Dance: Grades 6, 7, 8

Dance

Students will learn and develop skills and meet technical demands unique to dance, music, theatre/drama and visual arts.

Use dance, music, theatre/drama and visual arts to express ideas.

Integrate understanding of visual and performing arts by seeking connections and parallels among arts disciplines as well as other content areas.

Demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of the creative process.

Observe, discuss, analyze, and make critical judgments about artistic works.

Show increased awareness of diverse peoples and cultures through visual and performing arts.

Demonstrate knowledge about how technology and invention have historically influenced artists and offered new possibilities for expression.

Contribute to communities by sharing expertise in dance, music, theatre/drama and visual arts and by participating in the activities of cultural institutions.

Demonstrate kinesthetic awareness.

Identify and demonstrate the elements of space, time and energy. Grades 6-8 performance standards:

Use the elements of movement to express imaginative, literary and personal themes. Grades 6-8 performance standards

Explore connections between dance and other arts disciplines.

Explore connections between dance and other content areas.

Understand and apply choreographic principles, processes and structures.

Develop and use vocabulary that is unique to dance.

Develop knowledge and understanding of human diversity through dance.

Investigate the role of dance in historical and contemporary cultures.

Expand dance horizons through the use of technology

Share dance abilities and knowledge with the community through formal and informal dance presentations.

Participate in community dance events

Identify major muscles and bones of the body and demonstrate appropriate skeletal alignment, balance, flexibility and strength.

Create and perform original sequences that demonstrate knowledge of locomotor and non-locomotor movements.

Demonstrate and describe shapes and designs (using appropriate vocabulary) made individually and in complementary relationships with others.

Create, memorize and perform movement studies for peers, which utilize spatial patterns, individually and in groups.

Identify the vocabulary of time (speed, rhythmic pattern, stillness, duration) and apply the concepts with increasing complexity.

Demonstrate a broader range of movement qualities with respect to energy (e.g., sharp, smooth, shaky, sudden, sustained, swinging, twisting, collapsing and percussive).

Use improvisation to explore, discover and create movement phrases based on emotions, memories or personal stories.

Choose from a variety of movements to create movement studies that accurately communicate the intention of an experience, idea, theme or story.

Create a dance project that integrates two or more arts disciplines (e.g., dance and art relating concepts of line or pattern to both disciplines).

Use dance to illustrate the movement that is inherent in other content areas.

Create a dance project that integrates other subject matter (e.g., relationships, current events, social issues, nature, literature, history, environmental themes).

Create movement sequences that explore the choreographic principles of unity, variety, contrast, repetition, harmony, abstraction, emphasis and balance.

Choreograph using a variety of compositional forms (e.g., ABA, canon, rondo, chance dance and narrative).

Observe choreography (live or recorded) and discuss, analyze and evaluate choreographic choices using appropriate dance vocabulary

Study dances from other cultures and other historical periods.

Identify and compare movements, music and costume in historical, cultural and contemporary dances.

Observe and discuss the different functions of dance in various cultures (e.g., ceremony, entertainment, social interaction).

Use a variety of resources (e.g., print, recordings, internet, etc.) to research dance from other cultures and historical periods.

Demonstrate through discussion the ways that technology influences dance and movement.

Participate in dance presentations, both informal and choreographed, for the school and the larger community.

Participate in informal and formal dance presentations that reflect the interests and culture of the community.