Grade 8 - Presentation and Performance

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

• rehearse and perform dance for a specific environment
• demonstrate dance movements in the appropriate style for the chosen genre or choreography
• demonstrate skills and attitudes appropriate to a range of dance experiences as performer, participant, and audience, demonstrating:
  • an awareness of a sense of community
  • audience and performer etiquette
  • performance skills
  • respect for others´ contributions
• use established criteria to analyse the work of self and others

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Presentation and Performance in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Students view videos of their own work and identify aspects needing refinement (e.g., alignment, unison).
• Have the class view and compare two versions of the same dance (e.g., videos of an early rehearsal and of a final production). Discuss the use of the elements and principles of movement and note refinements in performance. Brainstorm criteria for dance evaluation (e.g., remembers steps, displays appropriate dynamics). Compare to standardized rating and assessment systems (e.g., competition adjudication forms). Students use their criteria checklist to practise evaluating performances. Debrief, comparing students´ assessments.
• Encourage students to write journals or reviews of performances seen (classmates, other classes, invited groups, community performances).
• Students keep a "personal dance diary," including descriptions of and responses to dance experiences, assessment or self-assessment of the performance, and so on.
• Create a word web or tree of terms related to performance skills, then discuss presentations of a choreographic work using this terminology.
• View a polished performance (on video, live) and identify the use of stagecraft (lighting, props, sets, costumes, and so on). Students plan and create a diagram, model, or diorama of stagecraft elements for their own dances. Discuss the use of found objects, common classroom materials, and other innovative ways of incorporating stagecraft in a "non-theatre" setting (e.g., flashlights for lighting, overhead projectors for projecting sets).
• Brainstorm and discuss ways a dance might need to be adapted for specific environments (e.g., use of aisles in theatre, hallways, classrooms with furniture, small spaces).
• Students visualize what would be their "ideal" performance of a selected dance, and use their journals to record the details (how it looks, how it feels).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

As students rehearse, perform, and view dance, observe and record the extent to which they demonstrate appropriate skills and attitudes. Work with students to develop a list of specific behaviours that can become the basis of a rating scale or checklist. For example:

• working collaboratively to reach a group goal
• working to improve their own skills within a group performance
• contributing ideas and feedback in a constructive manner
• seeking and using feedback from peers and others
• showing respect and appreciation for others´ contributions
• offering encouragement or showing empathy as a member of the audience Students can complete self-assessments of the same skills and attitudes.

Have students work in pairs to choose one performance skill (e.g., focus, stage presence, technical skill), and:

• write a definition that would help others understand what is involved in the skill and why it is important in performance
• observe several live or videotaped performances, making notes about the skill they have chosen
• use this information to create a simple rating scale or checklist (see Appendix D for samples)
• use their rating scale or checklist to provide feedback to other students after each classroom rehearsal or presentation to other performers (and to seek feedback about their own performance skills)

Work with small groups of students to develop guidelines for such activities as rehearsals, presentations, and performances. Prompt students to consider aspects such as co-operation, safety, sensitivity, creativity (risk taking), support, and empathy. Provide each student with a copy of the guidelines to guide self-assessment and reflection at the end of a session.

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

• Creative Dance for All Ages
• Form Without Formula: A Concise Guide to the Choreographic Process
• Moon Magic: Gail Grant and the 1920´s Dance in Regina
• The Young Dancer

• Dance at Court
• The Making of a Dancer
• The Power of Dance

• The Creative Dance Keys Kit
• Dance Education Initiative
• Teaching Beginning Dance Improvisation
• Upper Elementary Children: Moving and Learning

• Contrast and Continuum: Music for Creative Dance, Volume I
• Contrast and Continuum: Music for Creative Dance, Volume II

Table of Contents

Province of British Columbia
Ministry of Education
Curriculum Branch © 1995 Copyright

Maintained by: Fine Arts Coordinator - Dance

Revised: January 25, 1999

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