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:
The activities in this appendix are not intended to be used in sequential order. The teacher should look at them as a potpourri of ideas, and use them as appropriate within units of study. The dance elements should always be taught within a meaningful context.
Ask students to brainstorm a list of action words. Have students group their suggestions into categories such as turning, travelling, jumping, falling, expanding, contracting, and stopping. Display. Select words from different categories to explore through movement. Have students order the words to create a dance phrase such as:
Review motif symbols. Choose three or four symbols to explore such as:
Encourage students to explore the symbols using different body parts, body bases, space pathways, and movement qualities.
Motif writing is a system for recording the general sequence of movements on paper. It was developed by Preston-Dunlop (1980a) from the dance notation system called “Labanotation” invented by Rudolf Laban. Motif writing is written in vertical columns. It is read from the bottom of the page upwards, left to right. Some of the symbols can be found on page 77 of this curriculum guide.
Read poems that have action words. Write a classroom “action poem”. Have the students explore the action words through movement. Encourage the students to explore the action words using different body parts, body bases, pathways, and movement qualities.
Have students practise different ways of being airborne in different shapes; for example, legs bent behind them, curled over, stretched legs and arms. Have students contrast the airborne actions with other actions.
Review the Métis dance entitled Red River Jig. Note that students create and combine their own jigging steps in this dance. It is suggested in the Grade 4 Appendix that students learn this dance in Grade 4. Therefore, this may be a review for some grade 5 students.
Review the definition of kinesthetic sensations. Kinesthetic sensations are the sensations we feel when moving. Explain to students that dancers remember their kinesthetic sensations in order to become more skilful. Dancers remember how their muscles feel when doing something successfully in order to do it in the same way again.
Have students do exercises to increase body strength and flexibility. Refer to resources listed in Arts Education: A Bibliography for the Elementary Level (2003).
Explore “mixing up” the body zones. For example, reach the right shoulder across to the left side or reach the left leg across to the right side. Explore with different ways of balancing and travelling; for example:
Duration and Speed
Explain to students that duration is on a continuum of long to short and that speed is on a continuum of slow to fast. Have students try sensing various durations of time while moving with various speeds. Ask, for example, “Can you move very quickly and
stop when you think half a minute has gone by?” Vary the duration and speed; move slowly for half a minute, quickly for ten seconds, slowly for ten seconds, and so on. Discuss. (Students may have difficulty determining durations. Do not worry. The purpose here is to increase students' sense and awareness of the duration.)
Have students record a collage of long and short sounds heard in the classroom or outside (e.g., a ticking clock, murmur of talking, a loud bang, or a car horn). Listen to the sound collage several times so that the students become familiar with it. Explore movements of various durations and speeds to accompany the sound collage.
Energy
Review the idea that when we move, we use energy. We can feel the flow of energy in our bodies and in our body parts. Have the students feel the differences in energy of a loose relaxed shape, a hard shape, a clenched fist, or an open hand. Draw the students' attention to the idea that the energy used might be too much or too little. Have the students try jumping with a little energy. Ask them, “What happens? Can you go very high?” Have the students try holding a bubble in one hand using too much energy. Ask them what happens to the bubble. In dance, each movement has its optimum amount of energy. Encourage the students to avoid using too much or too little.
Create a dance phrase from words; for example:
Explore doing the dance phrase with a little, an in between amount, or a lot of energy. Ask the students what it feels like when they use different amounts of energy. Do students prefer one? Is one way better than the other ways?
Qualities
As we talk, we change the tone of our voices. Discuss this idea with the students. We change our voices to draw attention and to express ourselves. Have the students discuss different ways to use voices. Explain to students that, in dance, we change the qualities of our movements to express ourselves. By changing the qualities of our movements, we can convey different things.
Have students do a favourite dance phrase in different ways. Encourage students to pay particular attention to how doing the same movements with different qualities changes the expressions. Discuss.
Explore the qualities of contrasting ideas; for example, light and dark or love and hate. Explore each idea fully. Encourage students by asking questions such as “What kind of shape do you think would accompany your idea? What pathway? Is your movement light? Strong? How light or strong can you be for this idea?”
Using music as stimulus for exploring quality. Have students explore movements associated with the music. Encourage students by asking, “What pathway and what shape do you think would accompany your idea? Can you make your movement qualities clearer so I can see them? Is your movement interesting to do? How can you make it more interesting?”
Time Signatures
Have the students listen to various pieces of music or a drumbeat. Clap to the music or drumbeat. Identify the time signature. Practise travelling to the music or drumbeat. (Some students may have difficulty moving to an external beat. Do not get frustrated; it will take time.)
Use musical selections as stimuli to explore time signatures. Have students explore movements that occur with the beat of the music (e.g., walking) and movements that do not (e.g., a long slow stretch lasting several bars of music). Encourage students to be aware of their body parts, body bases, movement qualities, and use of space. Ask, “Are your arms moving with the beat? Your feet? What are your knees doing? Stretch your body in your slow movements. Where are you going? Try moving backward.”
To experience moving to music, have students learn or review a dance such as Red River Jig (Métis), Alley Cat (American), or Alunelul (Romanian).
Explore relationships in groups of three or four students. Explore a few relationship ideas at a time; for example:
In partners or trios, have students explore moving in unison and canon. Have students do a favourite dance phrase in these two ways. (Unison is doing the same movement at the same time. Canon is doing the same movement at different times, like a round in music.)
Review the Métis dance entitled La Danse du Crochet. Have students identify the different relationships in the dance.
Learn dances such as the Hora (Israeli) or Alunilul (Romanian). Have students identify the different relationships in the dance.
Directions and Levels
Review the concepts of directions and levels. Usually people move in the same directions and at the same levels. To create excitement in dance, we try to do the unexpected – to move in unusual directions and at different levels. Then dance becomes interesting for an audience.
Explore action words that suggest different levels (e.g., slither, hover, plunge, and toss). Have the students explore the words, using different directions, travelling and on the spot.
Have the students imagine a wind is blowing against them. They let you know by their movements from what direction the wind is coming. Encourage students to explore different levels “like a piece of paper being blown up and down.” Continue to explore this idea by “gluing” a body part, other than the feet, to the floor. Have students see how far and in how many directions students can go. Explore. Encourage students' further exploration by using cues such as, “You are no longer stuck, but you have no feet” or “You can move in any direction. How would you move?”.
Focus
Review with the students the importance of focus in dance, or where they direct their gaze. Discuss how a change of focus can change the expression of the movement. Have students demonstrate. Have two students dance beside each other, looking at each other. Then, dance beside each other, looking away from each other.
Have students think of words or phrases that describe looking; for example, gazing at the stars, eyes down, and staring. Explore the words or phrases one at a time and in a variety of ways.
Pathways
Have students look at containers such as boxes and balls. Explain to students that the containers each enclose a space. Look at sculptures. They, too, define space. They carve space into volumes. Explain to students that, in dance, bodies carve space into volumes. As the bodies move, the volumes appear and disappear. They are not seen in a single glance. They are developed over time and remembered. Have students practise carving volumes with their arms. Discuss.
Explore movements that carve space into volumes. For example, ask students to carve a low cone, with one arm, run sideways to carve a large cone, or carve a spiral in a circle around them. Encourage students to use all the surfaces of the body. Ask, “How can you carve a big circle with your back? Your arms? What body part is leading as you carve the space? Are you carving a square? A circle? Can you carve the area around you without travelling? Can you use your legs to carve?”
Shape and Size
Review symmetry and asymmetry with the students. Show examples such as pictures, paper cut-outs, and art works. Explain that, in dance, the body can have a symmetrical shape or an asymmetrical shape.
Have students demonstrate. Discuss the feelings of the two kinds of shapes with the students. (Symmetrical shapes usually have a stable quality while asymmetrical shapes usually have an unbalanced quality.)
Have partners take turns sculpting each other into symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes. Encourage students to sculpt shapes of different sizes. Vary the body parts used to sculpt; for example, heads, elbows, and knees. Memorize three of the sculpted shapes. Have the partners arrange their shapes next to or far away from each other. Explore different ways of moving from one shape to the next, quickly and slowly. Explore symmetrical and asymmetrical shapes of different sizes. How do students feel when they are in their various shapes?