Search the California Content Standards

Enduring Understanding: Space, time, and energy are basic elements of dance.
Essential Question(s): How do dancers work with space, time and energy to communicate artistic expression?
Process Component(s): Express

Performance Standard(s):
a. Develop partner and ensemble skills that enable contrast while maintaining a sense of spatial design and relationship (e.g., through lifts, balance, or other means). Use space intentionally during phrases and through transitions between phrases. Establish and break relationships with others as appropriate to the choreography. b. Use syncopation and accent movements related to different tempi. Take rhythmic cues from different aspects of accompaniment. Integrate breath phrasing with metric and kinesthetic phrasing. c. Connect energy and dynamics to movements by applying them in and through all parts of the body. Develop total body awareness so that movement phrases demonstrate variances of energy and dynamics.

Enduring Understanding: Space, time, and energy are basic elements of dance.
Essential Question(s): How do dancers work with space, time and energy to communicate artistic expression?
Process Component(s): Express

Performance Standard(s):
a. Dance alone and with others with spatial intention. Expand partner and ensemble skills to greater ranges and skill level. Execute complex floor and air sequences with others while maintaining and breaking relationships through focus and intentionality. b. Perform dance studies and compositions that use time and tempo in unpredictable ways. Use internal rhythms and kinetics as phrasing tools. c. Initiate movement phrases by applying energy and dynamics. Vary energy and dynamics over the length of a phrase. Transition smoothly out of one phrase and into the next phrase, paying close attention to its movement initiation and energy.

Enduring Understanding: Space, time, and energy are basic elements of dance.
Essential Question(s): How do dancers work with space, time and energy to communicate artistic expression?
Process Component(s): Express

Performance Standard(s):
a. Modulate and use the broadest range of movement in space for artistic and expressive clarity. Use inward and outward focus to clarify movement and intent. Establish and break relationships with other dancers and audience as appropriate to the dance. b. Modulate time factors for artistic interest and expressive acuity. Demonstrate time complexity in phrasing with and without musical accompaniment. Use multiple and complex rhythms (e.g., contrapuntal and/or polyrhythmic) at the same time. Work with and against rhythm of accompaniment or sound environments. c. Modulate dynamics to clearly express intent while performing dance phrases and choreography. Perform movement sequences expressively using a broad dynamic range and employ dynamic skills to establish and maintain relationships with other dancers and project to the audience.

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. Embody technical dance skills (e.g., functional alignment, coordination, balance, core support, clarity of movement, weight shifts, flexibility/range of motion) to retain and execute dance choreography. b. Develop a plan for healthful practices in dance activities and everyday life including nutrition and injury prevention. Discuss implementation of the plan and how it supports personal performance goals. c. Collaborate with peers to establish and implement a rehearsal plan to meet performance goals. Use a variety of strategies to analyze and evaluate performances of self and others (e.g., use video recordings of practice to analyze the difference between the way movements look and how they feel to match performance with visual affect). Articulate performance goals and justify reasons for selecting particular practice strategies.

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. Refine technical dance skills to improve performance. Dance with sensibility toward and with other dancers while executing complex spatial, rhythmic and dynamic sequences to meet performance goals. b. Apply anatomical principles and healthful practices to a range of technical dance skills for achieving fluency of movement. Follow a personal nutrition plan that supports health for everyday life. c. Plan and execute collaborative and independent practice and rehearsal processes with attention to technique and artistry informed by personal performance goals. Reflect on personal achievements.

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. Apply mind-body principles to technical dance skills in complex choreography when performing solo, partnering, or dancing in ensemble works in a variety of dance genres and styles. Self-evaluate performances and discuss and analyze performance ability with others. b. Research healthful and safe practices for dancers and modify personal practice based on findings. Discuss how research informs practice. c. Initiate, plan, and direct rehearsals with attention to technical details and fulfilling artistic expression. Use a range of rehearsal strategies to achieve performance excellence.

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. Analyze a dance to determine the ideas expressed by the choreographer. Explain how the perspectives expressed by the choreographer may impact one’s own interpretation. Provide evidence to support one’s analysis. b. Collaboratively identify a dance related question or problem. Conduct research through interview, research database, text, media, or movement. Analyze and apply information gathered by creating a group dance that answers the question posed. Discuss how the dance communicates new perspectives or realizations. Compare orally and in writing the process used in choreography to that of other creative, academic, or scientific procedures.

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. Analyze a dance that is related to content learned in other subjects and research its context. Synthesize information learned and share new ideas about its impact on one’s perspective. b. Use established research methods and techniques to investigate a topic. Collaborate with others to identify questions and solve movement problems that pertain to the topic. Create and perform a piece of choreography on this topic. Discuss orally or in writing the insights relating to knowledge gained through the research process, the synergy of collaboration, and the transfer of learning from this project to other learning situations.

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. Review original choreography developed over time with respect to its content and context and its relationship to personal perspectives. Reflect on and analyze the variables that contributed to changes in one’s personal growth. b. Investigate various dance related careers through a variety of research methods and techniques. Select those careers of most interest. Develop and implement a Capstone Project that reflects a possible career choice.