Glen Waverley Primary School Specialist Newsletter

Performing Arts

Welcome back to Term Three! We hope everyone managed to stay dry and warm at this chilly midpoint of the year. This term, our whole school is finalising the preparing for the biennial full-scale Production: Enter the Multiverse at Robert Blackwood Hall on Thursday, August 10th (Week 5).

 

Years Prep to Six have spent the last term learning choreography for a production dance item in which their class is paired with a neighbouring class. Performances on stage will involve an impressive number of dancers anywhere between 40 and 60. The age-appropriate technical and expressive skills exhibited within dance have been a focus for all ages levels and students will continue to explore how to apply these skills to entertain, celebrate and express ourselves. We will also continue building understanding by analysing and applying the fundamental elements of dance: Body, Energy, Space, Time and Relationships. As we get closer to the Production date, focus now shifts to preparation of costume and prop elements. Learners will also engage with the 24 character strengths that are embedded within the production narrative, exploring their own strengths as a person and performer, those which are exhibited and those which are found within.

 

We are excited to share that we will have four different extra-curricular groups performing within the school production this year: The Year 1-2 Choir, the Year 3-4 VSSS Mass Choir Ensemble, the Year 5-6 Senior Choir and the Year 5-6 VSSS Mass Dance Ensemble.

 

Prep

Learners in Prep continue preparations for the 2023 GWPS Production in collaboration with a partner class. They will be representing different emotions through body language and movement this term. They will be exploring simple dances, expressing what they enjoy and why. Using their expressive skills, students will emote with different types of body language, like posture, facial expression and gesture. They will explore the reasons why people dance and how dances can be enjoyed and enhanced through teamwork. Preps will transfer their learning on stage in the school production and reflect upon what they have gained as performers from the unique and large-scale collaborative experience.

 

Curriculum Links: 

  • Use fundamental locomotor and non-locomotor movements, body parts, bases and zones to explore safe movement possibilities and dance ideas (VCADAE017)
  • Use choreographic devices to organise movement ideas and create dance sequences (VCADAD018)

 

Key vocabulary:

Body awareness, body control, posture, expression 

 

Year 1 and 2

Students in Year One and Two continue preparations for the 2023 GWPS Production in collaboration with a partner class. They will explore choreographic devices when practising different short dance sequences. They will be learning about fundamental locomotor and non-locomotor movements, body parts, bases and zones to explore, improvise and structure movement ideas for dance. Students will be communicating ideas about themselves and their world to an audience through varied use of body language. Year One and Two will transfer their learning on stage in the school production and reflect upon what they have gained as performers from the unique and large-scale collaborative experience.

 

Curriculum Links: 

  • Use choreographic devices to select and organise movement ideas and create and practise dance sequences (VCADAD022)
  • Use simple technical and expressive skills when presenting dance that communicates ideas about themselves and their world to an audience (VCADAP023)

 

Key vocabulary: 

Boundaries, strength, balance, coordination, interaction, energy 

 

Year 3 and 4

Year Three and Four students continue preparations for the 2023 GWPS Production in collaboration with a partner class. They will communicate the intentions behind dance choreography and will use the elements of dance to communicate ideas, combining technical and expressive dance skills in rehearsal. They will use production features, such as costume and props to communicate specific ideas and feelings. Learners will be structuring dance sequences, using choreographic devices to share symbols, concepts and ideas. They will further develop core skills such as movement accuracy, projection and focus. Year Three and Four will transfer their learning on stage in the school production and reflect upon what they have gained as performers from the unique and large-scale collaborative experience.

 

Curriculum Links:

  • Improvise and structure movement ideas for dance sequences using safe dance practice, the elements of dance and choreographic devices (VCADAE025)
  • Use choreographic devices to organise dance sequences, and practise body actions and technical skills (VCADAD026)

 

Key vocabulary: 

Alignment, accuracy, projection, focus, contrast, repetition 

 

 

Year 5 and 6

Year Five and Six learners continue preparations for the 2023 GWPS Production in collaboration with a partner class. They will combine many elements of dance, such as body, energy and space to engage an audience. They will be rehearsing the combination of fundamental movements with varied use of dynamics, relationships and space. To develop an understanding of forms and elements, the students will analyse dance through viewing and responding exercises. Learners will be investigating characteristics of dances from different social, historical and cultural contexts and discussing how these factors influence their dance making. They will create dance sequences that convey distinct narrative events and symbolic concepts. Year Five and Six will transfer their learning on stage in the school production and reflect upon what they have gained as performers from the unique and large-scale collaborative experience.

 

Curriculum Links: 

  • Explore movement possibilities and choreographic devices using safe dance practice and the elements of dance to create movement ideas, sequences, and phrases (VCADAE029)
  • Develop technical and expressive skills in fundamental movements and body actions and use choreographic devices to create dance sequences (VCADAD030)

 

Key vocabulary:

Spatial changes, dynamic changes, clarity, canon, unison

 

 

How can you support your child’s Performing Arts learning at home?  

  • Ask your child about their group’s dance item and the themes/ideas within the song and choreography. Use the dance demo video from GWPS’s playlist this year to explore your child’s dance, along with others from across the school. Why not join in and dance together as a family? https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLixMn_S2oMZdstRyWYRe2btREFl_OMrPH 
  • Incorporate dance regularly into interactions around the house as a means of expression. Examine the way you and your family members communicate non-verbally through gestures, posture, movement and facial expression. 
  • Play music often and explore the messages and meanings within the lyrics. Develop basic choreography to songs you hear on the radio.
  • Discuss with your child the reasons why you and you immediate friends and family dance. Perhaps it is to relax, to exert energy, to relive stress, to create, to express, to socialise, to have fun, etc.