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Tempo Contrasts in partner Dances
Students explore the differences in tempo through movement. In groups, students create an original dance phrase and illustrate both fast and slow movement. They share their observations and evaluate each dance according to originality...
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Dance Team/ Collaborative Fitness Routines
Students experience the process of creating a "dance team" type routine by following a set procedure.
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"Performance Qualities" Dance Lesson Plan
Eighth graders move across a space practicing a dance as they work on focus and energy.
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Spatial Relationships: an Over/Under Dance
Students explore the relationships of space through movement. Two perform movement improvisation based on over/under. The activity improves hand-eye coordination, cooperation, and communication skills. The timing of the dance also...
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Shapes in Art, Shapes in Body
Students explore body movement. In this shapes and dance lesson, students demonstrate body movements and positions that resemble simple shapes. Students read I Spy Shapes in Art by Lucy Micklethwait and choose shapes from the...
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Performance of routine movements
Students explore movement in dance routines. They observe movements and transform everyday gestures into choregraphy. Through activities, students develop improvisational skills. They evaluate and critique work.
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Just Dancing Around? Trisha Brown
Students view a video clip highlighting the work of choreographer Trisha Brown and read her biography. They complete a table to summarize her work and they discuss their answers.
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Abstractions/Gestures
Students examine and display the differences between literal, and non-literal movement and abstraction using a creative project in movement. This project originates as an individual item, culminating in a small group performance.
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Beyond the Notes
Students observe as the teacher introduced themself as a talent scout for a clothing company for teenagers who is looking for a choreographer for a commercial for a new line of clothes called, "The Wrap". They work alone or in groups of...
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Floor Paths
Middle schoolers explore the use of floor paths on the stage. In this floor paths lesson, students evaluate choreography for use of the floor space on the stage. Middle schoolers design a short choreography piece that exhibits an...
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From Broadway: Fosse
High schoolers examine the life and contributions of choreographer and director Bob Fosse. They analyze reviews, write a review after watching one of Bob Fosse's films, and view and compare Fosse dances to current music videos.
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The Water Cycle: Revising the Drafts
Learners explore states of matter by concentrating on the ways in which water moves between its solid, liquid, and gaseous states in a variety of Earth environments familiar to the students. Learners represent these movements in dance.
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THE TRAVELS OF BABAR: An Adventure in Scale :Interpreting the music of Raphael Mostel's Dance/Movement exercise
Young scholars explore how dance/movement tell a story. They analyze the elements of dance through interpretation of the story. Students exercise how the feelings and moods of the music suggest certain body movements and actions.
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Rhythmic Dancing
Fourth graders practice expressing themselves through the art of dance. For this physical education lesson, 4th graders discuss choreography and how moving specific ways at certain times can be artistic. Students create and...
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Take the Stage
Eighth graders explore kinesthetic movements. In this kinesthetic movements lesson, 8th graders explore how to enter the stage properly. Over two days, students investigate how to hold their own on the stage during a dance.
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Nureyev: Bringer of Light
Students examine Nureyev's artistic endeavors and achievements. In this language and art instructional activity, students analyze modes of dance expression at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries. They focus on...
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Landscapes of the Mind
Students review Emily Dickinson's biography and examine themes and forms of some of her poems. They measure ways Graham integrates aspects of Dickinson's life and the themes and forms of her poetry into Letters to the World.
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Courage
Students become familiar with dance vocabulary and, with their bodies, create shapes and transitional movements to depict emotions related to the theme of 'courage.' They coordinate their movements to music and critique each others'...
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Choreographic Variations on "Plod"
Learners examine the choreography of Dan Wagoner. In this art instructional activity, students create their own choreography based on the work of Dan Wagoner's dance "Plod."
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Plodding Along: The Dan Wagoner Experiment
Students research Dan Wagoner and apply his choreographic ideas in "Plod" to dance study. In this art instructional activity, students discuss Dan Wagoner. Students select four shapes from "Plod" and connect in a dance.
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Moving Rhythms
Students explore the elements of tempo, beat and rhythm. They create rhythm patterns and an original dance. In groups, students perform their phrases for their peers. As a class, they explore choreographic principles, processes and...
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Shadow Dances
Students explore the physical phenomenon of shadows through movement improvisation and dance. They create an original dance phrase based on this imagery. All students then reproduce accurately the movement choices of another dancer.
![British Columbia Ministry of Education: Dance 11 and 12 [Pdf] Professional Doc](https://static.lp.lexp.cloud/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "British Columbia Ministry of Education: Dance 11 and 12 [Pdf] Professional Doc")
Province of British Columbia
British Columbia Ministry of Education: Dance 11 and 12 [Pdf]
Suggested activities and resources for teaching a high school dance program centered around dance as performance and choreography.
University of California
University of California, Irvine: Digital Dance and Choreography
This site discusses computer-generated music and the choreography of dance. Also provides information about the modeling of complex motion, digital productions and choreography.