Performing Arts News

Term 3 in Performing Arts

Hi everyone,

This semester, the focus in Performing Arts shifts from Drama to Dance! We’re already having a lot of fun experimenting with movement, exploring how to turn regular everyday movement into dance movement, looking at some social dances from around the world and experimenting with creative dance-making. Here’s a quick look at what each grade level will be learning about this Term.

Preps - This term preps will be exploring how to move expressively, and how to ensure that movement is safe for their own body and the bodies of others. They will be working in pair, small group and whole class situations to explore how different body parts and zones can be used to create interesting shapes and lines in space, and how to express basic ideas and emotions through movement. We will begin to experiment with organising movement into sequences, and will use props such as scarves and ribbons to express music through movement.

Grade 1/2- This term the grade one and two students are using their understanding of mime from the Drama program in Semester 1 to develop original movement using everyday movement for inspiration. They will be exploring the difference between mime and dance, with a focus on taking everyday literal movement and making it more abstract, expressive and rhythmic, and then organising it into short sequences to express themes and ideas. 

Grade 3/4 - This term the grade three and four students will explore several different methods of manipulating movement to create variations, and organising movement into interesting sequences to express ideas and themes through dance. They will continue to learn and hone skills that help them to create original movement, and will experiment with isolation and co-ordination of different body parts and zones. Throughout the term, students will explore the use of space, line, shape, relationship and dynamics to create moments of interest in their work. 

Grade 5/6 - Grade five and six students will explore the use of elements of Dance to compose original short choreographies and sequences in a series of creative challenges. Essentially, they’ll be given design and movement goals to achieve over one or two weeks at a time, and will learn some tools and skills they can use to achieve the goals. For example: “Create a 4-phrase sequence using line, space and contrast to establish a different focal point in each phrase”. We will look at using different layers in music, and explore using space, dynamics, relationship, tempo, unison and canon, to create interesting, exciting pieces that communicate a theme to an audience. Students will also begin to learn about the elements of quality, for working towards more controlled and refined movement, in preparation for the focus on strong presentation in Term 4.

I look forward to seeing all of the wonderful creative work that FWPS students generate in Performing Arts this term, and have thoroughly enjoyed the dance experiments that we have conducted so far!

Thanks for reading,

Jess Russell-Davies

Performing Arts