Welcome to Lesson 2

Today we will again be looking at movement skill development and the features of composition. We will also be looking at what makes a good performance.

Activity 1: Aspects of Movement Skill Development

In yesterday’s lesson you would all have seen the diagram on page 85 of your text book. (turn to that page now!)


You can see that there are several major movement skills that all humans develop as they grow.

We begin to learn these movement skills from when we are babies, and continue to develop them as we go through our physical development. Elite athletes and performers have an advanced understanding of these skills as they are integral to successful performance.

Body control: Body control is being aware of where your body is in space, and making your body do exactly what you want it to.

An important part of body control is something called proprioception. The term proprioception describes the body’s ability to know exactly where one part of the body is in relation to the rest of the body. For example, close your eyes, and raise your arm into the air. Now open your eyes and lower your arm. How did you know your arm was in the air before you opened your eyes? You knew because of your body’s proprioception.
When people sprain or tear ligaments, or fracture or break bones, their body can lose it’s sense of proprioception in relation to that area of the body, often because the body part affected is immobilised and bandaged or put in a cast for long periods of time. This is why people recovering from such injuries see a physio, who will set exercises to help them re-gain muscle strength and proprioception.

Question: How would you use body control in jazz dance?

Object manipulation and control: Object manipulation and control refers to our ability to use objects in the exact way they we want to use them.

An example of developing this skill would be learning how to write. Think back to when you were in kindergarten, and learning how to hold a pencil for the first time. First, you had to learn how to hold and use the pencil. This would be the manipulation part of the skill. Next, you had to learn how to colour between the lines. This refers to the control part of the skill. As you grew older, you learnt how to write, first with a pencil, then with a pen. The skill developed more as you learnt how to do running writing, and so on…

Anticipation and Timing: Anyone who has ever played a sport or participated in a performance, will know how important anticipation and timing are. Anticipation means thinking about what will happen in the immediate future, and adjusting your actions to suit what you think will happen. For example, in netball you think the player you are defending is going to call for a pass so you tighten your defence and prepare to intercept the ball. Timing is using your judgement to decide when would be the best time to execute an action. Eg: jumping for an intercept in netball, or keeping to the rhythm of the song in jazz dance.

Question: How do you keep in time in jazz dancing?

Technique: the technique of a skill is literally how you do the skill. Technique can usually be broken down into smaller components that you learn individually, then put together to make a whole action. An example of this would be a tennis serve. Tennis players will often practice the ball toss, the “back scratch”, and the swing as three different movements, then eventually combine them to create a serving movement.

Question: How important is technique? (demo!)


Activity 2

Have a look at the pictures below. For each picture, consider what movement skills the dancers needed to pose for this photo. How is each skill being used?

Question: What is the most important aspect of movement skill development for Jazz dance? Why?


Activity 3: The Chicken Dance and The Hokey Pokey!

Yesterday we read in the text book about the importance of relationships and space in performance.

As a class, we are going to do the chicken dance! Then we are going to be an audience while 2 - 3 of our classmates do the chicken dance.

Words to the chicken dance:

And a little bit of this,
And a little bit of that
And shake your tail
(clap clap clap clap)
(repeat 3 times)

Chorus:
La la la la la laa la laa laa,
La la la la la laa la laa
(repeat)

Questions:

Does the chicken dance make use of space?
Can you identify any relationships in the chicken dance?
Is the chicken dance a particularly good dance?

Now, we are going to do the hokey pokey as a class.

Words to the Hokey Pokey:

You put your left hand in
You put your left hand out
You put your left hand in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey and you turn around
And that’s what it’s all about!

Ohhh do the hokey pokey!
Ohhh do the hokey pokey!
Ohhh do the hokey pokey!
And that’s what it’s all about!

(repeat for right hand, left foot, right foot, whole body)

Questions:

Does the Hokey Poey make use of space?
Can you identify any relationships in the Hokey Pokey?
Do you think these elements contribute to make the Hokey Pokey a better dance than the Chicken Dance?


Activity 4:

Yesterday we also looked at the features of movement composition. Working in groups of 2 or 3 we are now going to analyse either the Hokey Pokey or the Chicken Dance according to the features of composition. You can use your text book and the mind map you did yesterday to help you.

Use the following questions to help you analyse our chosen dance:

1) What do you think is the purpose of your dance?

2) What themes, imagery and/or movement may have been stimulus for the dance?

3) Are there elements of improvisation in your dance? (improvised movements are movements that were developed specifically for your dance).

4) Do you think your dance is well planned? Do the movements you do in the verse and the chorus flow in a way that makes sense, or are the movements awkward and confusing?

5) Can you give an example of a sequence in your dance? ( remember, a sequence is a set of individual movements that combine to make 1 complete movement).

6) Overall, does your dance make a good performance? Why? How would you improve any one of the features of composition to improve your dance?

Welcome to Jazz It Up! Lesson 1

Hello and welcome to Mr Kap's year 9 PD/H/PE class. As you have just found out, for the next few weeks you will be learning about jazz dancing, and the features and elements of composition and performance.

Before we start the lesson, have a look at this youtube clip. This is a clip of a performance in New York for the Hall of Fame Dance Challenge. As you complete your activities this lesson you may like to think about what you have seen, or even watch it again.



Activity 1: Read pages 85 and 125-127 in your text book.

Activity 1b: Work in pairs. Create an Inspiration mind map of "features of composition". Come up with your own definition of each feature. (hint: look at the image on page 127)

Activity 2: Read pages 144, 157 and 140 in your text book.

Activity 2b: Think. Pair. Share.

Consider the following questions on your own. You may like to jot down some answers in your laptop.

q1: What sort of relationships exist in jazz dance? (hint: you can draw your answer from your text and from the youtube clip.)
q2: How important/relevant are these relationships when it comes to composing and performing a dance routine?
q3: Why is it important to use the available space when composing and performing a dance routine?
q4: How do you make the best use of space in a dance routine? (hint: you can draw your answers from the text and from the youtube clip.)

After a few minutes, Miss Cleary will ask you to pair up again. Share your answers with each other. You might like to write down some of the good points your partner has. Answer the following question:

q4: What different things you you come up with in your answers? What similar things did you come up with?

Once you have compared answers and answered question 4, Miss Cleary will ask each group to share what they came up with with the rest of the class.


Next lesson, get ready to dance! We will have a practical lesson where we will begin to explore the nature of jazz dance. You will need to get into groups of 4 or 5 BEFORE the lesson begins. In preparation for next lesson, have a look at this brief blurb about jazz dance:

Jazz dance originated from the African American vernacular dances of late 1800s to the mid-1900s. An early popular "jazz dancer" was vaudeville star Joe Frisco in the 1910s. He danced in a loose-limbed style close to the ground, with eccentric steps, and juggled his derby and cigar.
Until the middle of 1950s, the term "jazz dance" often referred to tap dance, because tap dancing (set to jazz music) was the main performance dance of the era. During the later jazz era, popular forms of jazz dance were the Cakewalk, Black Bottom, Charleston, Jitterbug, Boogie Woogie, swing dancing and the related Lindy Hop.
After the 1950s, pioneers such as Katherine Dunham took the essence of Caribbean traditional dance and made it into a performing art. With the growing domination of other forms of entertainment music, jazz dance evolved on Broadway into a new, smooth, style taught today and known as Modern Jazz, while tap dance continued to evolve on its own. The performance style was popularized by Bob Fosse’s work, such as Chicago, Cabaret, Damn Yankees, and The Pajama Game.
Today, jazz dance is present in many different venues and different forms. Jazz dance thrives in dance schools, where it is the most popular dance for amateur dancers.[citation needed] Jazz dance remains an essential part of musical theater choreography; it is sometimes interwoven with other dance styles as appropriate for the particular show. Jazz dancing can be seen in some music videos, and even Las Vegas showgirls are jazz dancers.

(adapted from wikipedia.org)