Time: 6-8 weeks
Ideas for dance expression come from many different sources such as pictures, poems, the imagination, the environment, other dances, and personal experiences. This unit focuses student attention on sources of inspiration for dance.
Teacher Note:
Unit 2 has been developed as the sample unit for Grade 1 (available on CD-ROM and on Saskatchewan Learning's website).
Sample Topic: "Music and Motion"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory Activities
Invite students to think about the statement, “Some choreographers get their ideas for dances from music”.
Listen to various musical selections and have students brainstorm images, feelings, and ideas that students associate with the music (e.g., an eerie feeling, lightness and happiness, or the image of a hippopotamus).
While listening to the music, encourage students to draw and colour lines and shapes in response to each selection. Students can then discuss their pictures in relation to the music elements. For example, the rhythm may suggest jagged lines or flowing lines. Students can hold up their pictures and talk about the kinds of movements that would fit the pictures.
Select one piece of music to explore further through dance. Talk about the images, feelings, and ideas of the selected piece of music. Match these feelings with students' everyday experiences with movement. For example, a loud percussive march might make the students think of walking in an angry stomp while a gentle melodic refrain might make them think of swinging on a warm summer day.
Have the students move freely to the selected music. Have the students try doing the same movement at different levels. Have students try doing the same movement using a large space and a restricted space.
As the students move in free response to the music, prompt their explorations by introducing students to terminology related to the dance elements. For example, use the words actions , body , and space as directions are given.
Ask students what actions the music makes students think of or feel. For example, for an eerie feeling, students might explore creeping actions moving sideways in a very small size (space). For feelings of lightness and happiness, students might explore actions of running and skipping and jumping. Lightness and happiness might also suggest moving quickly (dynamics) on weaving pathways (space).
2. Main Activities
Select a piece of music with a strong percussive element and use the music as stimuli for dance explorations. Guide the students in the creation of two or three simple dance phrases that students may combine to illustrate their interpretation of the music.
Help students explore movements in response to the music. Have students clap and move to the rhythm of the music. Talk about the types of movements that the music evokes. Move at high and low levels. Do both locomotor and non-locomotor actions.
Take a section of the music that is easy to count, and have the students work in groups to improvise movements to the music.
Have students show their dance creations half the class at a time, or record the dance creations on video for later viewing.
Ask students to describe and discuss the dance creations, focusing on the connections between the music and the movement. Have students reflect on any connections made between the dance creations seen and students' own dance experiences; and between the dance creations seen and an image, feeling, or idea.
3. Concluding Activities
Look at videos of dances where choreographers were inspired by music. Use a process such as one suggested in Responding to Arts Expressions to guide the students.
Sample Topic: "My World"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory ActivitiesEncourage students to think about the movements of various things in the environment such as machines or toys. Find pictures of these moving objects and display them. Sing songs and read stories about the machines or moving toys.
If selecting machines as the focus, have students bring in moving toys, look at pictures, and/or watch videos of machinery students might find in Saskatchewan .
Students might observe combines, balers, sprayers, seeders, cranes, tractors, forklifts, bull dozers, loaders, backhoes, other large machines with moving parts, or various moving toys. Students may also observe other objects that move in the home or in the school.
Assist the students to describe the movements of the machinery/toys in terms of students' understanding of the dance elements. Encourage the use of correct terminology as appropriate. For example, do the parts roll? Are the parts rising or lowering (actions)? Are there periods of stillness (actions)? Do the machines or toys move quickly or slowly (dynamics)? Do they move in a straight line or in a curved line (space)? Record the words on the board or on a flip chart. Help students to brainstorm and to increase their vocabulary as they work through their movement explorations.
It is not necessary to use music; however, the teacher may want to use rhythm instruments to accompany the students. Students may also want to create a machinery-inspired soundscape with voices or found objects to accompany dances.
2. Main Activities
Choose an item from the environment such as machines or toys as stimuli for dance-making lessons. For example, if selecting machines, review the students' descriptions of the various movements made by the machines. Use the process described in the Planning from the Dance Section of the Curriculum Guide to develop students' dance expressions.
If selecting toys or machinery, read with students a story appropriate for developing dance ideas (e.g., “Trucks” by David Lowe, or “Ways to Go” from the Grade 1 Collections Series).
Record the ideas on the board.
Explore in dance the ideas the students have discussed. Refer to the Elements of Dance section and the Appendix for information on introducing students to the elements of dance.
Create dance phrases by selecting and combining some of the movements explored. For example, use sounds that machines or toys might make to accompany the dance phrase.
Have students reflect on their dance creations.
Review the descriptive words used in the dance-making lessons.
3. Concluding Activities
Have students show their dance creations half the class at a time. Or record the dance creations on video for later viewing.
Discuss the different ways the words were expressed in the dance creations.
Review cultural dances that incorporate elements and movement ideas the students have explored. For example, students might continue their exploration of pathways in the Métis dance called “The Rabbit Dance”. Refer to the Métis Dances Kit by Saskatchewan Education.
Talk about the use of the elements in the dance such as actions, dynamics, and use of space (pathways in this case). Discuss what parts were challenging for the students and what parts the students liked best.