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 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.
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.
Students can use the water cycle (Science SOL 3.9) as inspiration for choreography.
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.
Use digital applications to allow students to explore bone and muscle anatomy in interactive, three-dimensional views.
Students will collaboratively create a digital whiteboard that resembles a “detective wall” to investigate and make connections about a specific style of dance.
Students create a dance vlog (video blog or video log) about various dance topics either assigned by the teacher or chosen by students.
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.
Students will take segments of their recorded performances to create an acting reel that demonstrates physical and vocal techniques for theatre performance.
Students work together to write a simple story and create characters using clay, while working on theatrical skills outlined in the Theatre Arts Standards of Learning.
Students contribute to a class blog to share the creative processes involved in acting and production.
Students can be introduced to a story and create a scene individually or in small groups. Scenes can be acted out in front of projections of student-created background scenery, and discuss how scenic elements impact the meaning of the performance.
Students will explore available assistive technologies, including how they have been utilized by the professional theatre community to create and present inclusive theatrical productions for those with special physical, mental, visual, auditory, and other sensory needs.
The teacher directs a short class performance of a story of local, state, or national significance. The performance is recorded and then sent to a similar class in another community, state, or part of the world.
K-2 Visual Arts Digital Learning Integration. The teacher can facilitate a project where students create drawings of landscapes from observation, then a final project based on landscapes of the area where students live using any media or techniques of the teacher’s choosing.
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.
In a multimedia summative portfolio, Students include both process and product documentation as well as reflections of learning.
Students will connect with students in other performing arts groups from around the world.