Unit 2 — History of the Arts and Culture
Description
Students study the origins of dance forms within historical and cultural contexts, examining aesthetic movements, spatial patterning, contrasting dance styles, and technological advancements. The unit explores how technology has influenced dance media and how social, political, and cultural values have shaped choreographic choices across diverse cultures and time periods. Students continue maintaining an ongoing paper or electronic dance portfolio and research the connections between dance and significant historical events, cultures, and artistic movements.
Essential Questions
- How do new social dances and variations on social dance steps arise?
- What impact has dance had on culture and society throughout history?
- What are the similarities and differences among dances of various cultures?
- What role does dance play in the culture of a specific country or region?
- How are forms of dance influenced by time, place and people?
Learning Objectives
- Analyze the impact of the advent of video technology and its influence on dance innovations in movies, music videos, TV, and reality shows.
- Compare and contrast the use of spatial patterning and relationships in past and contemporary dance works from world cultures.
- Observe how social and cultural values from past and contemporary choreographers influenced the dynamics of their works.
- Trace the social and political impact on the culture of the arts and the impact of artists on culture in the 20th and 21st centuries.
- Research and perform dances that illustrate similar and contrasting styles associated with technological advances, world dance styles, and socio-political impact.
- Analyze primary source documents and conduct research projects on the cultural origins of dance.
Supplemental Resources
- Magazine and newspaper clippings for portfolio research and visual analysis of dance in media
- Index cards for organizing research on dance styles and choreographers by time period or culture
- Chart paper for creating visual timelines or comparison matrices of dance forms across cultures
Dance - Connecting
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students engage in collaborative discussions about dance works, participate in conversations analyzing diverse perspectives on choreography and performance, and integrate information from various media formats including videos and visual texts to develop understanding of dance as a cultural and historical art form.
Students create and demonstrate planned movement sequences that incorporate changes in rhythm, tempo, and musical style while analyzing and correcting errors to refine movement skills and develop physical fitness through dance activities.
Formative Assessments
- Journal entries and self-reflection on emotional responses to performances and cultural dances
- Peer evaluation and observation during demonstrations of learned dances from various cultures
- Lesson task checklist tracking completion of research and comparison activities
- Pair-share discussions analyzing connections between dance styles and historical periods
Summative Assessment
Create slideshow presentations on choreographers who greatly impacted dance, or use technology to create a presentation on the impact of dance on specific groups of people and historical events.
Benchmark Assessment
A short research and analysis task in which students identify a dance form from a specific culture or historical period, describe its spatial patterns and dynamics, and explain how social or cultural values shaped it. This assesses understanding of connections between historical context and choreographic choices covered in Unit 2.
Alternative Assessment
Students may present their research findings through a recorded video explanation, visual poster with labels and images, or a one-on-one discussion with the teacher in place of a written or digital slideshow. Sentence frames and research graphic organizers may be provided to support organization of ideas about choreographers or dance's historical impact.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from graphic organizers and visual timelines that help connect dance forms to specific historical periods and cultural contexts, reducing the cognitive load of tracking multiple events across time. Research tasks can be chunked into smaller sequential steps with teacher check-ins, and students may demonstrate understanding of choreographers or cultural dance styles through oral presentations, recorded movement responses, or captioned visual displays rather than traditional written formats. Pair-share and peer evaluation activities should include structured sentence frames to support participation in analytical discussions about dance and culture.
Section 504
Students should be provided with extended time for research tasks and slideshow presentations, as well as access to a low-distraction environment when working on written or digital portfolio components. Preferential seating during video screenings and live demonstrations will support sustained focus when analyzing dance media and cultural performances. Printed or digitally accessible copies of any visual materials, primary source excerpts, or research guides used in class should be made available in advance to support independent access.
ELL / MLL
Vocabulary central to this unit — such as choreography, spatial patterning, aesthetics, and socio-political — should be introduced with visual supports, including images, short video clips, and labeled diagrams that connect terms to concrete examples from diverse cultural dance traditions. Directions for research tasks and portfolio entries should be given in short, clear steps, and students should be encouraged to draw on knowledge of dance and artistic traditions from their home cultures as an entry point into the unit's broader historical comparisons. Partnering MLL students with a supportive peer during pair-share and peer evaluation activities can provide language modeling in an accessible, low-pressure context.
At Risk (RTI)
Entry points into the unit's historical and cultural content should be connected to dance styles or cultural contexts students may already recognize from media, music videos, or community experiences, building on prior knowledge before introducing less familiar traditions. Research tasks can be scaffolded with partially completed graphic organizers or guided note templates that help students identify key relationships between dance styles and their historical contexts without requiring independent structure-building from the start. Lesson task checklists should be used consistently to help students monitor their own progress and build confidence as they move through the unit's research and performance components.
Gifted & Talented
Students ready for greater depth can extend their research beyond general cultural overviews to examine how specific social or political movements directly shaped the choreographic decisions of particular artists, drawing on primary source documents and scholarly perspectives to support their analysis. For the summative presentation, these students might be challenged to develop a comparative argument across two or more choreographers or dance traditions, situating their work within a larger historical narrative rather than profiling a single subject. Independent inquiry into underrepresented or non-Western dance traditions and their global influence can broaden the scope of the unit and encourage students to question whose stories are centered in mainstream dance history.