Dance
Teacher Resources
Introduction
Assessement
Analysis:
This performance of Warrima: Shake a Leg is an excerpt from the short documentary titled Warrima. Warrima is the name of a dance traditionally a dance performed by Australian Aboriginal men and boys. It is a dance performed after all other dances to welcome and signify acceptance. It is a traditional dance performed by Aboriginal men and boys as a joyous ritual of welcome and acceptance performed by Aboriginal communities along the east coast of Australia. When dancers move their feet, the rhythm stirs the earth and the rising dust signifies their ancestors listening and joining the dance. Dancers use their body parts, their legs and feet to perform the “shake a leg” movements and their arms and hands to create gestures to signify animals or throwing a spear. The body base used during the dance was their feet.
Dancers performing Warrima applied the elements of space by using a group formation, standing close together in an informal line. Pathways included some members of the dance group moving forward and backwards to and from the main line. Dancers that remain in the line clap, stamp and sing to support those who move forward and “shake a leg”. The dimension of the dance space is wide so that all dancers are visible to the audience. The element of time is displayed using a moderated temp with combinations of accelerations and an accent beat between the accelerations to signal the next group to “shake a leg”. Varying dynamics within each sequence of eight beats includes all dancers displaying their upper body zone in a non-locomotor position either the main outstretched arms or hold their arms and hands in a way to signify an animal or about to throwing a spear. As dancers may use a different upper body zone position they all display the same lower body zone movement “shake a leg” with their legs and feet spread at shoulder width moving their knees in and out. The choreographic form of the dance is passed down from elders and is a repetitive sequence. There is also improvisation as to the arm gestures used by individual dancers.
Significant Artwork 1 Warrima: Shake a leg
This teacher resource is to be used as a guide for teaching year 3 Australian Curriculum: The Arts – Dance. This resource supports the "Our Melting Pot" Dance student learning materials and activities . Students will explore, make and respond to dance from a range of different groups and individuals in the community. Students will contribute to an individual folio that will provide evidence of their learning and represent their achievements.
Key Questions:
-
Context as an artist and audience:
-
What is the nature of dance contributions made by different groups and individuals in the community?
-
-
Knowledge as artist and audience:
-
How do people structure movement using choreographic devices and elements of dance?
-
-
Evaluations and judgements as artist and audience:
-
What story does dance communicate?
-
By the end of this unit, student will:
-
Describe and discuss similarities and differences between dances they make, perform and view.
-
Discuss how they and others organise the elements of dance in dances depending on the purpose.
-
Structure movements into dance sequences and use the elements of dance and choreographic devices to represent a story or mood.
-
Collaborate to make dances and perform with control, accuracy, projection and focus (ACARA, 2017)
-
Identify individuals, events and aspects of the past that have significance in the present.
-
Identify the importance of different celebrations and commemorations for different groups (ACARA, 2017).
Arts in education ensures that young people can engage in learning in environments that support the development of their imaginations, risk-taking, self-expression and curiosity (CMC & MCEETYA, 2005) therefore, cultivating creative and innovative thinkers and creators. These skills apply to all learning areas and support learner’s motivation, engagement and confidence, all attributes that work to improve student’s academic outcomes and wellbeing. Dance not only refers to formal training programs, it includes artistic expression, aesthetic and cultural contexts. Dance is movement using your body with purpose and form providing a medium for personal, social, emotional, spiritual and physical communication (ACARA, 2017). Through engagement with this arts resource, students will explore and develop their knowledge understanding of Humanities and Social Sciences: history curriculum by exploring the contributions made by different groups and individuals in the community and how they use dance to communicate, share, preserve and celebrate their culture. Students will learn to use their bodies to communicate and express meaning through purposeful movement. They will learn to integrate choreography, performance and appreciation of and respond to dance and dance making. The Australian Curriculum (2017) states that “Active participation as dancers, choreographers and audiences promotes students’ wellbeing and social inclusion. Learning in and through dance enhances students’ knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures and contexts and develops their personal, social and cultural identity.”
Discussions, practice, performance and group work
Assessment: Formative
Portfolio
Each student can develop a portfolio of their work as they explore, respond, make and perform, working though the learning materials and activities.
Document and collect video recordings of student’s interviews, practice and performances to add to student portfolios.
Assessment: Formative and Summative
Template Booklet
The template booklet contains a word bank, worksheets and templates to modify and use as required.
Assessment: Formative and Summative
Assessment Rubric for a student portfolio for year 3 and 4 Australian Curriculum Dance standard elaborations https://www.qcaa.qld.edu.au/p-10/aciq/standards-elaborations/p-10-arts
Warrima
Template Booklet
Elements of Dance
Responding
-
Introduce and view the video Warrima: Shake a leg and the analysis
-
Instruct students to look and think about how dancers use their bodies in Warrima: Shake leg.
-
Explain body bases. Body bases are the parts of the body that support the rest of the body. In this dance, the body bases used are the dancer’s feet.
-
In dance, we can use our body to communication meaning to the audience.
Questions:
-
What body parts were the dancers moving in Warrima: Shake a leg?
-
How could you describe the dancer’s movements or actions in Warrima: Shake a leg?
Record student’s responses and create a word bank resource for the classroom.
-
What is the meaning of this dance for Australian Aboriginal People?
-
In dance, we refer to body zones. This is a section of the body. When the dancers were performing the Shake a leg movement, was their lower body moving in the same way as their upper body?
-
How were the body zone movements different?
The upper body remained still in a hold position, while the dancers lower body moved quickly and rhythmically. This demonstrates the elements of dance, time, tempo, rhythm and stillness.
As student’s, describe the body parts and movements have students act out some of the movements with the corresponding body part. For example, the feet stamped.
Differentiation: Linking physical actions to new vocabulary supports all student abilities to develop understanding.
Assessment: Formative assessment - Using questioning and discussion to check for understanding. Observe and document student’s participation and engagement. ACHASSK062, ACHASSK063, ACADAR008
Safe Dance Practices
Introduce the topic of safe dance practices. We need to ensure that we take care of our bodies and other when dancing. We need to:
-
Warm up our bodies before dancing
-
Cool down our bodies after dancing
-
Drink water
-
Think about our surroundings. Is the floor slippery? Is the floor clean? We may need to remove our shoes and socks so that we don’t slip.
-
Think about the space. Is there enough room to move around? Is there anything that could get in the way?
Questions:
-
How can we use dance space safely?
-
As a performer, how do we show mutual respect for each other’s personal space?
-
How does the amount of space we have affect how we dance?
-
As an observer, how do we show mutual respect for others observing and performing?
Assessment: Formative assessment - Using questioning and discussion to check for understanding and observe and document student’s participation and engagement. ACADAM006
Animal warm up activity
In small groups. Individual student’s will think of an Australian animal and how they could move their body to represent the animal.
Allocate time to allow student’s, to discuss and practice their movements within their small groups.
Play music or have students use Aboriginal clapping sticks to create music.
Students will draw a picture of their chosen animal and then glue or draw a picture of themselves showing their body movement to represent their animal. Student’s will write a description of the body parts and movements. (Exemplar provided in student learning materials and activities)
Differentiation: Refer students to the word bank or provide them with a print copy to keep in their desk. Add images to the word bank to support understanding.
Assessment: Using questioning and discussion to check for understanding. Observe and document student’s participation and engagement in small group activity, responding, describing and explaining. In developing and performing an animal movement and in completing the animal movement worksheet students can demonstrate their understanding of body and movement skills, describing, making and sharing. ACADAM005, ACADAR008. ACADAM006, ACADAM007
Read
Read: Shake a leg by Boori Monty Pryor and illustrated by Jan Ormerod.
If your school has access to Story box library you can view a reading of Shake a leg by the Author Boori Monty Pryor. https://storyboxlibrary.com.au/stories/shake-a-leg/
Shake a leg is a story that promotes cultural understanding. The story begins with a group of young boys ‘hunting for pizza’. They find their pizza and meet an indigenous chief who shares his traditional stories from his culture and introduces them to the Crocodile, Honey-bee and Warrima Dances. In this text stereotypes are challenged while also emphasizing the resilience, richness and integrity of indigenous culture, its authenticity and unique spirit as Australia changes over time.
Questions:
-
What are the different ways we can tell stories?
Verbal storytelling, writing, books, movies, dance.
-
What can we learn about different cultures in our communities?
How they celebrate their culture. How and why they share stories. We can learn about their history
-
How do Australian Aboriginal people tell stories?
Verbally, through art and painting and dance.
-
Why are these stories important?
The provide information their culture, history, food sources, communities, lessons, warnings and their beliefs.
Students will share their animal warm up with the class. They can demonstrate their movement, then invite all students to join in. Students observing can also make music for the warm up using Aboriginal clapping sticks.
Assessment: Participation in whole class discussions and small group activity responding, describing and explaining. Students will explore the importance of Country and Place to Aboriginal People who belong to a local area and how the community has changed and remained the same over time and the roles that people of diverse backgrounds have played in the development and character of the local community ACHASSK063. In sharing their animal dance warm up, students can demonstrate their understanding of body and movement skills, making, performing and sharing. ACADAM005, ACADAR008, ACADAM007
Elements of Dance
Watch: Elements of Dance – Body https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIzIRHfM8BU
Watch: Djarragun Aboriginal Dancers at Townsville Festival, Australia perform the Kangaroo Hunting Dance and the Crocodile Dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGXsUfVUo6I
-
Think about the dancers in the Kangaroo Hunting Dance and the Crocodile Dance as we look at the Elements of dance.
-
View the power point: Elements of dance
-
While working through the power point. Students can use their bodies to represent the elements of dance and reflect and discuss examples from the Kangaroo Hunting Dance and the Crocodile Dance.
-
Students can complete the Kangaroo Hunting Dance worksheet to identify and describe the elements of dance.
Differentiation: Refer students to the word bank. Add images to support understanding of vocabulary. Scribe or record student’s verbal responses.
Assessment: Participation in class discussions and completion of the Kangaroo Hunting Dance to demonstrate understanding in connecting observed traditional Aboriginal dances with the elements of dance. Student participation in physically representing the elements of dance demonstrates their achievement of practicing and performing technical skills and the elements of dance. ACHASSK063, ACADAM005, ACADAR008, ACADAM007.
Analysis:
Bollywood is the name given to the Indian film industry, a play on the word Hollywood and Bombay, now known as Mumbai in India. The Bollywood films are known for their colourful and energetic interpretation of stories through song and dance. The elaborate dance sequences and sound tracks have developed the Bollywood signature dance form creating a fusion of traditional Indian classical and folk dances and elements of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Arabic and Latin Forms. This video was produced to document Confluence: A festival of India in Australia. This festival celebrates the cultural contributions of the Indian community to Australian life. The workshop at Sydney Opera House was in the style of a flash mob led by choreographer Gilles Chuyen. Gilles Chuven has been working in India since 1994 with various dance forms such as Chhau Mayurbhanj, Kathak and Bharatnatyam. He has been teaching Bollywood dance style extensively in India, the United Kingdom and South Africa (Confluence: A Festival of India in Australia, 2016).
During the performance and participant’s bodies were evenly spaced throughout this dance. They used their arms, hands, shoulders and hips rhythmically to the music with a moderate to fast tempo. Fundamental movements used both locomotor and non-locomotor movements. For locomotor movements dancers moved side to side, stepping or grapevine steps. Non-locomotor movements included spinning, twisting and bending with their feet remaining on the ground. Dancers used a combination of strong sharp arm and hand movements to smooth flowing or organic movements from raised arms through to the hips. Like the Bollywood movies the dance genre provides an upbeat celebration of life, creating a joyous atmosphere. The stories told are mostly of love and the journey from challenges to triumph. While this artwork does not present a complex story like the dances featured in Bollywood movie. This artwork presents a celebration of two cultures coming together signifying sharing and celebration of the cultural values and the contributions to our community by different cultural groups and individuals.
Responding
Bollywood dance is a type of dance that has come from Bollywood films. Bollywood is the name given to the Indian film industry, a play on the word Hollywood and Bombay now known as Mumbai in India. Bollywood dance is known for its colourful and energetic interpretation of stories through song and dance. The elaborate dance sequences and sound tracks have developed over time from a fusion of traditional Indian classical and folk dances and elements of Jazz, Hip-Hop, Arabic and Latin Forms.
Introduce and view the video The Bollywood Workshop - Confluence a Festival of India in Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zas2-xuBrY
Questions:
-
Have you seen Bollywood dance in your community?
-
The purpose of dance is not always to tell a specific story, sometimes its purpose is to create a mood.
-
How did the music and dance in the video make you feel?
-
What actions or shapes can you see in this Bollywood dance?
Watch: Bollywood Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiARWF73C9w
Ask students to compare the second video to the first.
Questions:
-
How is the second dance different to The Bollywood Workshop?
The use of costumes, choreography, canon, use of space, pathways and direction.
-
What dance elements did you see in the second video?
Relationships, group formations, interactions, larger locomotor movements.
-
What story does this dance tell us?
It is a celebration, being accepted and included.
Assessment: Using questioning and discussion to check for understanding. Observe and document student’s participation and engagement. ACHASSK063, ACADAR008
Navigating Space
Prepare a dance space by marking out squares on the ground using masking tape (70cm x 70cm) and ensure that there are enough squares for each student to stand in. Ensure that there is enough space around the squares so that student won’t bump into each other.
Discuss safe dance practices. Ensure students remove their shoes and socks.
Ask students to stand in one of the squares each. Discuss the idea of directions within the square:
-
Forward, backward, left, right, front right, front left, back right, back left.
-
Above and below.
-
Dancing within this square is a small space compared to a large dance space.
-
Play Simon says to explore the element of space.
-
Call out a movement action and direction within the square:
-
Step left, jump right, hop forwards, slide backwards.
-
Jump in the centre and clap your hands.
-
Play music and let students free dance within their squares. Encourage them to think of the actions they saw in the videos.
Differentiation: Ensure to include a range of actions suitable for diverse student abilities. Model the actions along with students.
Assessment: Observe student’s participation during activities to practice and perform elements of dance. ACADAM006, ACADAM007, ACADAR008
Time to get moving
Inform students that they will be learning to choreograph and perform a Bollywood Dance.
Go through the exemplar in the power point presentation and model the actions with the class. Practice without music. Then practice with music.
Watch a video of the planned dance from the exmplar.
Cool Down: From yoga to dance for kids - cool down sequence.
Differentiation: Students can practice dance moves with one body zone at a time. For example, only use the arm movements until confident before introducing another movement in an action.
Assessment: Observe and document student’s participation during activities to practice and perform elements of dance. ACADAM006, ACADAM007, ACADAR008.
Making Your Bollywood Dance
Let’s Create Inspiration
For ideas and inspiration watch the following videos:
-
Slumdog Millionaire Dance Scenes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPvPUk96vb0&feature=youtu.be
This is an edited video appropriate for year 3 students and only shows and focuses on the dance movements.
-
Listen and watch: Mirror Mirror – Soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8-bMgDANEk
Warm up:
Instruct students to move around the room in a large circle while listening to music.
Provide instructions (can you):
-
Walk on your tip toes to the music?
-
Skip in time to the music?
-
Side step to the music?
Remind students to think about and control the actions keeping in time with the music.
Let's Create
Put students into working groups of three.
Instruct students to:
-
Each create a dance element for the count of 8 that the group will perform in unison. (Unison, means to that your will perform the action at the same time as the other dances in your group.
-
Write a description of each dance element using the dance planner. (Bollywood template workbook)
-
Practice their dance element.
Differentiation: Students can practice dance movement with one body zone at a time. For example, only use the arm movements until confident before introducing another movement in an action.
Formative Assessment: Observe and document student’s participation during activities to practice and perform the elements of dance. ACADAM006, ACADAM007, ACADAR008, ACADAM005.
Practice and review
Instruct students to practice their group’s dance elements together.
Questions:
-
Do each of your dance elements link and flow to communicate your story or mood?
-
What did you do well today?
-
What could you improve?
Provide feedback on student progress.
Instruct students to perform their dance element for another group.
Students can complete the self-evaluation and performance checklist worksheet. (Bollywood Template Booklet)
Perform and discuss
-
Assign two groups to work together for this activity.
-
Each group of three will take turns to perform (without music).
-
Each group of three will develop questions to ask the other group to identify the similarities and differences between the two dances.
Differentiation: Provide sentence starters or questions.
Questions could include:
-
Can you describe the similarities between your group’s dance and our group’s dance?
-
Can you describe the differences between your group’s dance and our group’s dance?
Student/Teacher will record the interview.
Assessment: Observe and document student’s participation during activities to practice and perform the elements of dance. ACADAM006, ACADAM007, ACADAR008, ACADAM005.
Performing and responding
-
Student groups will perform their dance for the whole class.
-
Remind students that as an audience member, they need to observe and look for good actions, thinking about why you think they are good actions.
-
Students will select two groups and describe why they liked the dance using the Responding worksheet. (Bollywood Template Worksheet)
Assessment: Observe and document student’s participation during activities to practice and perform the elements of dance. ACADAM006, ACADAM007, ACADAR008, ACADAM005. Responding, students discuss and describe similarities and differences made, performed and viewed and how they (as the artists) and others use the elements of dance in dances.
Choreography
As a class brainstorm and select dance elements that would link together to create a class dance. Support students to select actions within all student abilities. Actions and movement sequences can be repeated to support the choreography.
Questions:
-
How will you use the dance space for your performance?
Support students to plan a dance map and group formation.
-
What costumes would support our dance?
-
As a class research, brainstorm and plan costume concepts and how students can add this element to the dance.
-
Provide opportunities for students to practice the dance.
-
Model the dance with students.
-
Who in the class could help to model the dance. Support students to select student dance leaders. They can be positioned at the front of the group formation to support other the dancers.
Differentiation: Students can practice dance movement with one body zone at a time. For example, only use the arm movements until confident before introducing another movement in an action. Support group formation for the class dance to support student abilities and appropriate dance movements.
Assessment: Observe and documents student participation and engagement in making, performing and choreographing. ACADAM005, ACADAM006, ACADAM007 and ACADAR008.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Perform:
-
Invite another class or student’s families to observe the class performance.
-
Document the performance.
Assessment: Observe and documents student participation and engagement in making, performing and choreographing. ACADAM005, ACADAM006, ACADAM007 and ACADAR008.
