Virginia’s dance arts instructional programs reinforce Virginia’s 21st Century Workplace Readiness Skills.

The Dance Arts Standards of Learning (SOL) are intentionally and directly aligned with the skills outlined in the Profile of a Virginia Graduate. This document demonstrates conatins statements taken directly from the 2020 Dance Arts SOL document and re-organized to show alignment to the “5 Cs”.

The purpose of this document is to highlight standard nine of the 2020 Dance Arts Standards of Learning. This standard in all grade levels relates connecting dance arts content, skills, and processes to career options, college opportunities, and the 21st Century workplace. Teachers and curriculum specialists can use this document to plan a sequence of instruction for grades K-12 that prepares students for career, college, and workplace connections in dance arts education.

The purpose of this resource is to support school and division administrators in observations and coaching conversations for dance arts teachers in Virginia public schools. The strategies listed support effective instruction connected to skills and concepts of the 2020 Dance Arts Standards of Learning.

Collaborate with a dance class of the same age group from another country or location through video conferencing media.

After learning about various famous dancers and their contributions to dance history, students select one famous dancer to research more and create a multimedia presentation about their dancer.

Students design, create, and publish dance marketing content such as a video advertisement, email marketing content, and/or community outreach content (a flyer, poster, or QR code) to promote their dance program or a dance performance.

After learning about the elements of dance, various dance styles, dance technique, or a dance step, students plan and create their own dance video tutorial.

Introduce students to the Fibonacci Series, also known as the Golden Ratio, a phenomenon in nature that has fascinated mathematicians, scientists, designers, and artists. Students will be invited to apply it to creating choreography. In the sequence, each number is the sum of the two numbers that precede it so that it begins 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, and so on forever.

Participate in a local, state-wide, national, or worldwide dance event such as Dance for Kindness or National Dance Day. Students will learn the choreography and create videos of the performance. If possible, the teacher can connect with other dance groups who are also participating in the dance event and set up a video conference so that students can form deeper connections. For example, a dance teacher in Virginia can connect their students with a dance teacher’s class in Mexico. Students can also write letters to their peers around the world. Finally, the teacher, students, and other participants will submit their video submissions to the event coordinator so that they can make a worldwide dance montage.

Fast forward to the year 2050. What will dance look like in the future?

Virtual performances of student work allow students to present to new audiences in new ways.

Dancers document performances and creative processes with video, photos, and reflections of learning, then create digital portfolios to store, organize, maintain, and share their work with appropriate audiences and for auditions.

Students create a dance vlog (video blog or video log) about various dance topics either assigned by the teacher or chosen by students.

Students include both process and product documentation as well as reflections of learning. The portfolio could take the form of a website, slidedeck, interactive PDF and more.

With the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic, dancers and choreographers found themselves confined to their homes and unable to meet and work together in common spaces. Creative solutions for dance rehearsal and performance were developed over the months of quarantine as dance companies found ways for their members to collaborate in the virtual world. Dancers rehearsed at home and recorded their performances. Choreographers created and directed from afar, instead of in-person. These adjustments resulted in innovative solutions such as the use of the split-screen, remixing digital work, or the layering of video performances into one final product.

The teacher can direct a short class performance of a dance of local, state, or national significance. The performance is recorded then sent to a similar class in another community, state, or part of the world. The exchange school will send a performance back. When students receive the recording from the other class, they can respond to what they “see, think, and wonder” about the work they have viewed.

Video clips of dance fundamentals covered in class allow students to pause, repeat, and access content on demand as needed for review, remediation, make-up work, and/or enrichment.

In June 2022, the Virginia Department of Education fine arts program hosted an arts and culture Institute for Virginia fine arts educators to collaborate with and learn from the Chickahominy Indian Tribe in Providence Forge, Virginia. This resource list was used by the educator team to build background knowledge, and educators and tribal citizens contributed additional resources and suggested classroom activities. This resource page is a short collection of resources that can be used by fine arts educators to respectfully include arts and culture of indigenous people of Virginia in fine arts classroom instruction.