EXPLORING DANCE

ALONGSIDE MUSIC
 DANCE + MUSIC = ?
• Music influences dance in many ways. If there is a slow piece of music, our
movement will adjust accordingly
• Slow music may encourage us be slower (Dynamics – How we do the
movement), flexible (Energy), low (Direction), non-locomotor (Body), etc.
• Fast music may encourage us to be fast (Dynamics – How do we do the
movement), jumping (Action – what is the movement), strong (Energy), etc.
 VARIATION + THEME
• When we create movement phrases (dance routines), that phrase/pattern is
referred to as a theme
• This theme is a series of steps which, when put together, creates a particular
pattern

• A variation is when you take a movement phrase and change it

• This change may be in a form of changing the levels of the movements,
adding more dancers in the variation, facing another dancer instead of
facing the audience, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC7iMA2CoQk EXAMPLES
 WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
• What did you see when the music slowed down? What elements of dance did you
notice?

• What did you see then the music picked up tempo? What elements of dance did
you notice?

You may use your Dance Vocabulary sheet as a reference.

 EXAMPLE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eku6HSN613M

Fast forward to 0:41

 WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?
• The music has so many changes? What did you notice? What were the
differences?

• Record your ideas on a piece of paper