Dance: Grade 8

Technique

Choreography

Nonverbal Communication

Critical and Creative Thinking

History and Culture

Healthful Living

Making Connections

The student will identify and demonstrate movement elements and skills and apply them while performing dance.

The student will implement choreographic principles, processes, and structures.

The student will use dance as a medium to communicate meaning and/or artistic intent.

The student will demonstrate and apply critical, creative, and analytic thinking in response to dance.

The student will demonstrate an understanding of dance in various cultures and historical periods.

The student will identify and apply healthful practices related to dance.

The student will make connections between dance and other arts disciplines, other content areas, and the world.

Demonstrate and describe movement from a variety of dance techniques and kinesthetic skills (for example, initiation of movement, weight shift, fall and recovery, contraction and release).

Identify and demonstrate basic dance steps, positions, and patterns in four or more genres or forms of dance.

Form shapes and create designs with his or her body and in relation to others' bodies, using a variety of spatial directions, pathways, and levels.

Identify and demonstrate a broad range of movement qualities (for example, sustained, percussive, vibratory, bound, free-flowing).

Demonstrate increasing kinesthetic awareness, concentration, focus, and projection when performing movement skills.

Demonstrate accurate memorization and replication of movement sequences.

Demonstrate and use correct dance vocabulary to describe the actions (for example, skip, gallop, swing, bend) and movement elements (for example, levels, direction) in a brief movement study.

Continue to refine technique through teacher correction, self-evaluation, and peer evaluation.

Use improvisation to generate movement and perform brief compositions based on a variety of stimuli (for example, sensory cues, ideas, moods).

Create variations on an original phrase by using a variety of processes (for example, fragmentation, augmentation, diminution, transposition, reordering, chance).

Identify and demonstrate the structures or forms of AB, ABA, canon, call and response, and narrative.

Create original dance phrases or brief movement studies that demonstrate the principles of contrast and transition.

Work alone, with a partner, or in a small group during the choreographic process.

Demonstrate the following partnering skills: creating contrasting and complementary shapes and receiving and supporting small amounts of weight.

Compare and contrast two or more dance works and define the choreographic tools being used in each.

Translate basic motif description/dance notation into movement and use description/notation to record dance phrases.

Create and perform brief dance sequences that communicate personal ideas, experiences, feelings, concepts, or images.

Analyze the main idea, theme, or feeling of a dance in relation to a personal context.

Create a dance sequence and select accompaniment (for example, sound, music, spoken text) that supports its meaning.

Create a dance and describe lighting, costumes, props, and other scenic elements that would contribute to its meaning.

Create and perform a dance sequence that communicates a topic of personal significance.

Create and demonstrate multiple solutions to movement problems; identify the most interesting solutions and explain his or her choices.

Compare and contrast two or more subtly differing dance compositions in terms of space (for example, shape, pathways), time (for example, rhythm, tempo), and/or force/energy/movement qualities (for example, weight, flow).

Identify, describe, analyze, and evaluate the quality of dances on the basis of aesthetic criteria (for example, skill of the performers, originality of the choreography, intent of the choreographer).

Demonstrate appropriate audience behavior while watching and responding to live or recorded dance performances.

Perform four or more simple folk dances, social dances, classical dances, and/or theatrical dances and identify and describe the similarities and differences among them.

Identify the role of dance in various cultures and historical contexts and distinguish the similarities and differences among them.

Identify notable figures in dance and distinguish and/or evaluate the similarities and differences among their works and/or contributions.

Perform excerpts from masterworks or etudes based on masterworks (with all copyright restrictions observed).

Demonstrate respect for his or her own well-being and that of others by setting goals to maintain or achieve personal health and well-being through dance.

Identify and describe the ways that dance promotes strength, health, physical safety, and reduced risk of injury and employ appropriate strategies for treating, preventing, and recovering from dance injuries.

Identify, demonstrate, and create warm-up exercises for specific muscle groups and explain the ways that warming up prepares the body for dancing.

Identify and describe the ways that lifestyle choices, body image, peer pressure, cultural media, and social environment affect a dancer.

Identify bones and muscle groups and the ways that alignment, flexibility, and strength contribute to the body's range of motion.

Identify, describe, and analyze the similarities and differences among the arts.

Respond to a dance by using another art form; explain the connections between the dance and his or her response to it (for example, use a painting to respond to a dance that he or she has seen).

Create a movement phrase that demonstrates examples of concepts used both in dance and in a discipline outside the arts or everyday life (for example, shapes in geometry, balance in the natural sciences, pattern in mathematics).

Identify describe, and analyze the similarities and differences between the choreographic process and the process of another discipline (for example, the writing process, scientific inquiry, the creative process across all of the arts).

Demonstrate basic proficiency in at least two technological applications related to dance (for example, human animation software, information retrieval via the Internet, dance notation, videotaping, video editing).

Identify and describe the responsibilities associated with various careers in dance and identify personal career interests.