Grade 9 - 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

• Brainstorm performance skills (e.g., focus, stage presence, performing energy, clarity of execution, use of space). Students apply these skills to short dance sequences, varying the length, mood, and complexity. Videotape the performances. Use the brainstormed list to analyse performance skills and refine movements.
• Explore a variety of ways for dancers to learn to concentrate. For example:
  • Perform a dance while answering questions (e.g., "When is your birthday?").
  • Practise while audience provides distractions (e.g., noise, waving).
  • Create and use a visualization (e.g., imagining a formal performance).
• Select a dance from a particular historical period, region or country, and genre (e.g., the Roaring Twenties, North America, the Charleston; 1990s, Newfoundland, folk dance). ResearchÑusing text, video, CD-ROM, travel brochuresÑthe appropriate steps, etiquette, and vocabulary for the chosen dance style, then present the dance with attention to these details.
• Discuss how a dance might need to be adapted for different environments or dancers (e.g., class, school assembly, outdoors, community, dancers with disabilities). Use this information when practising dances for performance.
• Show examples of a particular genre, focussing on execution of technique; performance skills; use of stagecraft elements and technology; use of music, gender roles, and cultural influences. Discuss how these characteristics can be incorporated in students´ own presentations.
• Encourage students to use a daily journal to describe tasks, record information on dance background, express personal feelings about the dance process, and assess personal effort and commitment.
• Research methods of recording or notating dance (e.g., written description, symbolic representation, video, concept map, computer-assisted program). Students choose one method to record their own description of a dance learned or observed.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

As students rehearse, perform, and view dance, observe and record the extent to which they demonstrate appropriate skills and attitudes. Specific behaviours which could become the basis of a rating scale or checklist include:

• dance memory
• focus
• stage presence
• technical skill
• audience etiquette
• commitment to the rehearsal and performance process

After students have viewed a presentation or performance of a dance sequence, work with them to develop a rating scale for evaluating performances. Discuss and demonstrate ways of describing different levels of competence, and provide models of rating scales for other skills. Try out the first draft of the rating scale, discussing and demonstrating various levels of performance, and make any adjustments needed.

When students are comfortable with the scale, have them work in pairs, using the rating scale to assess and provide feedback about a partner´s performance. Examine their use of the rating scale for:

• accuracy in identifying levels of accomplishment
• feedback in identifying strengths and weaknesses
• logic or reasonableness of the explanations given for the ratings

At regular intervals, have students review their journals and make summary comments in response to prompts. In assessing and responding to students´ responses, look for evidence of insight and commitment. Possible prompts:

• An important change I´ve noticed is __________.
• One of the most important dance experiences I´ve had was __________ because __________.
• A goal I´ve moved toward is __________; next, I plan to __________.
• I´m surprised that __________.
• Something important I´ve learned about myself is __________.

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

• 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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