Classroom Resource

Creating and Notating Dances

Subject Area

Arts Education

Grade(s)

9, 10, 11, 12

Overview

Students will identify and incorporate the Language of Dance Movement Alphabet to increase dance literacy.  They will use the Movement Alphabet to notate an excerpt from a dance.  They will share with the class which movements they used to notate each dance. 

Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 09-12 - Dance

AE17.D.PRO.6

Compare and contrast recognized systems to document a dance using writing, symbols, or media technology.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.PRO.6

Vocabulary

  • prompts
  • improvisation
  • choreographic devices
  • choreography
  • choreographic structure
  • artistic statement
  • choreographic devices
  • choreography
  • choreographic devices

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 based on current events, sculptures, nature, or recognized works of art.
  • Use understanding of design principles (form/design, theme, repetition, balance, contrast, emphasis, and variety) to set spatial arrangements and formations.
  • Choose the best choreographic device to express returning to the main idea at the end of a dance.
  • Select two choreographic devices used within a selected choreographic structure to create a dance.
  • Create or use an appropriate rubric for self-evaluation and reflection.
  • Use learned technique in collaboration with peers to set spatial arrangements and formations.
  • Use movement motifs to develop dance phrases. Create dances using identifiable choreographic forms, such as ABA, canon, and theme and variation.
  • Research statements from accomplished choreographers concerning their choreography to develop an artistic statement appropriate for the student choreographer (i.e., Merce Cunningham, Jiri Kylian, Martha Graham, Trisha Brown).
  • Justify the use of circular formations and connected shapes during the choreographic process to convey community.
  • Use video (or other technology) or create graphs and floor plans to inform the process when developing choreography and understand staging.
  • Demonstrate the ability to use feedback selectively to revise choreography.
  • Identify a way to document a dance by experimenting with different methods of documentation.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 09-12 - Dance

AE17.D.PRO.16

Analyze the use of elements of dance in a variety of genres, styles, or cultural movement practices to communicate intent.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.PRO.16

Vocabulary

  • compare patterns
  • elements of dance
  • artistic expression
  • critique artistic expression
  • Evaluative Criteria

Essential Questions

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

Skills Examples

  • View a professional dance work, identify multiple patterns of movements and discuss their relationship in the context of the artistic intent.
  • Revise an existing dance phrase adding the elements of dance to enhance the phrase.
  • Working in small groups, evaluate peer choreography using the elements of dance, technique and or artistic expression as criteria. Apply constructive feedback.
  • Analyze and interpret recognized works by a variety of historical and contemporary choreographers.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 09-12 - Dance

AE17.D.AC.6

Develop a strategy to document choreography for a specific need.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.AC.6

Vocabulary

  • prompts
  • choreography
  • styles
  • genres
  • choreographic devices
  • artistic statement
  • choreography

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 understanding of visual art design principles (form/ design, theme, repetition, balance, contrast, emphasis, variety) to set spatial arrangements and formations.
  • Create choreography and evaluate the experiences and cultural connections that shaped choreographic choices.
  • Research the evolution within a specific genre of dance (i.e., the work of choreographers Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Mark Morris or choreographers Bill Robinson, Gregory Hines, and Savion Glover).
  • Interpret a choreographer's personal aesthetic criteria by observing several works by the choreographer.
  • Demonstrate strength, flexibility, and balance in the bends, extensions, turns, and jumps that are appropriate to the genre of dance being studied.
  • Create dances using choreographic devices, such as transposition, opposition, and accumulation.
  • Create dances using identifiable choreographic forms, such as ABA, canon, and theme and variation.
  • Create a written statement describing one's inspiration, intended audience, emphasis, and choices when creating a dance.
  • Create or use an appropriate rubric for self-evaluation and reflection.
  • Use video (or other technology) or create graphs and floor plans to inform the process when developing choreography and to understand staging.
  • Create or use an app to generate dance formations for staging.
  • Justify the use of a fast tempo to convey chaos or adagio movement with allegro musical accompaniment.
  • Use a recording device to video a performance at least three times from three different stage perspectives in order to evaluate the accuracy and quality of that performance.
  • Incorporate Labanotation symbols to document the use of breath in choreography in order to evaluate the use of breath.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 3: Refine and complete artistic work.
Arts Education (2017) Grade(s): 09-12 - Dance

AE17.D.AC.15

Analyze choreography and provide examples of recurring patterns of movement and relationships that create structure and generate meaning in a dance.

Unpacked Content

UP:AE17.D.AC.15

Vocabulary

  • Apply Evidence
  • genres
  • styles
  • culture movement practices
  • choreographic intent
  • Elements of Dance
  • artistic expression

Essential Questions

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

Skills Examples

  • Show motif development as a tool for creating theme and variation.
  • Show how ABA may indicate a cycle of life.
  • Select and analyze two different styles of dance and use genre specific terms to compare the movement patterns.
  • Reflect upon one's own choreographic choices and compare them with the choices of other choreographers who expressed the same theme.
  • Observe a performance of dance and analyze the ways that the elements of dance and principles of choreography were used to support a theme.
  • Analyzing the use and organization of elements, principles, skills, foundations, and technique.
  • Interpreting meaning based on personal experiences and knowledge.
  • Evaluating and justifying by using supportive evidence and aesthetic criteria.

Anchor Standards

Anchor Standard 7: Perceive and analyze artistic work.
Link to Resource
https://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/danhs-creatingandnotatingda…

CR Resource Type

Lesson/Unit Plan

Resource Provider

Colorado Department of Education
Accessibility
License

License Type

Custom

Custom License Type (URL)

http://www.cde.state.co.us/standardsandinstruction/samplecurriculumproject

Comments or Notes

Unit Storyboard

Approved Date

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