Georgia Standards

South Carolina Standards

Key Vocabulary

Materials

• A variety of music selections
• Music source and speakers

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Letter Statues

• • In groups, have students select and practice one movement of their choice.
  • Guide students through exploring that movement with different elements of dance.
    • Practice the movement at different levels.
    • Practice the movement with different tempos.
    • Practice the movement in a locomotor and non-locomotor way.
    • Practice the movement using different energy qualities.
      • swinging
      • sustained
      • percussive
      • vibratory
      • suspended

Work Session

PART 1 - Explore Movement

• Have students name a literary character to portray.
• Instruct students to create a movement to represent something important about that character, which could be an action, emotion, or personality trait of the character.
• Ask students to demonstrate their movement to the class.
• Ask classmates to identify the artistic intent conveyed by the group; the presenting group identifies the correct peer answer or explains their artistic intent.

PART 2 - Add new movements to set an order

• Have students create two more movements to communicate two more important things about their character. There will be three total movements, including the initial movement (part 1) and these two movements. These three movements can be referred to as the beginning, middle and end of the choreography.
• Ask students to try their movements in different orders and then decide on the sequence that they feel best tells the audience about their character.

PART 3 - Choreograph and revise

• Lead students through the choreographic process to revise and edit their choreography. Just as with the writing process, the intent of leading students through the process is to add “details” to make the choreography more exciting or interesting.
• Ask students to add levels to their choreography.  Remind them to think of their character and where and why they would use different levels.  
• Ask students to add tempos to their choreography.  Would their character move fast or slow?  When or why might that character's tempos vary?
• Ask students to add energy qualities to their choreography. For example, if the character is excited a vibratory energy quality might be used. If the character is angry a percussive energy quality might be used.
• Give students time to practice the revised version of their choreography.

PART 4 - Choreograph and revise

• Once students have revised and edited their choreography, ask them to present their character choreography to the class. Option to choose music for each dance.

Closing Reflection

Ask students to reflect on how their dance evolved through the choreographic process.  How did adding level, tempo, and energy qualities make the choreography more interesting? 

Discuss the similarities of the choreographic process to the writing process.

Assessments

Formative

Visually observe the students' choreography evolving as they work through the choreographic process.

• Teacher observes students adding the elements of dance to their choreography as queued: levels, tempo, energy qualities.
• Teacher observes students using vocabulary of the elements of dance as they work.

Summative

CHARACTER CHOREOGRAPHY CHECKLIST

• The choreography contains a clear beginning, middle, end.
• The choreography contains levels.
• The choreography contains varying tempos.
• The choreography effectively uses dance to communicate ideas about the chosen character.

Differentiation

Acceleration: 

• Have students work in partners to evolve work for a single person into a duet showing how two characters would relate to one another.
• Compare and contrast two-character choreography works.

Remediation: 

Work through the process as a large group working on one character.

Additional Resources

While part of the standards discussion but not standards themselves, the statements below reflect the connection between the choreographic process and the writing process and are interesting to consider while implementing this lesson.

Fundamentals of Writing  

Employ a recursive writing process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, rewriting, publishing, and reflecting.  

Interact and collaborate with peers and adults to develop and strengthen writing.  

Produce writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, discipline, and audience. 

Fundamentals of Communication  

Employ a reciprocal communication process that includes planning, drafting, revising, editing, reviewing, presenting, and reflecting.  

Communicate using style, language, and nonverbal cues appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.  

Use active and attentive communication skills, building on other’s ideas to explore, learn, enjoy, argue, and exchange information.  

Monitor delivery and reception throughout the communication process and adjust approach and strategies as needed.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

 Ideas contributed by:  Melissa Dittmar-Joy

Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW