Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Growth as a dancer requires risk taking, perseverance, resilience, and reflection.
Experiences in a dance company
a performance-based ensemble
are transferable to personal, professional, and educational contexts.
Choreographic works communicate meaning through movement, sound, costumes, and set design.
Purposeful artistic choices communicate the choreographer’s intent.
Content
Learning Standards
Content
roles and responsibilities in a dance company
rehearsal and performance skills
- the technical, expressive, and cognitive skills necessary for learning, refining, and performing movement
- Cognitive skills include preparedness, commitment, concentration, trust, co-operation, collaboration, application of feedback, willingness to explore, capacity to improve, movement acquisition, and memory.
technical
the ability to reproduce movement accurately in relation to movement principles, elements of dance, and style
and expressive skills projection, focus, confidence, musicality, spatial awareness, facial expression, sensitivity to other dancers, dynamics, and embodiment of the elements of dance to communicate the style or choreographic intent
stage etiquette
the accepted behaviours and attitude required throughout the production process, including auditions, rehearsals, and performances
elements of dance
body, space, time, dynamics, relationships:
, techniques, movement principles
- body: the primary instrument of expression in dance; what the body is doing (e.g., whole- or partial-body action; types of movement, such as locomotor and non-locomotor)
- space: where the body is moving (e.g., place, level, direction, pathway, size/reach, shape)
- time: how the body moves in relation to time (e.g., beat/underlying pulse, tempo, rhythmic patterns)
- dynamics: how energy is expended and directed through the body in relation to time (quick/sustained), weight (strong/light), space (direct/indirect), and flow (free/bounded)
- relationships: with whom or what the body is moving; movement happens in a variety of relationships (e.g., pairs, groups, objects, environments)
compositional skills, forms, and structures
the shape or structure of a dance; the orderly arrangement of thematic material (e.g., AB, ABA, rondo, canon, theme and variation, call and response, narrative)
choreographic devices
methods applied to change or develop movement (e.g., level, dynamics, retrograde, repetition, body part)
principles of design
unity, variety, repetition, contrast, sequence, climax, proportion, harmony, balance, transition
anatomically and developmentally sound movement principles
includes alignment, weight transfer, flexibility, strength, balance, coordination
skills specific to a technique, genre, or style
- examples in modern dance: suspend, fall, breath, weight, oppositional pull, swing, contraction, spiral
- examples in hip hop: grooving, isolations, rhythm, foot patterns, body rolls, freestyle
- examples in ballet: positions of the feet and arms, turnout of the legs, barre and centre work, including plié, tendu, fondu, rond de jambe
for example, classical, contemporary, culturally specific
kinesthetic and spatial awareness
safety protocols
procedures to prevent injury or harm to self and others involving, for example, environment, biomechanics, clothing, and footwear
dance notation
the codified, symbolic representation of dance movement and form
and vocabulary
contributions of key dance innovators in specific genres, contexts, and cultures
traditional and contemporary First Peoples worldviews and cross-cultural perspectives communicated through movement and dance
ethics of cultural appropriation
use of a cultural motif, theme, “voice,” image, knowledge, story, song, or drama, shared without permission or without appropriate context or in a way that may misrepresent the real experience of the people from whose culture it is drawn
and plagiarism
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Explore and create
Create, rehearse, refine, and perform choreographic works for a variety of purposes
Rehearse and perform choreographic works using a variety of dance elements, skills, and techniques
Embody dance forms specific to the choreographic work
Explore the interplay of movement, sound, image, and form to convey meaning in dance
Develop and refine an articulate body as an instrument of expression
Express a range of intentions and emotions through dance
Recall, rehearse, and perform movement phrases both collaboratively and as an individual
Take creative risks
make an informed choice to do something where unexpected outcomes are acceptable and serve as learning opportunities
to develop as an artist
Consider audience, venue, and place
any environment, locality, or context with which people interact to learn, create memory, reflect on history, connect with culture, and establish identity. The connection between people and place is foundational to First Peoples perspectives on the world.
when composing, rehearsing, and performing
Demonstrate warm-up and cool-down procedures for rehearsals and performances
Engage in rehearsal and performance processes led by a variety of choreographers
students, teachers, guest artists
Reason and reflect
Use the language of dance to interpret and analyze dance works
Reflect on rehearsal and performance experiences
Apply constructive feedback in rehearsals and performances
Communicate and document
Expand and apply technical vocabulary to describe, document, and respond critically to rehearsals, compositions, and performances
Communicate the choreographer’s intent through the language of dance
Connect and expand
Demonstrate personal and social responsibility associated with creating, performing, and responding to dance, including movement, music, thematic, and costume choices
Explore educational, personal, and professional opportunities in dance or related fields
for example, artistic production, financial management, marketing, design
Explore First Peoples’ perspectives and knowledge, other ways of knowing
First Nations, Métis, Inuit, gender-related, subject/discipline-specific, cultural, embodied, intuitive
, and local cultural knowledge to gain understanding through movement and dance
Make connections through dance with local, regional, and national issues and communities
Consider personal safety, injury prevention, and physical health when planning, rehearsing, and performing