Unit 2 — History of the Arts and Culture
Description
This unit examines dance through cultural and historical lenses, exploring how different societies use movement to express values, beliefs, and lived experience. Students research the origins and meanings of various dances from around the world, identify cultural influences, and learn to recognize clues about history and culture in movement, costuming, and musical accompaniment. Through activities such as learning dances from their own heritage and performing authentic ceremonial or ritual dances, students develop understanding of how dance reflects societal values. Students also research significant dancers and choreographers, analyze primary sources on the history of dance, and create original dances influenced by specific cultures. The unit emphasizes making informed aesthetic responses based on structural arrangement and personal, cultural, and historical points of view.
Essential Questions
- How can the elements of dance be used to express content, emotions, and personal expression?
- How can improvisation of movement communicate content, emotions, and personal expression?
- How is dance different from other forms of movement?
- How can criticism of aesthetic expression improve an individual's ability to communicate through the arts?
- How has the role of dancing been an outlet for expressing feelings of joy in spite of harsh circumstances, and for giving a shared form of sadness?
- What are the origins and meanings of different dances throughout history?
- What are the cultural influences of certain dances?
- What are the similarities and differences among various dances throughout history in relation to the ideas and perspectives of the people from which the dances originate?
Learning Objectives
- Describe who dances a dance, and where, when, and why it is danced.
- Examine the cultural origins of a variety of dance forms from around the world.
- Identify clues about history and culture in dance movements, costuming, and musical accompaniment.
- Identify and research the significant contributions of a cultural social dance and its impact on today's social dances.
- Explore themes, values, and beliefs that are reflected in a dance.
- Observe commonalities and differences in group, circle, and chain dances in relation to societal beliefs and values.
- Perform group, circle, or chain dances from various world cultures.
- Create and share group, circle, or chain dances influenced by the social practices of a specific culture.
Supplemental Resources
- Lined journals for maintaining a dance journal with responses to performances, vocabulary lists, drawings, and notation.
- Printed images or photographs of traditional dance costumes and ceremonial practices.
- Construction paper and markers for creating visual presentations about cultural dances.
- Graphic organizers for documenting research on dancers and choreographers.
- Folders or binders for collecting written work and reflections throughout the unit.
Dance - Connecting
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students read and comprehend diverse texts to understand themes and central ideas in dance history and cultural contexts. Students participate in collaborative discussions about dance performances and cultural significance. Students write reflections, research reports, and informative texts about dance origins, cultural influences, and choreographic analysis.
Students examine how culture is expressed through dance and explore the cultural diversity and individuality reflected in various dance forms. Students investigate the historical and cultural origins of dances from different regions and time periods, learning about diverse cultures and their traditions. Students analyze how dance reflects the values, beliefs, and perspectives of different communities and societies.
Formative Assessments
- Evaluation of informal in-class performances and video evidence of student performances using observation, discussions, drawings, and simple student-created rubrics.
- Evaluation of written reflections on dance principles including reports and journal responses using a student-created rubric.
- Analysis of primary source documents on the history of certain dances and cultures of origin.
- Personal responses to performances from diverse dance traditions.
- Peer critique and assessment using rubrics and protocols for constructive feedback.
Summative Assessment
Technology-based presentation on the impact of dance on specific groups of people and historical events. Performance of group, circle, or chain dances from various world cultures demonstrating understanding of cultural context and artistic purpose.
Benchmark Assessment
A short performance task where students teach or perform a cultural dance they have researched, identifying the cultural group, historical period, and purpose of the dance through movement and verbal explanation. This assesses understanding of how dance reflects cultural values and historical context across the unit's learning objectives.
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through movement demonstration with teacher guidance, oral explanation of cultural context, or a visual presentation (such as labeled diagrams or picture sequencing) showing connections between dance movements, costumes, and cultural meanings. Simplified graphic organizers may be provided to support research and reflection activities.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may demonstrate understanding of cultural and historical dance concepts through oral explanations, drawings, or movement demonstrations rather than written reflections alone. Visual supports such as illustrated timelines, picture-based vocabulary charts, and video examples of world dance forms can help students process cultural context and identify movement clues. Directions for multi-step tasks — such as researching a dance's origins or preparing for a performance — should be broken into numbered steps with checkpoints for feedback. For the summative technology-based presentation, students may use dictation, recorded narration, or image-captioning as alternatives to extended writing.
Section 504
Students should be given extended time for written reflections, research tasks, and preparation for the performance summative. Preferential placement during viewing and discussion of dance performances supports focus and engagement with cultural details. A reduced-distraction environment during any journaling or primary source analysis tasks allows students to process historical and cultural content more effectively.
ELL / MLL
Teachers should use video examples, images of costumes, and live demonstrations to build understanding of the cultural and historical content before introducing related vocabulary or discussion tasks. Key terms connected to world dance traditions, cultural values, and historical context should be previewed with visual support and, where possible, connected to students' home cultures and languages. Simple, clear directions paired with visual models help students participate fully in group, circle, and chain dance activities and in preparing their summative presentations.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting this unit's exploration of world dance traditions to students' own cultural backgrounds and lived experiences provides accessible entry points and builds motivation. Research tasks on dance history and cultural origins can be scaffolded with guided question frames and visual organizers that reduce complexity while maintaining meaningful engagement with the content. Students benefit from additional encouragement to contribute movement ideas and observations during group work, with praise tied to specific cultural observations they make rather than only to performance accuracy.
Gifted & Talented
Students may go deeper into the historical and sociopolitical forces that shaped specific dance traditions — for example, exploring how migration, colonization, or cultural exchange influenced the development or transformation of a dance form over time. Research into primary source materials, including historical accounts, photography, or ethnographic writings, can extend their analysis beyond the classroom-level survey. When creating original dances influenced by a specific culture, these students can be challenged to articulate and defend their artistic choices through the lens of cultural authenticity versus cultural interpretation, developing more sophisticated aesthetic reasoning.