Unit 2 — History of the Arts and Culture
Description
Students study the origins of dance forms within historical and cultural contexts, examining how social and cultural values influenced choreographers across the 20th and 21st centuries. They investigate aesthetic movements, spatial patterning, contrasting dance styles, and technological advancements. Students learn social dances from various periods, compare and contrast traditional cultural dance styles, research how African-American, Latin/South American, and European influences shaped American social dances, and analyze how video technology transformed dance on film, television, and in music videos. Students create simple ritual or ceremonial dances based on specific cultures, learn authentic ceremonial dances, research contemporary modern choreographers and their influences, and create multimedia presentations comparing past and contemporary works. Portfolio maintenance continues throughout the unit.
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 is dance language used to describe specific aesthetic differences and similarities between styles and artists?
- 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, television, 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 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 impacts.
- Generate observational and emotional responses to diverse culturally and historically specific works of dance.
- Distinguish among artistic styles, trends, and movements in dance within diverse cultures and historical eras.
- Compare and contrast examples of archetypal subject matter in works of art from diverse cultural contexts and historical eras.
Supplemental Resources
- Magazine and newspaper clippings about dance for portfolio documentation
- Printed images or photographs of dancers and choreographers
- Sentence strips for organizing historical timeline information
- Blank booklets for student publishing research findings
- Highlighters and colored pencils for annotating primary source documents
Dance - Connecting
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students engage in collaborative discussions about dance performance and analysis, prepare and participate in conversations with diverse partners, integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media formats including visually and orally, and produce clear and coherent writing about dance research, reflection, and analysis.
Students create, explain, and demonstrate planned movement sequences that include changes in rhythm, tempo, and musical style, and detect, analyze, and correct errors to refine movement skills through dance activities.
Formative Assessments
- Journal entries reflecting on emotional responses to dances and using expressive language to report experiences
- Written reflections on dance principles evaluated using student-created rubrics
- Pair-share and peer evaluation activities discussing cultural origins and historical influences
- Performance task checklists for executing movement sequences in various dance forms
- Informal in-class performances evaluated through observation, discussions, and drawings
Summative Assessment
Slideshow presentations on choreographers who greatly impacted dance, research projects on cultural origins of dance, and multimedia presentations on the impact of dance on specific groups of people and historical events.
Benchmark Assessment
A short performance or video submission in which students present one social dance from a studied culture and explain how its spatial patterns and dynamics reflect the social values of that time period, assessing understanding of cultural context, movement analysis, and historical influence.
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through verbal descriptions or recorded video responses explaining how video technology influenced a dance form, or through a simplified graphic organizer comparing two dance styles with visual images and labeled movement qualities instead of written analysis.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from graphic organizers or visual timelines to help connect dance forms to their historical and cultural contexts, reducing the cognitive load of tracking multiple traditions across eras. For movement-based tasks, breaking performance sequences into smaller, clearly numbered steps with visual demonstrations supports processing and physical execution. Journal reflections and multimedia presentations may be completed through oral recording, dictation, or a combination of visual and written responses so that students can demonstrate understanding without being limited by written output alone. Teachers should check in frequently during research and portfolio work to provide feedback and help students maintain focus across the unit's extended pacing.
Section 504
Extended time should be provided for written reflections, research projects, and slideshow presentations so students can fully process and organize their responses to complex cultural and historical content. Preferential seating during video screenings and live demonstrations supports focus and visual access to movement examples. Directions for multi-step tasks such as the multimedia presentation should be provided in both oral and printed formats to reduce barriers to independent work.
ELL / MLL
Visual supports such as timelines, maps, and video clips are especially valuable in this unit, as they allow students to connect dance forms to geographic regions and historical periods without relying solely on text. Key vocabulary related to dance history, cultural terminology, and aesthetic movements should be pre-taught and displayed in the classroom for ongoing reference, with home language resources offered when available. When students discuss cultural origins or complete research tasks, allowing responses through drawing, demonstration, or short spoken explanations alongside written work ensures meaningful participation.
At Risk (RTI)
Connecting this unit's content to dance traditions or cultural backgrounds that are personally familiar to students can serve as a meaningful entry point into broader historical comparisons. Research tasks and presentations may be scaffolded by reducing the scope — for example, focusing on one choreographer or one cultural tradition in depth rather than multiple — while still expecting students to engage with key concepts of cultural influence and historical context. Pair-share and peer evaluation activities offer supported opportunities for students to articulate their observations and build confidence before independent written or performance tasks.
Gifted & Talented
Students may be invited to explore the intersections between dance history and broader socio-political movements in greater depth, examining how specific choreographers both reflected and challenged the cultural values of their time through a critical or theoretical lens. Research projects and multimedia presentations can be extended to include primary source analysis, cross-cultural comparisons across multiple time periods, or original arguments about the legacy of a particular dance tradition. Students might also investigate how global digital media continues to reshape contemporary dance aesthetics, drawing connections between historical patterns and present-day innovations.