Since early time, people have danced. Dance has been an integral component of social, religious, ceremonial, and spiritual functions of many cultures throughout history. Dance has been a way for people to express ideas and feelings that were significant in peoples' daily lives.
Young children reflect this impulse of people to dance as they whirl, spin, and gallop for the sheer enjoyment of feeling their bodies in motion. Starting with the students' natural abilities, the dance program nurtures this urge. The dance program encourages students to explore and to discover dance in a meaningful way, and enables them to express themselves through a non-verbal means of communication – the “language” of dance.
The dance program gives students a comprehensive understanding of dance through learning specific dances, responding to dances, and creating dances. Through these dance experiences, students are encouraged to explore, reflect on, and learn about dance in a meaningful way.
The dance strand provides students with opportunities to:
Dance links the body, intellect, and emotions. This integration provides students with opportunities to further personal and social growth and to promote well-being. At the same time, dance gives students another means of communicating their own ways of seeing and responding to the world around them.
Ultimately, the dance curriculum strives to foster a lifelong interest in dance. It challenges students to new levels of discovery and awareness, and promotes the understanding of dance and its value.
The dance strand is organized into four required units:
The three components of the Arts Education Curriculum (creative/productive, cultural/historical, and critical/responsive) are to be integrated within these units. Dancing, creating dances, responding to dances, and learning about dance can all be undertaken within the units.
The following describes what teachers can find in the dance section of the curriculum guide:
Dance Unit Overviews and Sample Topics for Grades 1 to 5 Chart
There are eight broad foundational objectives for the Elementary Level dance strand. These objectives are to be developed throughout the Elementary Level, and can be achieved through the specific learning objectives. The foundational objectives cover the scope of the dance program and embody the three components of arts education.
The eight foundational objectives are listed below and are followed by an explanation of each.
The students will:
1. Understand the elements of dance and develop concepts that lead to an understanding of structure in dance.
The elements of body , actions , dynamics , space , and relationships comprise the basic language of dance. The elements are best explored in a context of interest to the students. Students should be encouraged to identify, describe, and reflect on the elements of dance as students encounter the elements in their ongoing dance experiences.
Students should realize that the way in which the elements are used affects the expression of dance. What students learn about the elements of dance needs to be reinforced and applied throughout the year. It is important for students to use the elements in meaningful contexts in order to support growth toward understanding and applying this knowledge in later years.
Principles of composition include repetition , contrast , sequencing and development , transition , climax and resolution , variety and unity . They are the tools or devices, which over time, have proven to be useful in creating well-formed dances. Although kindergarten to grade 5 students do not study the principles of composition in depth, students are introduced to concepts that are further developed in later years. Connecting movements (transitions), contrast, repetition, sequencing, development, and variety are appropriate concepts to introduce at the Elementary Level. (See the Kindergarten to Grade 5 Developmental Continuum beginning on page 65 for concepts to introduce or develop further at each grade level. See the Appendix for each grade for further information on the Elements of Dance.)
2. Develop movement skills to use the body as an instrument for expression.
This objective focuses on developing movement skills that help students move purposefully and feel confident in using their bodies to express themselves in dance. It is important that movement skills be developed within students' ongoing dance explorations and creations, rather than be focused on isolated repetitive exercises.
Students become aware that taking care of the body is important for dancers. Students come to understand and extend their bodies' range of movement, strength, and balance with attention paid to correct alignment and clarity of action.
3. Begin to understand the variety of sources for dance ideas.
This is the first of three foundational objectives related to the creative process. This objective focuses on ideas for dances; the next two focus on decision making and reflection.
This foundational objective encourages students to become aware that ideas for dances viewed and created may come from many sources such as stories, personal experience, feelings, memories, music, research, observation, imagination, or movement itself. At the grade 3 level, students begin to keep a journal of dance and movement ideas, a practice students will continue throughout their ears of studying dance.
4. Begin to develop own ideas in dance compositions, using choreographic structures and processes.
The purpose of this objective is to introduce students to choreography. In choreographing a dance, there are two things to consider. The first is what the dance is to be about or the content of the dance; for example, a dance may tell a story, express a feeling, or be about movement for movement's sake. The second consideration is the form of the dance such as theme and variation, binary (AB), rondo (ABACADA), narrative, or chance. Usually the form of the dance evolves from the content; however, both are of equal importance.
In making a dance, choreographers create segments or dance phrases that are developed and synthesized into a whole, much like writers create a story. A dance phrase is a sequence of movements that has an observable beginning and end, like a sentence. Choreography is the process of organizing these movements into phrases and sequencing the phrases into a form that gives dances meaningful and lasting substance.
To begin, students focus on expressing themselves through creating dance phrases. Students explore the use of various images or situations as inspiration for dance creations. Students learn how to generate dance ideas from stimuli by finding the essence of the stimuli and by using the findings as starting points for dance improvisation. Teachers can assist students by setting tasks within which the students can express themselves.
5. Begin to think about and talk about own dance ideas and compositions.
Reflection is essential to the creative process. Through reflection on their dance creations, students learn how dance can represent their own way of seeing or experiencing the world around them. Students begin to take their ideas and life experiences, and express them in the language of dance. In doing so, students stimulate their imaginations and become aware of and sensitive to new movement possibilities.
It is important that students learn to reflect on the meaning they communicate through each dance.
6. Develop understanding of a diverse range of dance, dancers, and choreographers.
To live in a diverse society, students need to learn about dancers and dances of various styles, regions, and cultural groups. This includes dance in Saskatchewan and Canada , including that of First Nation and M é tis dance artists. Styles that students view and experience may include modern, ballet, jazz, heritage, mainstream, and popular culture. Students come to understand that dances are created for a variety of reasons such as commercial, entertainment, celebration, social, or expressive purposes.
The study of a culture's dances gives a glimpse into a people and their way of life. Dance is a means of expressing emotions, ideas, and customs that have significance in the daily lives and history of people.
In the past, dances expressed themes such as work and conflict. They were, and in some cases are, closely related to a people's religion, ceremonies, spirituality, rituals, and celebrations. Recognizing that dance continues to be a valid expression of a people, the teacher is encouraged to treat this objective as an investigation into the experience and expression of a people today, as well as of a people in the past.
7. Talk about, interpret, and respond to dances.
One of the goals of the arts education program states that students should gain a lasting appreciation of art forms experienced as audience. Through viewing dances, students become familiar with and gain an understanding of dance as a performance art.
Student responses to dance expressions are varied and diverse. At the Elementary Level, it is important that students view different styles of dances, and begin to talk about and try to interpret the meaning of what students see.
Sometimes students may respond through the other arts to a dance students have seen. They might write a response to a dance or create their own interpretation by drawing, painting, or creating musical soundscapes or dance compositions.
When students view a dance, the teacher is to guide the students through one of the approaches described in Responding to Arts Expressions on page 45.
8. Become aware of the dance and dancers in the daily life of their community.
Dance plays a role in many people's lives whether it is social, cultural, recreational, or professional. Students may discover dancers and dance events in their own neighbourhood and communities. The teacher's role is to encourage students to recognize the presence of dance and to develop an understanding of the role dance plays in their lives.
K-5 Developmental Continuum Chart
The following guidelines are general instructions to the teacher for dance instruction throughout the year.
1. Encourage students' awareness of their kinesthetic sensations whenever they are engaged in moving.
Kinesthetic sensations are the feelings of the body's muscles, joints, and tendons while in motion or in stillness. The kinesthetic sense is of primary importance to movement and dance. Perceptions of the body's movements are gathered through receptors in the tendons, muscles, and joints and relayed to the brain. By becoming aware of their own kinesthetic sensations, students can more accurately direct and control their movements as well as copy movements demonstrated. This results in students increasing their dance techniques.
To encourage students to become aware of their kinesthetic sensations, teachers:
2. Encourage students to develop their dance techniques.
Here, technique refers to the ability of students to use their bodies as they wish in a safe, efficient manner with little threat of injury. The dance program does not recommend any one dance technique be taught to students at this level (e.g., ballet, Graham).
Acquiring technique is a long process of training the body to respond as desired. Teachers need to play an active role in developing students' dance techniques by acting as the students' mirror and coaching where appropriate. This is an important function of the dance teacher, for the students cannot see themselves as they move and they must rely on an observer for feedback.
Changes in technique do not occur quickly. Teachers may find they are repeating themselves. This is fine. It takes time for students to develop the capacity to concentrate on body alignment and at the same time to actively participate in dancing activities. Constant reminders help the students become aware of what their bodies are doing.
To develop the students' dance techniques, the teacher:
Some alignment principles to look for are:
3. Use a process to guide the students in their dance making.
The process of creating is often misunderstood. Teachers may be afraid to guide the students too much in fear of stifling creativity. The creative process, however, is really a problem-solving process. Teachers need to guide students through steps of creative problem solving in the dance-making process. (See page 76.) As students become used to using this process, the sophistication of their reflections on what students are doing will grow. Students can be encouraged to learn to use Labanotation or descriptive writing as a means for recording their dance composition ideas and explorations. See Motif Symbols on page 81.
4. Use a process to guide students in responding to dance presentations.
Viewing dance presentations is a matter of being actively engaged in watching the dance and later, of responding to what was seen. Teachers should use a viewing process that encourages students to delve into the context and meaning of the dances, selecting approaches such as those described in Responding to Arts Expressions on page 45 of this curriculum guide. In this way, students make sense of their viewing experiences and gain deeper understanding of dance presentations. In addition to responding to the work of professional choreographers and dancers, students benefit from opportunities to view videos and live performances of children and youth dancing.