Jazz Dance 2 is a course for intermediate students with some prior dance experience. The class will build skills in creative exploration and dance composition, concert and world dance forms, and dance vocabulary. The curriculum is based on the California State Content Standards for Dance:
Artistic Perception: Students work to embody technical dance skills such as alignment, strength, coordination, and flexibility. Students work toward mastery with more complex daily exercises and dance sequences. Students will continue to learn the language of dance with concert dance and world dance vocabulary.
Creative Expression: Students will further explore and improvise with the elements of dance (Space, Time, and Energy), solve movement problems, and think critically and respond to the work of their peers. Students continue to build choreographic skills through solo and group projects. Choreography project concepts covered in Jazz Dance 2 include non-unison forms, Theme and Variations form, partnering in duets and trios, and dance for expression of meaningful topics (“what matters to you?”).
Historical and Cultural Context: Students continue to study the history of jazz and other concert dance forms. Students learn culturally-specific traditional dance forms such as African-Haitian, Brazilian Samba, Hawai’ian hula, Tahitian ‘ ori, and Middle Eastern beledi, and learn the history and culture of each form.
Aesthetic Valuing: Students read and write about dance, observe dance genres and performances, and articulate the dance elements they observe.
Connections, Relations, Applications: Students learn anatomical principles to aid in understanding movement potential. Students apply the disciplines essential to dance training to other aspects of their school work and life.