"Performance Qualities"
Dance Lesson Plan

Ages

13-14, 8th grade

Space

The dance session takes place on the stage of the school's auditorium or in an empty classroom.

Supplies

Taped music and tape recorder

Goal

The children will learn that dancers need to have a clear focus and project a high energy level on stage in order for their movements to be interesting and engaging for the audience to watch,

Lesson Objectives

• Experience full-bodied, high energy movements through a modern dance technique based warm-up
• Explore moving across the space focusing out to a distant spot on the opposite wall
• Reflect on their past experiences in dance performances or sports events, in which they have had fun, got excited and/or felt exhilarated
• Rehearse the dance they have created in past sessions, based on theme and variation

Dance Elements/Movements to be Explored

• Choreography
• theme and variation
• sequence
• phrase
• rhythm
• levels in space
• retrograde
• moving isolated body parts
• successive movements
• directions in space
• focus
• cannon
• size of movement
• locomotion
• energy
• alignment
• rehearsal procedures and etiquette
• spatial patterns and pathways

Introduction

(First period takes place in the classroom, and second period takes place in the auditorium stage.)

1. The students enter the room and sit in the chairs that are arranged in a semi-circle. After role has been taken, the students are asked to quietly put their chairs up on the tables and to find a space that they would like to work in.

2. They are asked to stand in parallel position with their arms down at their sides, and to make sure that when they bend their knees that their knees are going directly over the middle of each foot. To practice this the teacher leads the students though a series of slow plies, giving positive suggestions for better alignment.

3. The teacher turns on some music with a strong beat to begin the warm-up, which consists of body part isolations of the head, shoulders, spine, hips, knees, and ankles; full body circles using a lunge; plies in forth position to experience weight shift; swinging of the entire body, swinging arms combination; swinging legs combination; swinging down in the sagittal plane to open arms, while twisting the torso to one side; shaking body parts to relieve muscle tension; and jogging in place and jumping to increase energy.

4. The students are asked to form four lines at one side of the room to prepare to move across the space.

Development

1. The teacher tells the students that they will be working on focus and energy in today's class. She asks the students to walk across the floor to the beat of the music while focusing on one spot on the opposite wall.

2. The teacher asks the students to quietly take their places to begin the dance, and proceeds to run through the dance one or two times, counting out loud, with out the music.

(End of first period.)

3. Before going on to the stage the students are asked to remember and talk about a time in their past performing experiences or sporting events and how those made them feel. Did they get exited? How did it feel to be in front of an audience? How did it feel to get the attention? Were you proud of your accomplishment? Can you try to recreate that feeling for the next week as we continue rehearsing this dance?

Culminating Experiences

1. The students are asked to take their places on stage, and the dance is rehearsed for the remainder of the period.

2. The teacher gives feedback and suggestions after each run through.

Angela McDonnell
Teachers College
Columbia University
December 9, 1993