Arts Dance Essay (Essay Sample)

Arts – Dance Communication
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Pre-text- /watch?v=lDl5QwAR8DI Bildurang the Platypus for NAIDOC week.
This narrative is a dream story about how the platypus came to be in Australia. According to the narrative, Daroo the duck once swam downstream far from her family. While resting, she was found by Bildurang the giant water rat who was hunting. Bildurang took her to his place and forcefully locked her up. The giant rat made a wife out of Daroo, who was planning an escape. When Daroo managed to escape, she went back home and laid her eggs. The eggs hatched, and her kids were different from the other ducklings. Instead of feathers, the young ducklings were covered with fur and also had claws on their four feet. Daroo and her children are exiled, and they went far away where her children grew up and had children of their own. This narrative tells the story of the platypus’ coming to Australia CITATION Red12 \l 2057 (Red Pixels Animation, 2012).
Grade: Year 6. – At this learning stage, the learner’s development is in a position to accommodate knowledge of Indigenous culture, higher movement abilities. Also students here enjoy learning through physical activities both at a group and individual level.
Question/Issue: Dance involves learners making and responding to dance individually, and collaboratively with their classmates, teachers, and communities. Can dance be used to create meaning and tell a story?
Exploring dance
In dance, the students coordinate movements involving body parts and actions that include different body areas and bases. These actions extend the learners’ understanding of dance and application of time, space dynamics and relationships that include performance in groups of varied sizes CITATION Lyn14 \l 2057 (Paine, 2014). Further, the learners also build their use of several combinations of essential movement skills and thus develop their body control, competence and dance accuracy. Through their dance experience, the learners tap from dances of different cultures, times and locations CITATION Pru04 \l 2057 (Goodwin, 2004). They can explore the dance and inspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders Peoples, and also those of the Asian region.
The students learn about dance within and outside their local community. They explore Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dances and learn how the dance movements communicate meaning. Thus, as learners make and reply to dance, they understand the meaning, interpretation, forms and elements of dance. These dance aspects include the use of space and dynamism in dances and social and cultural contexts of dance. They gain the ability to gauge the use of components of dance in the dances they view and perform. Through their development of safe dancing, they are also able to identify suitable warm-up and cool down procedures, dancing within the capacity of their body and working in groups safely. As they grow in the practice of dance, their understanding of artists and audiences also develops. The students build on previous experiences and the diversity of their dance routines. Some of the applicable strategies in this exercise are;
* Exploration of body and stage movement and choreographic devices, using the elements of dance to choreograph dances that communicate meaning. For the dancers, their use of the stage and body is the primary communication tool. As such, it is essential that they are familiar with the different positions of the routine and the intended communication. To effectively attain this, the teacher can apply techniques that encourage improvisation of body movements. The teacher also considers the different viewpoints or interpretations that attachable to a particular body movement. After the consideration, they can select the most suitable combinations to pass the message across CITATION Aus15 \l 2057 (Australian Curriculum, 2015). The teacher also ensures that the selected combination of movements does not alienate some members of the audience or misrepresent some parts of the story in the routine.
* The performance of the dance using expressive abilities to communicate a choreographer’s ideas, including performing dances of cultural groups in the community. The dance is developed to fit the audience. Other elements such as costumes and props are also applicable to put the message of the dance in context. The teacher has to ensure that the learners understand the meaning of dance and the meaning and story of their dance routines to their audience. Through this, the dancers can create a relationship with their audience and ensure that their message is received exactly as intended in the choreography CITATION Aus01 \l 2057 (Australian Curriculum, 2015). The dance presents the story in a manner that is relatable and understandable to the audience both in their immediate or different context.
* Explanation of how the elements of dance and production elements communicate meaning by comparing dances from different social, cultural and historical contexts, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dance. The dance is made to represent the various social activities of its origin community. The e...