Dance 5
Presentation and Performance

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

Prescribed Learning Outcomes

It is expected that students will:

rehearse dance for presentation
demonstrate performance skills and audience etiquette appropriate to a given performance situation
demonstrate a sense of feeling and mood in movement
apply established criteria to analyse their own and others' work

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

Suggested Instructional Strategies

Read from a selection of musical theatre. Ask students to reflect on the words and visualize themselves moving in the context of the piece. Then have each create a visual representation of the feelings conveyed by the words and the types of movement that would be appropriate to develop into a sequence. Challenge students to work in small groups to create short dances using the movements they visualized.
Videotape students dancing and replay the video for the class. Have students evaluate their personal contributions to the dance and identify how they could revise their techniques and performance skills. Invite students to suggest other subject areas in which they might rehearse, revise, and present a product (e.g., writing a story, preparing a gymnastic routine). Ask them to identify any skills developed in these subject areas that would help in the revision process in dance.
Ask students working in groups to brainstorm performance skills they have seen and then create personal dictionaries of these skills. Suggest that students add to their dictionaries as they view and learn additional dances.
Have students work in small groups to create raps or skits about audience and performance etiquette. Prompt them with questions such as:
- If you were performing a dance, what kind of behaviour would you expect from the audience?
- Ideally, how should the performers feel?
Ask the groups to present their skits to the class before attending a live dance performance.
Play a selection of dance videos. Have students use guided response sheets to record how the movements, music, costumes, sets, and props contribute to the overall mood and feeling of each dance shown. Provide opportunities for students to apply what they have learned to their own dances.

Suggested Assessment Strategies

Have students listen to selections of music from various artists and then work with partners to create short dances based on patterning or images in the music. Ask them to record their dances using invented forms of notation based on words, pictures, symbols, or numbers. Look for evidence that students are able to:
- accurately record their dances through notation
- perform their dances with personal expression
- reflect the mood and feeling of the music
With the whole class, develop criteria for appropriate audience and performer etiquette. Create a chart to be posted in the classroom for student reference. Ask questions such as:
- How could a performer tell that you are watching closely?
- What might your posture be?
- How could a performer tell what your feelings are about this activity?
- Ideally, how should performers feel?
- What would appropriate performer etiquette look like?
Note the extent to which students demonstrate appropriate audience and performer etiquette based on the criteria developed in class.
After students have listened to a music selection from a soundscape they created in a music class, ask them to work in groups to create movement sequences. Give the groups opportunities to refine and revise their dances for performance. Then have students complete self-assessments in their journals using prompts such as:
- The best part of our dance sequence was ----------.
- The mood and feeling we were trying to create were----------.
- When we performed we felt ----------.
- One thing we would change next time is ----------.