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Year 9 · The Arts
Unit: Technique That Speaks: Dance Skills and Honest Reflection · Lesson 1 of 4
Warm Body, Clear Space: What a Style's Techniques Communicate
We are learning to choose a style we can work in, to say what two or three of its techniques ask of the body and what each one communicates, and to warm up for those demands before recording a 30-second baseline phrase.
Before you startAbout 65 minutes · what success looks like · notes for the helper
About 65 minutes. It's fine to stop after the Quick Check and come back another day: the lesson opens where you left it, at the Quick Check.
You'll know you've got it when
- I can explain, using my chosen style, why technique is more than flexibility or difficult tricks
- I can name two or three of my style's techniques and say, for each, what the body has to do and what it can communicate
- I can set up a safe space and plan a warm-up that prepares for the demands of my style, not only a general warm-up
- I can perform a 30-second baseline phrase that shows my chosen techniques, and keep a record of it
For the helperhow to sit beside this lesson, and what this step is for
This step: Spark
Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.
- Getting ready
- A clear floor about three metres square (a lounge room with the furniture pushed back works well), bare feet or grippy shoes, water, and some music with a steady beat. If your young person wants to film, a device propped on a chair works. If not, a pen and a sheet of paper for a count map will do. A mat or folded towel is handy if the style includes floor work. All told it is about 65 minutes, more than one comfortable sitting, so many families stop after the check and come back to the choice task the next day.
- What understanding sounds like
- Listen for a reason attached to each technique, such as 'the knees stay bent so the weight sits low, which reads as grounded', rather than just a name. You might also notice whether they can say what a technique asks of the body (the demand) as well as what it shows a viewer (the message).
- A likely mix-up, and something that helps
- A common belief is that technique means flexibility, height or hard tricks, so an easier style or a plain movement must be less skilled. You might ask, 'What did that movement make me think or feel, and which part of how you did it caused that?' Another is that one style's rules apply to every style, so one gentle thing to try is doing the same eight counts in two styles and comparing what each asks of the body.
- If it comes easily
- When it clicks quickly, you could invite them to take one technique and find what it communicates in a different context, such as the same low bounce performed gently, or to compare it with a technique from a style they do not know. One way to deepen it is to ask what they would change in the technique to say the opposite.
- If it's a struggle
- If it is a struggle, one way is to start with a single technique and keep the baseline to two eight-counts, adding more later. Working at half speed in front of a mirror, or taking turns being the viewer, can make the cause-and-effect clearer. Sharp or pinching pain, as opposed to effort, is always a reason to stop and rest, and no stretch needs to be forced. If dancing in front of someone feels too exposing today, the count map and a run with nobody watching are a real start, and the lesson waits.
Step 1 of 6 · Spark
Lesson 1 of 4 · Technique That Speaks: Dance Skills and Honest Reflection
Same beat, two bounces
For the helper
Start with the question at the top and chat about it. There is no wrong answer here: it gets your learner thinking about what they already know.
Try this before you read on. Put on music with a steady beat, or just count aloud, and bounce on the spot for eight counts with your knees almost straight, your chest lifted and your weight up on the balls of your feet. Now do eight more with your knees bent, your hips low and your weight dropped into the floor on every beat. Same beat. Same eight counts. Same dancer. Ask a helper, or watch yourself in a mirror, and answer one question: what did each bounce seem to say, and which part of the body was saying it? Keep your answer. It is the whole question this unit runs on.