Elements of Dance
Knowing about the elements of dance is essential for creating, performing and appreciating dance. In lecture, we learnt a little more about the elements of space, time and dynamics.
Space
- Shape: symmetrical & asymmetrical
- Level: high, medium, low
- Dimension: forwards, backwards, up, down, left, right
- Pathways: curved, linear, zigzag
- Personal/General
- Environment
Time
- Tempo
- Metric pattern
- Duration
- Rhythm
- Beat
Dynamics
- Movement quality
- Energy
- Force
- Effort actions: strong, sudden, sustained, percussive
A great way of assessing learner's understanding is to watch a dance, be it in real life or in a video, and use questions based on these elements. Iris suggests questions such as:
- Identify 3 symmetrical shapes in the dance.
- Identify 3 interesting and original asymmetrical shapes in the dance.
- Are any of these shapes repeated throughout the dance?
- Have any of these shapes been varied throughout the dance?
- How does the dancer use space (direction, level, and dimension) in the dance?
- How do the dancer’s movements relate to the beat and rhythm of the music?
- How would you describe the way (quality of movement) in which the dancer performs the actions?
Musical Theatre
In workshop, we were introduced to the musical theatre production Hairspray. Each of us were to choose a stereotypical character from a high school and embody that character. We started off by walking in lines from one end of the room to the other, with the mirror in front of us. We were to embody that character while doing particular dance moves. There were quite a few 'school nerds', 'jocks', girly girls etc.
We then learnt some choreography to 'You Can't Stop the Beat'. This was a pretty good lesson for me as I have already learnt a slight variation on Iris' choreography for this song for a production, so I would be confident to use it in class. The focus was on timing, characterisation and performance.
Half the class then performed the dance to the other half, which was good as it allowed you to pick up good techniques from the others in your class, while at the same time there was safety in numbers so it was not too confronting for only the second week of dance class.
You Can't Stop the Beat from the Musical, Hairspray
Video of our class doing the Dance!
Courtesy of Iris McGill
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