D A NCE RESP ONDING

Tips and Suggestions • While nothing can replace the excitement and
emotion of a live performance, an advantage of using
video is that you can show students a dance perfor-
• This guide can be used with live or taped performanc-
mance more than once. Encourage students to watch
es of dance to help guide students through the process
carefully but don’t expect them to notice everything
of responding to dance. Prepare them by teaching the
with just one viewing. Showing a video of a perfor-
vocabulary, concepts, and context that will help them
mance more than once allows them to look for various
understand what they are seeing. Follow up with class
aspects of a performance—and to just enjoy and react
discussion and written assignments to let them
on an emotional level.
practice describing and analyzing what they have seen.
• Engage, but don’t overwhelm. The questions in these
• In addition to having students watch, discuss, and
worksheets can help you guide student observations
write about dance, use movement activities in your
and responses. Assign key questions on an individual
instruction. This is a great way to engage your
or group basis. Limit the number of questions that any
students, let them demonstrate what they have
individual or group of students is assigned. To many
learned, and, ultimately, empower them to have in-
will be overwhelming. Ask each individual or group to
formed opinions about dance performances and a
compile their responses and report out to the class.
better appreciation of dance as an art form.
Before you ask students to describe an entire perfor-
mance, let them practice describing a portion of the
• No matter what grade level you teach, the elements of
dance in great detail.
dance and their sub-elements—and the roles of
choreographer, dancers, and audience—are the foun-
• One of the best ways to understand a performance is
dation of exploring, understanding, and enjoying
to compare and contrast it to another performance.
dance. It’s important to give students at all grade levels
plenty of opportunities to recognize and practice
• Prepare students for writing formal critiques of a
locomotor and nonlocomotor movements, shapes,
dance performance by having them read and discuss
levels, pathways, direction, rhythms and tempos, and
reviews of contemporary and past dance performanc-
different movement qualities. In primary grades,
es.
students can begin to understand the connections
between certain types of movements and feelings
and ideas. By the time they are in high school,
students’ understanding of the elements can be the
basis for in-depth analyses of various dance forms,
not only from the perspective of audience members
but from that as choreographer and dancer as well.

• Before they watch a performance, give your students

a purpose for watching. Give them some of the key
questions provided in the worksheets. (Please, not all
of the questions at once!)

• Encourage first impressions. This allows students to

reflect on their immediate responses to the dance.

KET DANCE: Responding to Dance • 1

 D A NCE R E S P O NDING GUIDES
Responding to Dance: First Impressions
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

How did the performance begin?

What were some of your impressions or feelings at the beginning of the dance?

What did you notice most as the dance continued?

If there was more than one dancer, did you have a favorite? Which one and why?

Did you notice aspects other than the dancers’ movements, such as costumes, scenery, music, or lighting?
What did you notice?

2•
Responding to Dance: The Dancers’ Bodies
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What did you notice most about the way the dancers moved their bodies?

What parts of their bodies did the dancers use? Did they use some parts more than other parts?

If there was more than one dancer, did you notice one dancer more than others? Why?

If there was more than one dancer, did the dancers come onto and leave the stage at the same time or at
different times?

Did the dancers ever do the same movements at the same time (move in unison)? When?

Did the dancers dance close together, far apart, or both? Did the dancers touch—for example, link arms
or hands, or swing or lift one another?

KET DANCE: Responding to Dance • 3

 Responding to Dance: Locomotor and Nonlocomotor Movements
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What do you remember most about the movements of the dancer or dancers?

What locomotor movements did you see in the dance?

What nonlocomotor movements did you see?

How did the dance combine locomotor and nonlocomotor movements?

Did the movements seem to go with the music? Why or why not?

Did the movements remind you of other kinds of movements you have seen? How were the movements
similar to or different from the way we move our bodies in everyday life or sports movements?

4•
Responding to Dance: Space
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What did you notice most about the use of space in the dance?

What levels were used in the dance? Did the dancers change levels? Were there many “lifts”?

What shapes did the bodies of the dances make (individually and/or as a group)? Were the shapes sym-
metrical or asymmetrical?

What floor patterns did the dancers make as they traveled through space? What pathways did they make?
In what directions did they move?

Did the use of space help make the dance interesting or convey an idea or feeling? How?

For middle/high school: Where were your eyes drawn when you watched the dance? Why? On what did
the dancer or dancers focus (e.g., looking in the direction of the movement, changing focus as he/she
moved)?

KET DANCE: Responding to Dance • 5

 Responding to Dance: Time
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What did you notice most about the use of time in the dance?

Was the dancing fast, slow, or medium? Did the tempo change or stay the same during the dance?

What rhythms did you notice?

Was the tempo of the movement always the same as the tempo of the music? If not, how did they differ?

Did the use of tempo and rhythm help make the dance interesting or help convey an idea or feeling?
How?

6•
Responding to Dance: Force/Energy
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What words would you use to describe the energy of the dancers and the dance (e.g., heavy, light, sharp,
smooth, tense, relaxed, bound, flowing)?

Did the energy used stay the same thoughout the dance or did it change? If it changed, when and how did
it change?

If there was more than one dancer, did different dancers dance with different energies?

Was the energy of the movement similar to or different from the energy of the music? Explain?

Did the energy or force help make the dance interesting or convey an idea or feeling? How?

KET DANCE: Responding to Dance • 7

 Responding to Dance: Purpose and Context
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What do you think is the purpose of this dance (e.g., artistic, ceremonial, recreational)? Does it have
more than one purpose?

Does this dance seem to relate to a specific culture or period in history?

How do the movements and use of the elements of dance reflect its purpose and cultural context?
Does this dance seem to represent a specific compositional form? If so, what is the form and how do you
know?

What style of dance do you think this dance is? How do you know?

8•
Responding to Dance: Elements of Production
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

What were the costumes like? Did they seem right for the dance? Why or why not?

What was the dancing space (stage) like? Did the movements seem to fit the space?

Was there any scenery? Describe it.

What was the lighting like?

What did you notice most about these elements of production?

Did the costumes, lighting, and/or scenery help make the dance more interesting or convey an idea or
feeling? How?

KET DANCE: Responding to Dance • 9

 Responding to Dance: Analysis, Interpretation, and Evaluation
Name:

Title of Dance:
Choreographer:

Performed by:

Does this dance tell a story? What is the story?

Does this dance have a clear beginning, middle, and end?

Does this dance convey a feeling/mood or idea? What is it?

Does this dance have a theme? What is it and how is this different from telling a story?

Did the use of the elements of dance help tell the story or convey the mood or theme? How?

What was the meaning of the dance to you?

Did you like the dance? Why or why not?

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