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Creating Dance Vocabulary

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Creating Dance Vocabulary

Oliver, Tane and Rawiri are creating a short dance for a bookshop’s after-hours event. Their dance will show a story idea without using words. Use the movement clues and planning tasks to build a clear dance vocabulary.

Read the movement clues

Dance vocabulary includes the movement choices dancers use and the words that describe them. Dancers can change levels (high, middle or low), directions (forwards, backwards or sideways), pathways (straight, curved or zigzag), speed (slow or quick), and energy (gentle, strong or sharp). A still shape, or freeze, can make an idea stand out. Combining and repeating movements helps an audience recognise a feeling or story.

1.Which choice is a dance vocabulary word describing how quickly a movement happens?

Level
Speed
Pathway
Direction

2.The dancers want to show a tiny mouse sneaking between book shelves. Choose two movement features that would help communicate this idea, and explain why.

3.Match each movement word to the best description.

Freeze
Zigzag
Level
Gesture

How high or low the body is
Hold a still shape
Travel along a line with sharp turns
A movement made with part of the body

4.Tane makes a quick, strong movement with both arms, then freezes. Which part is the freeze, and what might it help the audience notice?

Build a bookshop dance

Imagine a book lifting off a shelf and opening by itself. Plan movements that help an audience understand this surprising moment.

5.Choose one movement feature to show the book rising from the shelf. Name the feature and describe the movement.

6.Create a three-part movement sequence for the floating book. Write one movement for each part, using at least two vocabulary words such as level, pathway, speed, gesture, strong, gentle or freeze.

7.Oliver and Rawiri have different movement ideas. What is one useful way they can work together to create their dance?

Listen to each other, try both ideas and agree on a sequence
Make the other dancer copy one person’s idea
Perform at the same time without discussing the order

8.A group wants to show excitement. Name one movement choice that could communicate excitement, and explain how it might look.

9.True or false: Repeating a movement can help an audience recognise an idea or notice a pattern.

TrueFalse

10.Read this sequence: “Tane tiptoes along a curved pathway, reaches high, then freezes.” Name two different movement features used in the sequence.

11.How could you change one movement in your sequence to make it show a different feeling? Name the movement feature you would change and describe the change.