Art Form: Dance

Supplies Needed

-Math Curse book
-Music with a steady and clear beat (optional)
-Pencil and paper

Vocabulary

8-count  - The way dancers count music in sets of eight beats (1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8)

Locomotor movement - a movement that travels through space (walking, skipping)

Non-locomotor movement - a movement that does not travel through space (twisting, bending)

Level - one of the aspects of movement (there are three basic levels in dance: high, middle, and low)

Tempo - refers to the pace or speed of movement

Irony - a situation which brings the exact opposite of what one would expect, often resulting in humor or amusement

Character - a person in a story or play, or an animal or object that has human qualities

Central message - the main point or lesson of the story

Instructions

1. Read Math Curse. Notice how the main character sees everything, even the day, as a problem to solve. How does the character react to the problems faced during the day? What happens in the beginning of the story? How did the character change during the story? How does the story end? What is the central message of the story?

2. Dancers count in eights (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). Today, you will create a dance with four different movements. The dance will be 16 counts long expressing the character's feelings from the beginning of the story, through the middle, until the end.

3. What were the feelings of the character at the beginning of the story? Create a movement to demonstrate those feelings. During the story, did his emotions change? Create two new movements to demonstrate the change of feelings in the middle of the story. How did the character feel at the end of the story? Create a fourth movement to show how the character felt at the end of the story.

4. Your dance should include at least:
a. Three different levels (high, medium, low)
b. One locomotor movement
c. One non-locomotor movement
d. One fast movement and one slow movement

5. Plan and build your sequence carefully so you can fit all of these "dance variables" into your 16 counts. Practice counting out loud in eights as you perform your dance.

Extensions

Challenge yourself to create a 32-count sequence in a new order. Can you keep all the same movement elements (levels, tempo, locomotor/non-locomotor), but change when they
happen in the sequence? You could add more movements to demonstrate what happened in the story