10 Dance
10DAN Course DescriptionTeacher in Charge: Mr A. Upokokeu-Henry.
As a year 10 Dance student you will learn to develop your choreography, performance and perspective of movement ideas. You will engage in creative processes and explore different movement styles across the academic year.
This is a practical course, which means that you will need to be prepared for every lesson with an appropriate change of gear. This can lead to you taking Dance at NCEA Lv1, Lv2, and Lv3 at years 11, 12, and 13 which can further develop your interest in Dance at University.
- Pasifika Contemporary/Contemporary
- Hip-Hop
- Choreography and Performance
- Ballet
- Cultural dances of the world
- Analyse dance performances
Dance is expressive movement with intent, purpose, and form. In dance, we transform, communicate, and interpret ideas, feelings, and experiences. All dance communication is transmitted through movement and mediated through the body and gestures of the dancer. Dancers are therefore both the performers and the instruments through which dance is expressed.
Dance is a vital and integral part of human life. It exists in many forms and styles and is practised in all cultures, taking place in a range of contexts for various purposes. Dance functions as ritual, as artistic endeavour, as social discourse, and as education, and people of all ages and at many levels of expertise are involved to varying degrees.
In dance choreography, body awareness, space, time, energy, and relationships are manipulated to make dance works. In performance, these works reflect and frequently challenge dance traditions. Dance is therefore always evolving, as innovations develop alongside or from traditional forms and practices. Dance works may be seen as social and historical texts reflecting the cultures from which they emerge.
Dance is a unique medium for learning about self and the world. It is an essential component of artistic, aesthetic, and cultural education and develops creative potential through physical, non-verbal expression.
Learning Areas:
Assessment Information
Achievement Objectives:
Developing Practical Knowledge in Dance:
In this strand, students explore and use the vocabularies, practices, and technologies of different dance forms, genres, and styles. They use the elements of dance to explore how the body moves and the body’s relationship in movement to other people, objects, and environments.
Students extend their personal movement vocabularies and movement preferences, and they learn about and apply safe dance practices in individual, pair, and group activities.
Developing Ideas in Dance:
In this strand, students initiate, develop, conceptualise, and refine ideas in dance through the creative process of choreography. They use dance ideas derived from such sources as imagination, feelings, experiences, or given stimuli. They manipulate the elements of dance to develop dance works, individually and in groups.
Through the active and reflective process of choreography, students develop their ability to express experiences, ideas, beliefs, feelings, and information through dance, using a variety of choreographic structures, devices, and processes.
Communicating and Interpreting in Dance:
In this strand, students develop knowledge and understanding of how dance communicates and is interpreted and evaluated. As dancers, they learn, rehearse, and share dance works and perform them to a variety of audiences in formal and informal settings. They develop performance skills and reflect on and evaluate their own dance.
As audience members, students learn to appreciate dance in its many forms. They respond to, reflect on, analyse, and interpret dance, and they make increasingly informed judgments about the value, intentions, and qualities of work performed by others.
Students learn about and use production technologies, such as video, lighting, costumes, and sound. They explore the influence of such technologies on communication and interpretation in dance.
Understanding Dance in Context:
In this strand, students develop knowledge and understanding of the forms and purposes of dance and its integral part in past and present cultures and societies. They come to appreciate that dance is firmly rooted in tradition yet constantly evolving to reflect changes in contemporary culture.
Students engage in practical and theoretical investigations of dance and explore the ritual, social, and artistic purposes of dance within global contexts. They investigate and celebrate the unique forms of traditional Màori dance and the multicultural dance heritage of New Zealand society.
Education in dance is fundamental to the education of all students. Dance is a significant way of knowing, with a distinctive body of knowledge to be experienced, investigated, valued, and shared. Students become increasingly literate in dance as they engage in practical and theoretical investigations and explore dance forms, develop dance ideas, and articulate artistic and aesthetic understandings about dance works in various contexts.