Module 10 - Dance

Activity 1 : : Activity 2 : : Activity 3 : : Activity 4 : : Activity 5

Activity 5: Practice and Review - Evaluating a Dance work

Using the ideas and terms you studied in Module 9, you can analyze a work of Dance. Some questions to ask yourself as you watch a dance concert:

• Genre - In what ways did the dance piece pursue the characteristics of a particular genre, for example, ballet, modern, or folk dance?
• Formalized Movement - Did the work utilize formalized movement or was it more improvisational in nature?
• Line, Form, and Repetition - how did the dancers, individually and as a group, create visual forms and repetitions? Were they rounded, angular, circular, horizontal, vertical, etc? How did these movements contribute to the meaning or emotional impact of the work?
• Rhythm - What was the rhythmic structure of the piece?
• Mime and Pantomime - What, if any, elements of mime and pantomime were in the piece? Did these movements hold symbolic meaning that contributed to the storyline?
• Idea Content - What kind of message or experience was the piece trying to convey and was it successful?
• Music - How did the music contribute to the experience of the dance? If there was no music, how did that affect your ability to relate to the piece?
• Mise-en-Scene - What role did the elements of the mise-en-scene play in the dance? How did the setting, costumes, and lighting work in conjunction with the movements of the dancers to create a total experience?
• Reaction - How did the previous elements combine to create a reaction in you? What was your emotional response to the dance piece and what caused that reaction?

If you are having trouble understanding how the information in this module can be put to use, choose a choreographer from chapter 10 of The Humanities through the Arts. Visit the website www.youtube.com and enter their name in the search engine (also entering the terms ballet or modern dance will work well too). Do a practice analysis of a dance work using the criteria established above. This will help you analyze a dance work and assist your understanding of the concepts.