The appendix is intended to give teachers ideas for teaching the dance elements within dance units. It includes suggested activities that relate the dance elements to the students' own world.
Teachers can use the appendix in a number of ways. The suggested activities contained within the appendix:
Review locomotor or non-locomotor actions. Locomotor actions are actions that involve travelling from one place to another (e.g., a car). Non-locomotor actions are actions that involve moving on the spot (e.g., trees blowing in the wind).
Explain to students that in dance when we move, we are doing an action. A walk is a locomotor action; a wave is a non-locomotor action. Whenever we move, what we are doing is an action. Have students think of other examples of actions. Make a list and display it.
Explore a series of locomotor and non-locomotor actions; for example:
Explore different ways of being airborne. Ask, “How many ways can you leave the floor?” Combine two or three ways of being airborne (e.g., jump, jump, jump, leap, leap, and pause).
Explore the action words of a poem, song, or story.
Explain to students that, in dance, being still is not just resting; rather, it is a moment of excitement, of expectant stillness. Say to the students, “Before a thunderstorm, everything is still, there is an electric silence. The cat is still before pouncing for a ball or a mouse. Dance likewise has exciting moments of stillness. They are like catching your breath or holding onto your hat.”
Have the students feel the pauses in a movement phrase. Explore movements that can be stopped, such as running and balancing.
Look at the Indian dance entitled The Sneak-Up Dance to observe the way stillness has been used.
Review the idea that the whole body or just body parts can move. Use an image to relate this to the students. For example, throw a ball. First the arm swings backward, then the whole body moves forward as the ball is thrown.
Have students look at the human body. Identify different body parts and body zones. Have students identify different body parts and body zones on their own bodies. Use visual aids such as dolls to reinforce body ideas.
Review with a student that in dance the body is the instrument.
Say to the students, “In art we draw with a pencil or paint with a brush. In dance we are the brush. There is only one of us in all of time. We can't throw our bodies away or get new ones. Our bodies must be cared for, respected.”
Adapt the game of Simon Says so that it is not an elimination game. Use the game to reinforce the students' understanding of body bases, parts, and zones; for example, “Simon says to make your seat your body base” or “Simon says to run, leading with your right side”.
Have the students imagine that they are like marionettes with strings attached to the different body parts. When a string is being pulled, students explore moving in space, leading with different body parts and body zones.
Duration
Explain to the students that, in dance, movements can last a long time or a short time. Have the students observe animals moving. Look at the movements that take a long time and those that take only a short time. Observe and discuss the rhythmic patterns of the animals. A few examples are listed below:
Students are bound to have additional ideas. Record students' ideas on the board.
Explore the durations of one animal's movement. Have students clap or use percussion instruments to create a soundscore of the durations. Explore the rhythm of the soundscore through movement. The following is an example using the seal: The sound-score is a slow tambourine shaking, three quick drumbeats, and a triangle sound that fades. The movements that accompany the soundscore are a low, slow stretch leading with the head to reach high, three quick up and down movements, and a long fat shape slowly rolling.
Energy
Explain to the students the concept that there is energy in the world and energy in their bodies.
As we move, we can feel the flow of energy in the body and in the body parts. Have the students watch a tired person walk and “give in” to gravity. Have the students watch an athlete or dancer walk. In the second example, there is a trained effort to remain tall, to resist gravity, and to have energy. Discuss.
Practise feeling energy when moving. Say to the students, “Skip with energy in your thighs and feet; leap with energy in your arms”. Question students as they explore their use of energy in these activities. Ask, “How does it feel in your hands, legs, and spine?”
Qualities
Explain to students that not all things move the same way. Demonstrate: a balloon floats lightly, an elastic band snaps quickly, and a book falls heavily. In dance, movements can also vary (e.g., a strong push or a light run). Encourage students to talk about other examples. Record students' ideas on the board. Have students try one of their ideas.
Use words as stimuli for exploring qualities; for example, grip, twist, pound, twirl, scamper, twitter, explode, or collapse.
Use poems and stories that have appropriate images as stimuli for exploring qualities.
Speed
Have the students think of things that accelerate and decelerate. Observe different examples of acceleration and deceleration (e.g., a car starting and stopping, a bird taking flight and landing, porridge coming to a boil and cooling down, a kite flying). Discuss.
Use the sound of a drum that beats faster and slower to guide students as they practise acceleration and deceleration. (Note: When students move slowly, stress that they reach and stretch in order to maintain the quality of their movements. Also, before attempting very fast movements be sure that students understand how to move quickly in space without colliding, and that they understand your signals for starting and stopping.)
Use the idea of porridge beginning to bubble to explore speed. Have the students describe the sounds of porridge cooking; for example, blub ¾ blub ¾ blub ¾ blub ¾ blub - blub - blub - blub - blub-blub-blub.
Record a “porridge” soundscore on tape. Have the students explore movements that become faster. For example, start with slow, small movements of the shoulder; add other body parts until the whole body is “blubbing”. Gradually increase the speed until the “blubbing” is so fast that students travel through general space. End by slowing and freezing in a “blub” shape.
Explore movements inspired by chants that increase or decrease in speed. Have the class create their own chants. An example is the following chant which becomes faster as it is spoken. Add the name of any object in the blank:
Slowly, slowly I creep and look,
To carefully search and search.
Up and down, I begin to bounce
Until I have found a _________.
Time Signatures
Have the students listen to music or a drumbeat. Clap to the music or drumbeat. Draw the students' attention to the accent, or the stronger beat. Clap to different time signatures. Have students notice the accents when clapping.
Explore walking, running, skipping, sliding, and galloping to an external beat. Use the beat to give signals for the action required. (Note: Some students may have difficulty moving to an external beat. Don't let this worry you; learning takes time.)
Have students experience moving to an external beat. For example, have students learn a culture's dance such as the Owl Dance (Cree), La Danse du Crochet (Métis), or Pop Goes the Weasel (American).
Have students look at the way they are arranged in their classroom. For example, Jason's place is near to Ashley's; it is far away from Tyler 's. If the teacher stands, she is higher in relationship to those seated. In a line at school, someone is in front of or behind someone else. In a circle facing in, students might be facing someone, or they might be beside someone. Have students travel through space. Draw their attention to the relationships experienced such as near, far, meeting, and parting. Discuss.
Have students run through the space as it is expanded and contracted. Say to the students, “On a signal (e.g., drum or voice), the space will be halved; you will use only one half of the gym space. Like fishes, you can swim only where the water is. The lake is on half of the floor. The rest is dry land. On the signal, use only one quarter of the gym. The space is smaller now. The lake becomes an aquarium of fish; the space is crowded. But you still pass by and through. You do not touch. You need to use what little space there is smoothly. On the signal, fill the whole space; fill all the available space. Feel your new relationship with space, your freedom.” Repeat by halving differently; for example, lengthwise.
Explore different kinds of relationships in partners or trios; for example:
Learn La Danse du Crochet (Métis) or the Owl Dance (Cree). Have students talk about the different relationships experienced in the dance.
General and Personal
Review the concepts of general and personal space with the students. General space is the dance space - it is the space that is all around us. Personal space is the “reach” space - the space we can reach without travelling.
Have students generate a list of different ways of travelling through general space; for example, gallop, hop, skip, tiptoe backward, run and leap, roll. Write each suggestion on a separate piece of paper. Fold each paper. Mix them together and have students draw two or three each. The words on the papers determine how the students will move through the general space. Contrast these with movements in personal space.
Have students explore moving in their personal spaces on different body bases. Contrast these movements with locomotor actions in general space.
Levels and Directions
Discuss levels and directions with the students. In dance, levels and directions are thought of in relation to the dancer. There are three levels: high, middle, and low or deep. There are six directions: upward, downward, sideways (to either side), forward, and backward.
Have the students look at things in the classroom that are at different levels. For example, the lights are high, the rug is low, and a shelf might be at a middle level. Have students associate this idea with their own movements. Students can move at low, middle, and high levels.
Have students think of things that move in different directions. For example, a car might go forward or backward; a crab walks sideways, and an elevator goes upward and downward. Have students associate this idea with their own movements. Students can move upward, downward, forward, backward, and to either side. Show examples of things that move in different directions such as toy trucks or a toy snake.
Explore space in terms of directions and levels. Encourage the students to use whole body and body part movements, and different body bases. Students might reach forward to a high level, fall sideways to a low level, stretch a foot backwards to a middle level, or move in other ways.
Use clay as a stimulus for a dance phrase exploring directions and levels in space. Have students manipulate clay. Then, in their explorations, have students punch, stretch, twist, pull, spread, and roll the space; for example:
Pathways
Have students think of things that create a pathway, such as car headlights or vapour trails behind planes. Arrange for students to observe the pathways made when walking in a dark room with a flashlight.
Have students imagine themselves making pathways in sand, pudding, or jello with a wooden spoon. Imagine the pathways disappearing as the spoon moves along the pathway.
Explain to students that the movements of students' feet and bodies create pathways that almost simultaneously appear and disappear. We recall the line using what is called “movement memory”.
Pathways are not seen in a single glance. They are developed over time and remembered. Discuss.
Have the students use designs on paper to determine pathways; for example, a snake-like design, a letter, or a number.
Use rides at the fair/exhibition as stimuli for exploring pathways. Ask the students, “What kind of pathway does the roller coaster take? The rocket? The Ferris wheel? Show me.” Encourage exploration by asking questions such as, “How can you show me the pathway in another way? Can you jump very high when you get to the top of the roller coaster ride? How low does it go?”
Have the students use scarves, ribbons, or streamers as aids in creating pathways. Discuss which qualities of the objects selected suggest pathways. For example, scarves ripple through space, float high, and whirl around.
Shapes
Have students look at various shapes. Gather pictures and objects, or use clay to demonstrate shape.
Have students describe the shapes. Have students lie curled on the floor. Ask them to visualize a cement mixer on a big truck, full of sand and gravel. Say to them, “When the truck starts at my signal, you will begin to wiggle, jiggle, and shake. Everything shakes, even your tongue. When I hit the drum, the truck stops and all the sand and gravel is ready for pouring. For eight counts you will be slowly poured into a shape. Feel yourself mould the space as you become something - a statue, a gatepost, or a bridge. Think of interesting shapes at different levels. At the end of eight counts, everything is still; the cement has hardened. You can stay there for a thousand years. A third signal will tell you how you will return to sand and gravel.” This could be done in different ways; for example, the cement could be broken, chipped, cracked, melted, washed away by a tidal wave, or swept up by a tornado. Repeat several times.
Use the traditional Mother Goose poem “There Was a Crooked Man” as a stimulus for a dance phrase exploring crooked shapes. Encourage students by asking questions such as, “In how many ways can you be crooked? How does your crooked shape move?”
Size
Draw the students' attention to the fact that there are ranges of sizes. Say to students, “Even the same fruit may grow to different sizes. We compare the size of things, but biggest is not always best. Sometimes the sweetest fruit is the smallest.” Have students collect examples of a range of sizes. Display and discuss.
Have students experience being small and large. Have them notice that when they are large, energy flows out of them; when they are small, they bring energy into themselves. Use the idea of a vegetable garden as a stimulus for exploring size. Explore ideas such as the following:
Have students notice that some movements are large while others are small. Explore large and small.
Have the students travel using large movements, and then small movements (e.g., large leaps and jumps, or small runs and hops). Contrast large and small locomotor actions with large and small non-locomotor actions.