Level 8
Developing Practical Knowledge in Dance (PK)
Students will extend their dance skills in the vocabularies, practices, and technologies of a range of dance forms.
Developing Ideas in Dance (DI)
Students will initiate and develop dance works that express a point of view on selected issues, concepts, and themes.
Students will initiate and develop dance choreography to explore the relationships between dance and other arts disciplines.
Communicating and Interpreting in Dance (CI)
Students will select, promote, and perform a programme of dance works.
Students will critically analyse, respond to, and evaluate their own and others' communication and interpretation in dance performances and dance works.
Understanding Dance in Context (UC)
Students will research the ways in which dance explores and reflects social, cultural, and historical issues.
Students will research the contribution of selected individuals or groups to dance in New Zealand.
Learning Examples
- Identify and research, from a variety of cultures, dance forms that have challenged traditional artistic and aesthetic boundaries (e.g., American postmodern dance, Japanese butoh). Describe the historical origins of each dance form and the ways in which it challenged the existing traditions of the period from which it emerged. (UC)
- Choreograph a dance that expresses a viewpoint on an issue of importance to the local community (e.g., conservation, law and order). Incorporate it in a programme of dance for a public audience, and take responsibility for planning, rehearsing, promoting, and performing the programme. Use cycles of action and reflection to support and evaluate the rehearsal processes and the performance of the programme. (PK, UC, DI, CI)
- Contribute to a special issue of a school publication with a focus on dance in New Zealand. Research and write an article that includes a general introduction followed by a discussion of a selected choreographer, dance company, or cultural group whose contribution to dance in New Zealand has been significant. Support the article with relevant photographs or diagrams. (UC)
- Research the ways in which dance is portrayed and used in print and electronic media (e.g., newspapers, magazines, television, film, the Internet). Identify, analyse, and discuss key findings and themes from the research. Develop a dance idea based on the findings (e.g., dance and advertising) and choreograph a multimedia dance work that incorporates such effects as projected images or spoken text. (UC, DI)
- View selected dance forms and identify and analyse their stylistic qualities (e.g., how dancers elevate, fall to and rise from the floor, use upper body movement, use gestures and facial movements). Practically explore the identified qualities to extend skills in one or more of the selected dance forms. (PK, CI)
- View and analyse the work of contemporary choreographers who make use of themes, images, and objects from popular culture. Choreograph a dance that uses such ideas from popular culture to communicate points of view about the human condition in the twenty-first century. (UC, DI)
- View one or more video dance works. Investigate the characteristics of this genre and explore practically how dance is recorded on camera. Develop dance material for a short video dance work on the theme of diversity within unity. Choreograph both the camera and the dancers and record the work. Share and evaluate the result. (PK, DI, CI)
- Identify and research one or more works by selected New Zealand choreographers that are based on social, cultural, or historical issues. Investigate an issue relevant to youth culture and develop a dance that takes a stance on the issue. Perform the dance and seek audience responses on how effectively the issue was presented and the stance conveyed. (UC, DI, CI)
- Research collaborative partnerships developed by modern dance choreographers, composers, and visual artists and the influences of the time on their collaborative work. Practically explore dance and its relationship to music and the visual arts (e.g., working with and against music; interpreting visual arts elements through movement). Develop dance ideas that explore and highlight the relationship between dance and music or dance and the visual arts. Using the ideas, choreograph, rehearse, perform, and evaluate a dance work. (UC, PK, DI, CI)
- View, analyse, and respond to a variety of dances that use such formations as the circle, chain, and lines as central organisational structures. Research the ways in which these formations reflect the social or cultural influences of each dance's time and place. Identify and practically explore a selection of such dances in a range of dance forms. Choreograph a dance work that involves an extended exploration of one or more of the formations studied. (CI, UC, PK, DI)
