Search the California Content Standards

Enduring Understanding: Dancers use the mind-body connection and develop the body as an instrument for artistry and artistic expression.
Essential Question(s): What must a dancer do to prepare the mind and body for artistic expression?
Process Component(s): Embody

Performance Standard(s):
a. Recall and execute a series of dance phrases using technical dance skills (e.g., alignment, coordination, balance, core support, clarity of movement). b. Demonstrate safe body-use practices during technical exercises and movement combinations. Discuss how these practices, along with healthful eating habits, promote strength, flexibility, endurance and injury prevention. c. Collaborate with peer ensemble members to repeat sequences, synchronize actions, and refine spatial relationships to improve performance quality. Apply feedback from others to establish personal performance goals.

Enduring Understanding: Dance performance is an interaction between performer, production elements, and audience that heightens and amplifies artistic expression.
Essential Question(s): How does a dancer heighten artistry in a public performance?
Process Component(s): Present

Performance Standard(s):
a. Demonstrate the ability to adapt dance to alternative performance venues by modifying spacing and movements to the performance space. b. Identify, explore, and select production elements that heighten and intensify the artistic intent of a dance and are adaptable for various performance spaces.

Enduring Understanding: Dance is perceived and analyzed to comprehend its meaning.
Essential Question(s): How is a dance understood?
Process Component(s): Analyze

Performance Standard(s):
a. Find meaning or artistic intent from the patterns of movement in a dance work. b. Describe, using basic dance terminology, the qualities and characteristics of style used in a dance from one’s own cultural movement practice. Compare them to the qualities and characteristics of style found in a different dance genre, style, or cultural movement practice.

Enduring Understanding: Dance is interpreted by considering intent, meaning, and artistic expression as communicated through the use of the body, elements of dance, dance technique, dance structure, and context.
Essential Question(s): How is dance interpreted?
Process Component(s): Interpret

Performance Standard(s):
Interpret meaning in a dance based on its movements. Explain how the movements communicate the main idea of the dance using basic dance terminology.

Enduring Understanding: Criteria for evaluating dance vary across genres, styles, and cultures
Essential Question(s): What criteria are used to evaluate dance?
Process Component(s): Critique

Performance Standard(s):
Demonstrate and discuss the characteristics of dance that make a dance artistic and meaningful. Relate them to the elements of dance in genres, styles, or cultural movement practices. Use basic dance terminology to describe characteristics of the dance.

Enduring Understanding: As dance is experienced, all personal experiences, knowledge, and contexts are integrated and synthesized to interpret meaning.
Essential Question(s): How does dance deepen our understanding of ourselves, other knowledge, and events around us?
Process Component(s): Synthesize

Performance Standard(s):
a. Compare two dances with contrasting themes. Discuss feelings and ideas evoked by each. Describe how the themes and movements relate to points of view and experiences. b. Choose a topic, concept, or content from another discipline of study and research how other art forms have expressed the topic. Create a dance study that expresses the idea. Explain how the dance study expressed the idea and discuss how this learning process is similar to, or different from, other learning situations.

Enduring Understanding: Dance literacy includes deep knowledge and perspectives about societal, cultural, historical, and community contexts.
Essential Question(s): How does knowing about societal, cultural, historical and community experiences expand dance literacy?
Process Component(s): Relate

Performance Standard(s):
Describe how the movement characteristics and qualities of a dance in a specific genre or style communicate the ideas and perspectives of the culture, historical period, or community from which the genre or style originated.

Enduring Understanding: 1.1 Creativity and innovative thinking are essential life skills that can be developed.
Essential Question(s): What conditions, attitudes, and behaviors support creativity and innovative thinking? What factors prevent or encourage people to take creative risks? How does collaboration expand the creative process?
Process Component(s): Imagine, Plan, Make

Performance Standard(s):
Combine ideas to generate an innovative idea for art-making.

Enduring Understanding: 1.2 Artists and designers shape artistic investigations, following or breaking with traditions in pursuit of creative artmaking goals.
Essential Question(s): How does knowing the contexts, histories, and traditions of art forms help us create works of art and design? Why do artists follow or break from established traditions? How do artists determine what resources and criteria are needed to formulate artistic
Process Component(s): Imagine, Plan, Make

Performance Standard(s):
Identify and demonstrate diverse methods of artistic investigation to choose an approach for beginning a work of art.

Enduring Understanding: 2.1 Artists and designers experiment with forms, structures, materials, concepts, media, and art-making approaches.
Essential Question(s): How do artists work? How do artists and designers determine whether a particular direction in their work is effective? How do artists and designers learn from trial and error?
Process Component(s): Investigate

Performance Standard(s):
Experiment and develop skills in multiple art-making techniques and approaches through practice.