Dance

Dance in Year 7 is embedded within the Healthy Living course. We study the basic principles of dance through three strands; physical me, social me and thinking me.

Topics to include;

• Matthew Bourne’s ‘Nutcracker’
• Emotions through various professional dance pieces
• Social Dance – Lindy Hop

Topics to include;

• An introduction to GCSE
• Christopher Bruce’s ‘Ghost Dances’
• Dance Styles (commercial, contemporary and jazz).

• Students will study AQA GCSE Dance. They will explore Performance skills (Physical, Technical, Expressive and Mental) through Set Phrases, performed as a soloist.
• They will develop an in-depth knowledge of the Choreographic Process and work creatively to produce both solo and group work.
• Students will study a dance anthology consisting of six professional dance works.

• Students will develop the Set Phrases, ready for coursework moderation.
• Students will work collaboratively to choreograph the Set Phrases into a trio.
• Students will prepare a piece of Choreography (from stimuli on an exam paper set by AQA)
• Revision of anthology works and practice exam questions

AQA - A Level Dance

• Choreographic theory and practice
• Technique and improvement of physical and expressive skills
• Study of Singin’ in the Rain plus Gene Kelly for the American Jazz Unit to include analysis of two of his other works – Analysis of movement components, physical and aural setting, choreographic style and intention, social, cultural and historical context.
• Study of two further American Jazz practitioners (Robbins and Fosse) and at least two of their works.
• Begin to analyse Rooster. Preparation for Rambert history unit.

Years 7 – 9: Students will be assessed on their physical, technical, expressive and mental skills. This will be done once a term through choreography, performance and appreciation of own work and others.

Years 10 and 11:  Each students overall grade at the end of year 11 will be a breakdown of 40% theory and 60% practical.

Theory Content will be assessed through mid-term and end of term assessments resulting in a written exam set in the summer of the year of certification. This is split into three sections and will relate to choreographic process, performing skills, critical appreciation of own work and professional works.

Practical The performance task is marked out of 40 marks. Each student must complete both parts of the task:

• Solo performance (12 marks)
• Duet/trio performance (24 marks)

A single overall mark out of 4 (in total) is also available for demonstration of each student’s mental skills and attributes shown during the performances.

Each student must perform the two selected phrases as a soloist in a live performance setting and this will be assessed by teacher, peer and student throughout the course. They must also perform in a duet/trio which will be assessed in the same way. The choreography task is marked out of 40 marks. Students must demonstrate their creative response to a choice of one stimulus, from a prescribed task list set by AQA. Choreographic skills will be assessed throughout the course by teacher, peer and student.

Years 12 and 13: Students are assessed throughout the course by teacher, peer and self in Performance and Choreography (50%) Students will perform a Solo linked to a specified practitioner within an area of study, in a quartet and share their own group choreography (derived from an external paper from AQA). This is done in a practical exam in the year of certification marked by an external assessor from AQA. Students will also study critical appreciation (50%) and be assessed on Knowledge, understanding and critical appreciation of two set works (One compulsory set work within the compulsory area of study, One optional set work within the corresponding area of study, from a choice of four). This is a written exam in the year of certification.

There are many paths in employment that can be linked to Dance, both directly and indirectly. In the near future, when many jobs will be performed by robots, the one area in which a robot cannot exceed human performance is creativity and we aim to prepare our students for that future. Careers include;

• Dancer
• Choreographer
• Teacher
• Lecturer
• Notator
• Dance Animateur
• Dance Therapist
• Physiotherapist
• Theatre or dance company administrator
• Youth group leader
• Costume/lighting or sound designer
• Training/motivating roles