Dance
Dance involves performing, composing and appreciating through the elements of action, dynamics, time, space, relationships and structure.
Students learn to:
- use these elements effectively through sequenced dance activities
- appreciate the meaning and values that dance offers personally, culturally and as a form of communication.
Performing
Performing involves students developing expressive qualities, formal qualities and sensory qualities to interpret ideas and communicate through dance.
Composing
Composing involves students developing understandings in dance, movement, sound and physical settings in response to stimuli and using the elements of dance.
Appreciating
Appreciating gives students an opportunity to analyse, value and reflect on dance with their own personal, cultural and structural meaning.
Move Ease
Through Move Ease teachers will access 5 original compositions by Tracy and Paul Burjan, with accompanying student learning experiences from Early Stage 1 to Stage 3. Students will develop shared knowledge and understandings, skills, values and attitudes in performing, composing and appreciating in dance. Move Ease facilitates student engagement with the elements of dance and the dancing body through fresh approaches and repertoire. Each piece covers a different musical and dance genre with a wide variety of syllabus based teaching and learning experiences. Many of these experiences are supported through videos with teaching experts in dance guiding students through the use of the materials within.
The 5 compositions include:
- Celebrations – dance around the world
- Cyber dance – dance in popular culture
- Dance through time – the role of dance throughout history
- Elements of gamelan – an Indonesian inspired dance experience
- Movement of life – expressive dance about life’s journeys.
Sample units of work
Early Stage 1
Students:
- are introduced to shape, locomotor activity and the use of space.
- experiment with everyday movements, linking these together in a sequence
- experience being an audience member and describe what they see.
Stage 1
Students:
- create dance movements and sequences - both individually and collaboratively - using the stimulus of water.
Stage 2
Students:
- develop an understanding of cultural and historical dances
- perform a familiar dance, which they then manipulate to create an original dance, based on bush dance steps.
Students:
- compose and perform dances, using rhythm, sound, percussion and everyday objects, often in non-traditional performing spaces.
Tap ... stomp is based on the characteristics of contemporary tap dancing. This unit could also form the basis of a unit to study African, South American or Native North American cultures.
Stage 3
Students:
- experiment with the elements of space and time
- explore shape and develop movement by experimenting with size, dimension, pathway and volume
- develop numeracy skills and an understanding of creating dance using abstract ideas.
Websites
The following websites may be useful in the teaching of dance:
- NESA syllabus and support materials – units of work, student work samples and advice on programming
- Australian curriculum work samples – portfolios of student work