Time: 6-8 weeks
This unit is designed to help students develop an awareness of the role of dance in the daily life of communities throughout various cultures and historical periods.
Sample Topic: "Dance History"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory Activities
Introduce students to modern dance pioneers such as Isadora Duncan. Read stories about dance history and innovative choreographers in books such as Isadora Dances. Using the Internet, research modern dance pioneers including Isadora Duncan and Martha Graham.
Learn about the history of dance forms such as ballet. Invite a resource person from a local ballet school to demonstrate ballet steps and techniques. View excerpts from ballets and modern dances to compare the two dance styles. Encourage students to focus on the use and comparison of the elements of dance.
Ask students to conduct a research project focusing on well-known Canadian ballet dancers such as Evelyn Hart from the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; or Celia Franca, Rex Harrington, or Karen Kain from the National Ballet of Canada.
Read books such as Kids Dance: The Students of Ballet Tech. which takes readers on a tour of the first American public school for ballet.
Read about individual ballet dancers such as Maria Tallchief in Tallchief: America's Prima Ballerina in which Tallchief describes her childhood on an Osage reservation, the development of her love of dance, and her rise to success in that field.
Learn about the history of social dances such as square dancing. Invite a square dance teacher to visit the class to talk about the local history of the dance form in his or her community and to provide a workshop for the students. Following the workshop, have students demonstrate their square dances at a senior citizens' centre.
Help students learn about the history of the powwow. Draw on local experts and read books such as The Northern Traditional Dancer by C. Scott Evans to learn about the history of dances such as the Northern Traditional Dance of plains First Nations, particularly the Lakota Sioux.
2. Main Activities
Guide students as they learn about the history of popular social dances including 1920s and 30s ragtime, jazz, and swing dances such as the Charleston , Lindy Hop, or Jitterbug.
Contact local ballroom dance schools to see if there are resource people in the area who are familiar with swing dances. Contact Dance Saskatchewan Incorporated in Saskatoon to access instructional videos listed in its Resource Centre Catalogue. See Arts Education: A Bibliography for the Elementary Level (2003) for contact information.
Locate pictures of 1920s women called “flappers”. Flappers got their names due to the way they flapped their arms and walked like birds when dancing the Charleston . These women of the “Jazz Age” defied the conventions of the time by cutting their hair into short bobs and wearing short skirts.
Ask students to think of modern day equivalents of the flappers. Which fashions and styles of today defy typical mainstream dress code conventions? What social dances today are breaking new ground and might create new dance and fashion traditions for future generations?
Talk to students about the dance called the Jive, developed in the United Kingdom and based on the American Jitterbug. Invite a local ballroom dance teacher to teach the students to jive. Have the students take turns dancing with different partners.
Divide students into groups and have each group create a dance that draws on the history of dance for its inspiration. For example, some students might incorporate steps from the 1920s Charleston into their new dance composition. Other students might create their own versions of a Renaissance court dance based on excerpts viewed in contemporary period films. Students will notice that court dances were often done with dancers facing each other in lines and moving in pairs around circles, lightly holding or touching the arm of a partner. The bulky clothing of that time limited the dancers' movements. The steps included walking, sliding, stamping of the feet, jumping, and hopping. The dancers also did pirouettes and used various leg gestures. The arms were usually held low. Students may create their own dances using similar movement vocabulary from the past.
3. Concluding Activities
Read about changes in dance practices that will affect the dance history in the future. Include, for example, discussions about dancers who face additional physical challenges such as those who dance and perform in wheelchairs described in the book Dancing Wheels .
Discuss the common misconception and stereotype that dancers must be young, thin, and have so-called perfect bodies in order to participate in dance or perform dances for an audience.
Discuss the kinds of pressures with which many dancers are confronted regarding body image. Many choreographers have expectations that dancers be young and thin. Other choreographers are open to a more inclusive philosophy and practise that inclusion in their hiring. Focus student discussion on the benefits of good nutrition, physical fitness, and the more appropriate expectation that students of all sizes and abilities can find great satisfaction in dancing for both social and expressive purposes. Dancers of all sizes, ages, and physical abilities can develop flexibility, strength, presence, and creative expression.
Discuss dancers and dance companies who are directly confronting social issues related to size, body image, and dance such as members of the Canadian group Big Dance. Visit the Big Dance website at http://www.bigdance.org.
Teacher Information:
At each grade, students should experience a mini-unit or unit of study that uses a dancer, choreographer, company, dance style, or cultural heritage style as its focal point.
This mini-unit primarily explores the works of Christopher House. It provides an example of how students can explore and learn about any choreographer. Other Canadian dancer/ choreographers include:
- Robin Poitras
- Peggy Baker
- Karen Kain
- Margie Gillis
- Veronica Tennant
- David Earle
- Danny Grossman
- James Kudelka
- Ginette Laurin.
Sample Topic: "Dancer/Choreographer Christopher House"
Suggested Resources:
Starter List of Activities
1. Introductory Activities
Watch videos of dances created by Christopher House. Brainstorm qualities of movement that are common in House's dances.
Select two or three shapes, movements, phrases, and/or qualities from House's choreography. Explore the movements noting what body parts are emphasized.
Read to the class excerpts of biographical information or stories on Christopher House.
2. Main Activities
In groups, have students conduct a research project on Christopher House.
Use Responding to Arts Expressions to watch and discuss one of Christopher House's dances.
Study one of House's dances and list the qualities of movement found in that dance. In groups, or in partners, create a response to House's work through dance.
Learn a phrase from one of House's pieces as accurately as possible. Create a variation for it to put with the original. Students may also want to create an opposite phrase to the original.
Begin by arranging for students to look through a kaleidoscope. Watch House's dance entitled “Glass Houses”. Discuss its human kaleidoscope quality and how he achieves it. In groups, have students create shape or line patterns using paint or pastels. Create a dance to reflect the pattern.
Have the class write letters to Toronto Dance Theatre Company to obtain any information about Christopher House. Students may have a list of questions to ask including:
Have groups of students research companies that have employed House including Toronto Dance Theatre Company, Peggy Baker Dance Projects, and the National Ballet of Canada. To share their findings, students could do a short presentation or make posters to put up around the classroom.
Search for pictures of House's performances. If possible, find a description of one of his pieces with a series of pictures to match. Have students re-create these pictures with own bodies, starting from and returning to a perfect alignment position. Have students insert transitions between poses to create a response to the dance.
Music was central to House's choreography. In groups, have students choose a piece of music that they like and create a dance that is well-suited to the music.
Study the gestures in House's dances. Examine what the gestures might mean. Encourage students to use some of House's gestures and some of students' own features to create a dance.
Pick out one movement or phrase from House's work that is repeated. Examine this movement and decide why the movement was so important to the piece. Explore the movement and use it as a basis for a dance. The same may be done by picking out two very contrasting movements.
3. Concluding Activities
Watch everyone's variation of House's dance phrase and discuss what elements of dance were retained and which were not. Be sure to use the language of dance relating to dynamics (e.g., speed), relationships (e.g., are you with anyone?), and space (e.g., using a little or a lot of it).
Research certain choreography awards such as:
Find out who started them, who sponsors them, and who has received them as well as any restrictions or requirements for them.
Have groups of students each study a different dancer/choreographer. They may create pictures or posters with crucial information such as:
Ask a modern dancer from the community to come in and talk about his/her form and why he/she dances.
Record the dance creations and compare them to House's original works. Which elements were the same and which were different?
Have students record in a journal a description of House's movements as well as the authentic movement that arises from it. Note any feelings and expressions that were important.
Have students create a dance response to a dancer/ choreographer of their choice. See Responding to Arts Expressions.