Unit 1 — The Creative Process, Performance, and Aesthetic Responses
Description
Unit 1 introduces students to the fundamentals of dance as a creative and expressive medium. Students explore the joy of moving, listen to and respond to movement directions, and learn basic locomotor steps like walking, running, galloping, and jumping. They engage with axial movements such as turning, stretching, reaching, bending, and twisting. Through improvisation, students discover how to use different tempos, rhythms, and movement qualities to express content and emotions. Students also learn to distinguish dance movement from everyday pedestrian movement and pantomime. Partner work and group activities develop collaboration skills while students create and perform planned and improvised movement sequences based on songs, poems, stories, and musical selections.
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?
Learning Objectives
- Identify the elements of dance in planned and improvised dance sequences
- Use improvisation to discover new movement to fulfill the intent of choreography
- Demonstrate the difference between pantomime, pedestrian movement, abstract gesture, and dance movement
- Apply and adapt isolated and coordinated body part articulations, body alignment, balance, and body patterning
- Create and perform planned and improvised movement sequences using elements of dance with and without musical accompaniment
- Define and maintain personal space, concentrate, and appropriately direct focus while performing movement skills
- Create and perform original movement sequences alone and with partners using locomotor and nonlocomotor movements at various levels in space
- Use imagination to create a story based on an arts experience that communicates an emotion or feeling
Suggested Texts
- Brain Dance — movement activity
- WalkingHop Hop Hop Song — music/movement
- Cosmic Kids Moana Yoga — movement activity
- Slow and Fast Song — music/movement
- Animal Freeze Dance — music/movement activity
- Body Boogie Dance — movement activity
Supplemental Resources
- Index cards for task card activities for animal movements and freeze dance games
- Chart paper for documenting choreographic processes and collaborative planning
- Markers and colored pencils for students to draw and record their movement ideas
- Lined journals or folders for collecting student drawings and written responses to performances
- Sticky notes for labeling movement vocabulary and recording observations during peer assessments
Dance - Creating
Dance - Performing
Dance - Responding
Students determine central ideas and themes from texts, integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media formats including visual and quantitative presentations, ask and answer questions about key details in texts, and describe relationships between illustrations and story content.
Students express individuality and cultural diversity through dramatic play and movement, learn about and respect other cultures within the classroom and community, and describe how culture is expressed through and influenced by the behavior of people.
Formative Assessments
- Observation of student responses to movement directions and signals during warm-up activities
- Engagement in collaborative discussions about improvised dances
- Written or drawn work documenting personal responses to dance performances
- Planning and documentation of choreographic process through sketching or collecting ideas for dances
- Hand signals to indicate understanding of specific dance concepts and principles
Summative Assessment
Final benchmark assessment measuring success with understanding of dance elements, improvisation skills, and the ability to create and perform movement sequences
Benchmark Assessment
Final benchmark assessment will be given to measure success with this unit, evaluating student mastery of creative process standards and performance expectations
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of dance elements and movement sequences through one-on-one movement guidance with a teacher or aide, with simplified or fewer movement directions provided verbally or through visual demonstration. Students may also respond through gesture, pointing, or movement imitation rather than verbal explanation when identifying differences between dance and everyday movement.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students may benefit from visual supports such as picture cards or illustrated charts showing locomotor and axial movements to reinforce understanding of dance vocabulary and movement concepts. Directions for movement sequences should be broken into small, manageable steps, with teacher modeling and physical demonstration provided before students are expected to respond independently. For students who need alternative output modes, responses to dance experiences can be shared through drawing, gesture, or verbal description rather than written work. Additional processing time and frequent check-ins during partner and group activities will support participation and engagement.
Section 504
Students should be given preferential positioning in the dance space to ensure clear sightlines to teacher demonstrations and to minimize distractions during movement activities. Extended time for transitioning between activities and additional wait time before responding to movement prompts supports focused participation. A visual or physical cue, such as a gentle signal before transitions, can help students stay on task during improvisation and group work.
ELL / MLL
Visual cues such as demonstrated movement, illustrated vocabulary cards, and teacher modeling are essential for helping students connect dance vocabulary — such as locomotor, axial, tempo, and level — to their physical experiences. Directions for movement activities should be given clearly and simply, with the teacher using their own body to show what is expected before students attempt a movement. When possible, connections between movement concepts and students' cultural backgrounds or home-language movement traditions can be used to build engagement and prior knowledge.
At Risk (RTI)
Providing clear, consistent entry points — such as beginning with familiar, everyday movements before introducing abstract dance concepts — helps students access the content with confidence. Connecting new movement vocabulary to simple, recognizable actions supports comprehension and reduces anxiety during improvisation. Pairing students with supportive peers during partner and group activities, and offering gentle encouragement during creative exploration, builds participation and a positive relationship with dance as an expressive form.
Gifted & Talented
Students who demonstrate early mastery of locomotor and axial movement concepts can be encouraged to explore more complex movement combinations, layering tempo changes, levels in space, or contrasting movement qualities within a single sequence. These students may also be invited to reflect more deeply on the relationship between movement choices and the emotions or ideas they communicate, moving toward more intentional choreographic thinking. Opportunities to take on leadership roles in collaborative dance-making — such as contributing ideas for group movement sequences or offering thoughtful observations during class discussions about dance — can extend learning without simply adding repetitive practice.