Students learned that multiple-styles of dance exist as many as different cultures and peoples exist through reading and visual materials. They practiced basic movement routines to develop flexibility, mobility, and musicality. Toward the end, they focused practicing ballet and Hip-Hop dance, and presented two dance pieces at the auditorium in front of their families.  Below is the final moments of both pieces from the final presentation. 

At the beginning of the school year, students learned the basic notion of what dance is by moving to beats,  lining up, creating formations in a circle and figure eight. They also learned improvisation dance as "free dance". Using imagery and words on the cards, students came up with their own expression to communicate with others through movement. They also studied basic anatomy through coloring. They started to learn how to stretch and how to move the whole body through the routine warm up exercises. 

Students also were introduced to varieties of dance through visual materials: Ceremonial Dance, Theatrical/Concert Dance, Folk/Traditional Dance, Street Dance. To nurture the basic idea of how dances could look different based on different cultures and occasions, students watched dance videos on Native American traditional dance; Traditional Dance from Africa, Mexico, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Spain, Ireland; Classical Ballet; Modern Dance; Jazz Dance; Tap Dance; Hip-Hop; and Chicago Footwork. 

From December on, around among those different styles of dance they have been learning, students decided to focus on practicing ballet on Tuesdays and Hip-Hop on Thursdays. They started to learn the history of ballet and Hip-Hop through reading, audio, and visual materials before they did physical warm up routine exercises. They compared and learned differences and similarities between these two different styles of dance: traditionally concert and classical dance and urban street (vernacular) dances. Students started to improvise to "Dynamite" by Taino Cruz. Below is their initial answers of differences between ballet and Hip-Hop.

Students started to learn arm positions and feet positions of ballet. They danced to music 'The Waltz of the Flowers' from The Nutcracker.

Students improvised to "Dynamite" in order to get the feeling of the music and brainstorm their own creation of Hip-Hop movement.  

Creating dance and perfecting it takes a LONG TIME. It takes focus, listening, dedication, stamina, and passion. 

Due to the surge of the Omicron Variant, it took for a while to come back to the consistent practice routine. Yet, we kept going and kept accumulating the image of choreography for "Dynamite".  

After the settlement of the Omicron variant, students got back to their practice finally around the end of January.

Students kept increasing movement vocabularies and learned dance is on-the-job training!! Unlike academic subjects, you need to be promptly reacting to the music, rhythm, and movement sequence. Only by trying and experiencing in the moment, you can improve.  

Students learned how dance creation takes time and team work. 

May 26, at the end of the school year, students performed two pieces they have been practicing: "Dance of the Hours" as a ballet piece and "Dynamite Dance" as a Hip-Hop piece. Below is the documentation from the show.

[Please write any conclusion!!]