Grades:
3-8
Lesson Plan:
Analyzing Two Dances and Making a Dance Map
Students watch and analyze the Arabian and Chinese dances from The Nutcracker and then create a dance map.- Length: 1 class period
Concepts/Objectives:
- Students will create a divertissement.
- Students will understand the basic dance elements.
- Students will understand the effects of different choices (in terms of the basic dance elements) on the quality and meaning of a dance.
- Students will understand how the dance elements enable a choreographer to tell a story through dance.
Resource Used:
Arabian and Chinese Dances from The Nutcracker
Found On: Dance Performances
Video Length: 00:07:22
Vocabulary
choreography, dance, direction, divertissement, force, locomotor, non-locomotor, rhythm, shape, space, tempo, timeMaterials
TV/VCR or DVD player, CD/tape player, assortment of tapes/CDs with varied music (fast, slow, happy, sad, loud, soft, etc.), paper, pencils or crayons, open space
Handouts:
Instructional Strategies and Activities
Idea
Many Kentucky dance companies offer educational programs: sending dancers into schools to teach; providing lecture-demonstrations and in-school performances; or offering reduced-price tickets for attending performances, often followed by question/answer sessions. Often these companies also tour. For ideas on locating dancers and dance companies and using them at your school, check out the Kentucky Arts Council’s Arts Resources for Teachers and Schools.
Introduction
Explain the three purposes of dance: ceremonial (celebration, hunting, religious), recreational (folk, social), and artistic (theatrical, ballet).
Explore the three basic dance elements and these sub-elements: space (level, direction, shape, pathways), time (pulse, tempo, rhythm), and force.
Discuss The Nutcracker. Include its history and background on Tchaikovsky, Petipa/Ivanov, divertissement, and story ballet. Show the video excerpt and discuss it in terms of the elements of dance. After discussion, engage in the Dance Map activity.
Making a Dance Map
Start with a blank piece of paper and a pencil or crayon. Place three points anywhere on the paper. Next, draw a pathway that is not a straight line to connect the three points.
Label your three points “beginning,” “middle,” and “end.” Mark five other places on your pathway using hash marks (||). Underneath each set of hash marks, write a level, a type of shape, and a number between 1 and 8.
You have created a map for your dance.
In an open space, walk the pathway as it is shown on your paper. Walk it again for memory. Make sure you are beginning and ending in the correct places. Also, watch your directions to make sure that you are moving identically to the map.
The third time you walk your pathway, notice where the hash marks are on the paper and freeze in these places for the right number of seconds (the number between 1 and 8). Decide what shapes you will make at this time.
After moving through the space a couple of times, pick a theme for this dance that goes with your pathway.
Choose movement qualities that match the theme. List these on the back of your paper so you won’t forget. You might also want to experiment with different locomotor movements to connect you from point to point.
Also experiment with different kinds of musical accompaniment, such as fast, slow, soft, loud, percussive, lyrical. Notice the effect this has on your movement choices.
Support • Connections • Resources
- Dance Art (www.danceart.com)
Performance Assessment
Performance Event: The student participates in a class discussion comparing the basic elements of dance in the Arabian and Chinese divertissements from The Nutcracker. The student uses a dance map to create and perform a dance demonstrating the basic elements of dance.
Directions: Discuss the basic dance elements and compare them in the two dances from The Nutcracker. Then, using paper and pencil, make a pathway using three points. Then add five sets of hash marks to indicate places where you will pause and make a distinct shape. Then use the map to create a dance, adding a theme, different locomotor movements, and musical accompaniment. Perform your dance.
Performance Scoring Guide
| 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The student creates a dance map and clearly performs the dance it represents. The student’s dance clearly demonstrates an understanding of the basic dance elements. In class discussion, the student demonstrates an extensive understanding of the basic dance elements in the Arabian and Chinese dances. The student follows directions. | The student creates a dance map and generally performs what it represents. The student’s dance demonstrates an understanding of most of the basic dance elements. In class discussion, the student demonstrates a broad understanding of the dance elements in the Arabian and Chinese dances. The student follows most directions. | The student creates an adequate dance map and performs it adequately. The student’s dance reflects basic understanding of the basic dance elements. In class discussion, the student demonstrates basic understanding of the dance elements in the Arabian and Chinese dances. The student follows some directions. | The student creates a dance map and performs it to a minimal extent. The student’s dance reflects minimal understanding of the basic dance elements. In class discussion, the student demonstrates minimal understanding of the basic dance elements in the Arabian and Chinese dances. The student follows few directions. | No participation or response or irrelevant answer. |
Academic Content
Academic Expectations:
- 1.15: Students make sense of and communicate ideas with movement.
- 2.22: Students create works of art and make presentations to convey a point of view.
- 2.23: Students analyze their own and others’ artistic products and performances using accepted standards.
- 2.25: In the products they make and the performances they present, students show that they understand how time, place, and society influence the arts and humanities such as languages, literature, and history.
Program of Studies:
Elementary School:
- AH-P-Da-3: Students will perform the elements of dance in a pattern of movement.
- AH-P-Da-5: Students will identify and express the elements of dance in a pattern of movement.
- AH-P-Da-8: Students will perform a pattern using a combination of locomotor and non-locomotor movements.
- AH-P-Da-10: Students will identify and use locomotor and non-locomotor movements in simple patterns.
- AH-4-Da-2: Students will demonstrate the ability to recognize the relationship between the elements of dance and the expressive qualities of movement.
- AH-4-Da-4: Students will create a movement sequence using the elements of dance.
- AH-4-Da-5: Students will explore simple dances with a beginning, middle, and end using a combination of locomotor and non-locomotor movements.
- AH-4-Da-8: Students will discuss elements of dance performances seen in various media.
- AH-5-Da-4: Students will create a dance that uses the elements of dance.
- AH-5-Da-6: Students will create and perform, in a small group, simple dances with a beginning, middle, and end, using a combination of locomotor and non-locomotor movements.
Middle School:
- AH-6-Da-5: Students will describe how space, time, and force contribute to the meaning of a dance.
- AH-6-Da-10: Students will create a complex movement sequence with a beginning, middle, and end.
- AH-7-Da-1: Students will discuss elements of dance performances seen in a variety of media.
- AH-7-Da-3: Students will recognize how elements of dance are used to create an overall aesthetic effect.
- AH-7-Da-6: Students will demonstrate basic concepts and perform basic movements in a variety of compositional forms.
- AH-8-Da-2: Students will analyze, interpret, and evaluate elements of dance performances seen in various media.
- AH-8-Da-7: Students will use appropriate concepts and terminology to analyze their own and others’ work.
Core Content for Assessment:
Elementary School:
- AH-EP-1.2.2: Students will observe, define, and describe locomotor (e.g., walk, run, skip, gallop) and non-locomotor (e.g., bend, stretch, twist, swing) movements.
- AH-EP-3.2.1: Students will experience dance created for a variety of purposes.
- AH-4,5-1.2.2: Students will describe how dance uses time, space, force, and various locomotor and non-locomotor movements to communicate ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
- AH-4,5-3.2.1: Students will identify how dance fulfills a variety of purposes.
- AH-4,5-4.2.1: Students will create patterns of movement incorporating the elements of dance (space, time, and force).
- AH-4,5-4.2.2: Students will create a movement sequence with a beginning, middle, and end.
Middle School:
- AH-6-1.2.1: Students will identify or describe how elements of dance are used to express thoughts, ideas, and feelings in dance.
- AH-6-1.2.2: Students will identify dances by identifying theme (story), dance styles (e.g., ballet, jazz, tap, modern), characteristics of the style (e.g., tap—feet as rhythmic instrument, ballroom—partnering), and the use of elements of dance.
- AH-6-3.2.1: Students will identify or explain how dance fulfills a variety of purposes.
- AH-6-4.2.2: Students will create an improvisational dance with complex movements (beginning, middle, and end).
- AH-7-1.2.1: Students will analyze how elements of dance are used to express thoughts, ideas, and feelings in dance.
- AH-7-1.2.2: Students will identify and/or describe dances by identifying or describing theme (story), dance styles (e.g., ballet, jazz, tap, modern), characteristics of the style (e.g., tap—feet as rhythmic instrument, ballroom—partnering), and the use of the elements of dance.
- AH-7-3.2.1: Students will identify or explain how dance fulfills a variety of purposes.
- AH-7-4.2.2: Students will create an improvisational dance with complex movements (beginning, middle, end).
- AH-8-1.2.1: Students will compare or evaluate how elements of dance are used to express thoughts, ideas, and feelings in dance.
- AH-8-1.2.2: Students will compare and contrast dances by comparing theme (story), dance styles (e.g., ballet, jazz, tap, modern), characteristics of the style (e.g., tap—feet as rhythmic instrument, ballroom—partnering), and the use of elements of dance.
- AH-8-3.2.1: Students will compare or explain how dance fulfills a variety of purposes.
- AH-8-4.2.2: Students will create an improvisational dance with complex movements (beginning, middle, and end).
Essential Questions:
- How do I use the elements of dance to create and perform?
- How do I use dance to express my ideas and feelings?
- How do dancers and choreographers create and perform?
- How do I critique works of dance using appropriate vocabulary?
Author:
Chuck Bronson