, identify and explore the idea of positive and negative space with a partner, using still shape for partner 1, exploration (free movement) for partner 2.
  • Identify varied tempi and rhythms in music.
  • Explore moving with and against tempos and rhythms in music or sound stimuli.
    • Practice moving in slow motion during a fast song.
  • Identify and apply appropriate movement qualities to vary the intended effect from one movement to another.
    • Add force to a leap to communicate anger; change a reach by making it softer and slower to communicate gentleness.
  • Identify proper body alignment principles and apply them when practicing dance sequencing (i.e., Engaging the core, shoulders down and back, neck long, standing tall and grounded, energy pushing out through the floor).
  • Demonstrate movement that coordinates with a partner or group that changes level, direction or pathway design while maintaining safety and personal space (i.e., chasse in a circle holding hands).
  • Identify constructive feedback and apply corrections to the practice of group dance.
  • Discuss and revise constructive feedback phrases for peer feedback.
  • Demonstrate use of stage direction in locomotor and non-locomotor movement. Move from downstage right to upstage left.
  • Utilize costumes, props, music, scenery, lighting or media for a dance performed for an audience in a designated specific performance space.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 4 - Dance

AE17.D.4.6

Illustrate the relationship between two or more dancers in a dance phrase by drawing a picture or using symbols.

UP:AE17.D.4.6

Vocabulary

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

Essential Questions

EU: Choreographers analyze, evaluate, refine, and document their work to communicate meaning.
EQ: How do choreographers use self-reflection, feedback from others, and documentation to improve the quality of their work?

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 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Dance

AE17.D.5.6

Illustrate changes in a dance sequence through media technology, written symbols, or words.

UP:AE17.D.5.6

Vocabulary

  • choreography
  • prompts
  • movement problems
  • choreography
  • elements of dance
  • choreographic devices
  • structure
  • codified movement
  • style
  • dance study
  • concept and inspiration for choreography
  • dance study
  • feedback and revise
  • notate

Essential Questions

EU: Choreographers analyze, evaluate, refine, and document their work to communicate meaning.
EQ: How do choreographers use self-reflection, feedback from others, and documentation to improve the quality of their work?

Skills Examples

  • Create movement from spoken word, text, poetry, images, or nature.
  • Create a dance with a beginning, middle, and end that includes zigzag pathways and changes in energy.
  • Manipulate movement by utilizing choreographic devices such as retrograde, mirroring, or transposition.
  • Utilize ballet movement to create a story.
  • At the end of a dance study, reflect in a journal what changes were made during the process, why were they made, and what was the end result.
  • Record changes in choreography in a dance journal.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 5 - Dance

AE17.D.5.10

Demonstrate a series of dance phrases using fundamental dance skills.

UP:AE17.D.5.10

Vocabulary

  • Space: shapes and pathways
  • dance phrase
  • movement phrase
  • rhythm
  • explore
  • core to distal movement initiation
  • Embody
  • safe practices and injury prevention
  • performance goals
  • alternate performance venue
  • production elements

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

  • Create a movement sequence that involves still shapes in various levels along with moving shapes through jumping, rolling or other dynamic movement (i.e., X-jump, C-jump, floor roll).
  • Improv with a call prompt "bound" and other associated words with focus on what body part is starting the movement. Follow with "free" and other associated words with focus on the initiation point. Only explore each for a short period and discuss. Could be done in small groups and they can teach the movement created, or discussed as a class as part of a larger improv.
  • Practice step touch, pivot turn, three-step turn, and clapping.
  • Discuss ways to promote muscular strength, endurance, and injury prevention. Promote healthful eating and good nutrition as proper food for the body.
  • Keep an ongoing list of personal dance goals.
  • Identify ways to improve performance qualities and collaborate with peer group to establish a list of group goals to apply to practice for a dance.
  • Perform a dance in two different locations, such as an auditorium and outdoor venue.
  • Incorporate a fog machine, strobe light, and backlit cyclorama to enhance an eerie dance.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 5: Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation.

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

Other

License Type

CUSTOM

Resource Provider other

J. Paul Getty Museum
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