Dance, create, perform
This class was dedicated to learning about choreographic principles and how to express emotion through movement. Through discussion, improvisation, and observation students identified the best way to convey and idea through movement. Over the course of the class students were given choreographic tools one at a time to experiment with, and at the end of the quarter they had the opportunity to use them all in their own choreographed dance.
dance shape study
Students learned about shaping of the body and how it can be used in choreography. They improvised with the four dance shapes- twisted, curved, angular, and straight. They then put transitions between the shapes and combined their individual movement into a group dance.
Energy qualities
Students also studied energy qualities this quarter. Energy qualities can be thought of as the "flavors of dance": they are different ways of moving that give variety and expressiveness to dance. Students improvised with energy qualities such as swing, sway, sustained, explosive, collapsive, and percussive. They were each assigned a quality at random and were asked to choreograph 16 counts of movement in that movement style.
Swing
Explosive
Percussive
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Sway
Sustained
Collapsive
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The students then put all of their short sequences all together into one dance. They chose the order randomly and made creative and artistic choices on how to transition from sequence to sequence. The students choreographed the entire dance.
Choreographed solos
Students were given the assignment of choosing an emotion and conveying it through their movement. They chose an emotion and a situation to represent that emotion. They then used the dance elements and energy qualities they had been studying all quarter to choreograph their own dance. They chose their own music, designed their costumes, and chose their own stage venue.