Dance: Eighth Grade

Performing (PR)

Creating (CR)

Responding (RE)

Connecting (CN)

Develop and refine dance techniques and work for presentation. 

Select, analyze, and interpret dance for presentation.

Convey meaning through the presentation of dance. 

Generate and conceptualize dance ideas and work. 

Organize and develop dance work.

Refine and complete dance work.

Perceive and analyze dance.

Construct meaningful interpretations of dance.

Apply criteria to evaluate dance.

Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make dance.

Relate dance ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical contexts to deepen understanding.

Identify and explore the fundamental movement patterns of total body connectivity including body half, cross lateral, upper/lower, core/distal.

Apply strategies to accommodate physical maturational development to technical dance skills (e.g., functional alignment, coordination, balance, core support, kinesthetic awareness, clarity of movement, weight shifts, flexibility/range of motion).

Collaborate with peers to practice and refine dances. Develop group performance expectations through observation and analyses (e.g., view live or recorded professional dancers and collaboratively develop group performance expectations based on information gained from observations).

Utilize healthy practices and sound nutrition in dance activities and everyday life. Describe benefits of practices and how choices enhance performance.

Expand awareness of floor and spatial pattern designs using locomotor and non-locomotor movements. Incorporate and modify differently designed shapes and movements for interest and contrast.

Use timing accents and variations within a phrase to add interest kinesthetically, rhythmically, and visually. Use different tempi in different body parts at the same time.

Compare and contrast dynamic qualities from a variety of dance styles. Describe specific qualities using adjectives and adverbs. Determine what dancers must do to perform them clearly.

Use performance etiquette and performance practices during class, rehearsal, and performance. Maintain a journal documenting these actions. Receive notes from the choreographer and apply corrections to future performances.

Explore possibilities of producing dance in a variety of venues or for different audiences. Use production terminology to explain how the production elements would be handled in different situations to intensify artistic intent.

Compare a variety of stimuli (e.g., music, observed dance, literary forms, notation, natural phenomena, personal experience/ recall, current news, social events) and make selections to expand movement vocabulary and artistic expression.

Explore various movement vocabularies to express an artistic intent in choreography. Explain and discuss the choices made using genre-specific dance terminology.

Use a variety of choreographic devices and dance structures to develop a dance study with a clear artistic intent. Articulate reasons for movement and structural choices.

Develop artistic intention to choreograph a dance study communicating personal or cultural meaning. Articulate how the artistic intention serves to communicate the meaning of the dance.

Evaluate possible revisions of dance compositions and, if necessary, consider revisions of artistic criteria based on self-reflection and the feedback from others. Explain reasons for choices and how they clarify artistic intent.

Investigate a recognized system to document a dance sequence by using words, symbols, or media technologies.

Compare, contrast, and discuss patterns of movement and their relationships in dance.

Compare and contrast how the elements of dance are used in a variety of styles or cultural movement practices using appropriate terminology.

Compare the meaning of different dances. Explain how the artistic expression of each dance is achieved through the elements of dance, use of body, dance technique, and context, using appropriate terminology.

Compare artistic intent, content, and context from different dances to examine the qualities of genre, style, or cultural movement practice. Based on the comparison, develop artistic criteria, using appropriate terminology.

Compare and contrast the movement characteristics or qualities found in a variety of dance genres. Analyze how the movement characteristics or qualities differ from one’s own movement preferences and perspectives.

Conduct research using a variety of resources to find information about a social issue. Use the information to create a dance study expressing a specific point of view on the topic. Discuss whether the experience of creating and sharing the dance reinforces personal views or offers new knowledge and perspectives.

Compare, contrast, and discuss dances performed by people in various localities or communities, including the contributions of Oklahoma American Indian Tribes and communities. Formulate possible reasons why similarities and differences developed in relation to the ideas and perspectives important to each community.