Ideas for primary dance

Teacher dance resource developed by The Arts Unit

The following examples can be used as a starting point with your classes.

West Side Story - Stage 3

Stimulus

Watch the opening sequence from the 1961 movie West Side Story, choreographed by Jerome Robbins, to use as a stimulus for this creative task.

Whilst watching the sequence look at the influences:

space used
fusion of ballet and jazz style
motif – clicking fingers
everyday objects used
storyline
time signature of the music.

West Side Story 1) Opening sequence - Début

Duration: 09:51

Creative Task - Understand the duration and syncopation of time

Start with a group shape - use levels, purpose, intention and duration of time
Add 2 poses/positions and an isolation 'click' - use the music to dictate who moves when
Locomotive movement (1 x 8 beats - walk with intention)
3 clicks on another level
Change the time signature 3/4 - use accent and a 3 step sequence 8 x 3 beats
Escape - run 1 x 8 beats to another space
Melt down to a lower level to a frozen shape 1 x 7 beats.

Additions/variations

Dance breaks 4 x 8 beats
Separate the class and have 2 groups
Consider the moral to the story
Use the ABC method of developing the sequence
Use an object eg a ball

Dinosaur Dig - Stage 2

There are many ways you could draw on the topic of dinosaurs to develop a creative stimulus, such as a story, word, shape, process, or visual.

Research

collect images of iconic dinosaurs like those found at at Lightning Ridge or the Gobi Desert in Mongolia
analyse the stance and the movement of a dinosaur. How might they interact with each other?
how are fossils created? What might happen to a fossil over time, such as exporuse to wind, rain and erosion?
why did they die? Extinction, climate change, an astroid impact or a volcano eruption

Explore our Dinosaur Dig - Creative Class for structured a lesson in dance, music and visual arts.

Select to go to Dinosaur Dig - Creative Class

Creative task

Create a dinosaur fossil shape using your body on the floor.

Here are some pictures of dinosaur fossils that might help you think of shapes to make.

You might like to try creating a large dinosaur fossil with some of your classmates using all your bodies together.

You could also do this with some of your toys!

Make your dinosaur fossil wake up.

Move around your space like a dinosaur.

Dinosaurs walked on either 2 legs or 4 legs.

Scroll through the image gallery to find some dinosaur fossil images that you can explore with your students

Have students create movement shapes around these prompts:

look at a picture of a dinosaur
start with a dinosaur shape
join the shape with a friend - link up
start to move your shapes; add locomotive movement, levels, fast or slow tempo
use music to suggest the landscape
move through the environment
travel back through time
the archaeologist arrives
the fossil
the museum.

Compositional elements used:

Partnering, dynamics in movement and music, styles of movement (jazz, contemporary, creative), emotions and expressions, non locomotor and locomotor movement, shapes, purpose and intention, timing, space, abstract, costumes, lighting or special effects such as smoke, large art illustrations.