Hip Hop and Urban Dance Focus Course Profile

This course emphasizes the development of students’ artistry, improvisational and compositional skills, and technical proficiency in global dance genres. Students will apply dance elements, techniques, and tools in a variety of ways, including performance situations; describe and model responsible practices related to the dance environment; and reflect on how the study of dance affects personal and artistic development.  The focus of this course is Urban Dance.

Course Overview

Unit 1: Introduction to Hip-Hop Technique (30 Hours)

What does Urban Dance look like, and how does it feel to dance it?  Students will participate daily in Hip Hop technique dance classes.  Rules and procedures will be established collectively by the class to ensure safety and promote a sense of belonging.  Emphasis will be placed on strength training and weight transferring exercises to help prepare students for increasingly complex power moves and step combinations (e.g.: Drops, Spins, Uprocks, Flares, Freezes, Jerkin'). Correct physiology and terminology as it relates to muscular anatomy will be reviewed. Students will learn to use the Critical Analysis process to reflect on and evaluate dance works created by themselves, their peers and the teacher. The unit will conclude with students showing their knowledge by developing and teaching Hip Hop workshops to students in the elementary grades.

Unit 2: The Evolution of Urban Dance (30 Hours)

What are the contexts and Influences of Urban Dance?  Hip Hop began as an underground movement in the Bronx in the 1970's, exploded into mainstream America in the 80's, and now dominates world youth culture. In this unit, students will learn forms such as Popping, Locking, Step Dancing and Krumping. The spread and adaptation of Hip Hop around the globe will also be explored. Research projects that tie these forms to important people and events will be undertaken individually. In the summative task for this unit, students will be asked to call upon the original pillars of Hip Hop Culture: MC-ing, DJ-ing, Graffiti Art and Break dancing. In small groups, students will be responsible for choreographing a dance and incorporating one other pillar of Hip Hop into their presentation (e.g.: pre-record beatboxing, or design a backdrop with graffiti art). The Creative Process will be taught and practiced throughout. 

Unit 3: Dancing in an Urban Landscape (30 Hours)

What relationship exists between a dancer and his/her physical environment? Creative movement using the elements of dance will be the focus of this unit. The role of urban dance "on the street" versus in performance will be analyzed both in practice and in theory. Special attention will be paid to composition. Students will be exposed to a variety of cityscapes (via pictures, film, field-trips) and asked to collaborate on urban inspired, site specific movement pieces. Locations such as basketball courts, streets and shopping malls will be considered. As a point of comparison, students will examine the role of dance within First Nations Communities (i.e.: the relationship of traditional dance forms to the spaces they are performed in). The summative assignment for this unit will involve the reclamation of a space through dance. The concept of respecting one's environment will be demonstrated by honouring a "littered", "forgotten" or "neglected" space within the school community by composing, performing and filming a dance in the selected space.

Bringing Urban Dance to Life (20 Hours)

Improvisation and competition are at the heart of Urban Dance.  Collectively, the class will be responsible for organizing and participating in an Urban Dance showcase.  The structure should include participants dancing individually to achieve a certain goal.  Students will be responsible for developing the criteria, rules and logistics of this event.  Assessment of the culminating task will be determined by the teacher with the input of students. 

Books

Bennett, Barrie and Carol Rolheiser. Beyond Monet: The Artful Science of Instructional Integration. Toronto: Bookation Inc., 2001. Print. ISBN-10: 0969538839 ISBN-13: 978-0969538837

Cooper, Damian. Talk About Assessment: Strategies and Tools to Improve Learning. Toronto: Thomson Nelson, 2007. Print. ISBN-10: 0-17-628916-X ISBN-13: 978-0-17-628916-4

Goodman, Kraines and Esther Pryor. Jump into Jazz: The Basics and Beyond for the Jazz Dance Student. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. Print. ISBN-10: 0072844043 ISBN-13: 978-0072844047

Kiddy, Pat and Richard Murray Chambers. Stepping Out, Reading and viewing: Literacy Resource. Toronto: Pearson, 2006. Print. ISBN: 0-13-201857-8
 

Audio/Visual

Beat Street. Dir. Stan Lathan. Perf. Jazzy Jay, the Rock Steady Crew, Clive "Kool Herc" Campbell and Afrika Bambaata & the Soul Sonic Force. Orion Pictures, 1984. DVD.

Breakin'. Dir. Joel Silberg. Perf. Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones and Michael Chambers. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1984. DVD.

Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo. Dir. Sam Firstenberg. Perf. Lucinda Dickey, Adolfo Quinones and Michael Chambers. TriStar Pictures. 1984.

The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-boy. Dir. Isreal. QD3 Entertainment, 2002. DVD.

Rize. Dir. LaChapelle, David. Lions Gate, 2005. DVD.

Style Wars: Revisited. Dir. Tony Silver. Plexifilm, 2003. DVD.

You Got Served: Take it to the Streets. Dir. Billy Polina. Perf. Kristi Crader, Omarion Grandberry, Robert Hoffman.  Columbia Tristar, 2004. DVD.

Wild Style. Dir. Charlie Ahearn. Perf. Fab Five Freddy, the Rock Steady Crew, the Cold Rush Brothers and Lee Quinones. Rhino, 1983. DVD.

Internet

Kids Make Hip Hop. Word Press, 2009. http://kidsmakehiphop.com/ Web. 13 Dec. 2009. 

Urban Dictionary. N.P. N.D.  www.urbandictionary.com Web. 28 Nov. 2009.

Break Dancing - A style of acrobatic dancing originating in the mid-1970s, often performed to rap music usually by teenage males in the streets, and characterized by intricate footwork, pantomime, spinning headstands, tumbling, and elaborate improvised virtuosic movements.

DJing - A person who announces and plays popular recorded music. A DJ uses "Turntablism" which refers to the extended boundaries and techniques innovated by hip hop.

Graffiti Art - is commonly called "hip-hop" or "New York style" graffiti and derives from a tradition of subway graffiti that originated in New York during the 1970's. (Source: www.graffiti.org)

Hip Hop - A popular urban youth culture, closely associated with dance, music and with the style and fashions of African-American inner-city residents.

Krumping - A form of dancing that originated in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles, California and is a relatively new form of the "Urban" Black dance movement.  It can by characterized as free, expressive and highly energetic.

Locking - A funk dance created at the early 70's by Don Campbellock. 

MCing - In hip hop music, an MC is a music artist and/or performer who usually creates and "sings" his own original material. MCing refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic accompaniment". (Source: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Popping - The quick tensing and releasing of muscles, often the arms, legs, back, chest and neck which creates a POP effect, designed initially to be done on beat to funk.

Site Specific - It involves artists bringing themselves out into the real world, where they use the location and its fixed set as an important component of their dance piece. Literally, the dance is specific to the site where the dancers performed, and the site becomes part of the dance itself. (Source: http://contemporarydance.suite101.com/article.cfm/sitespecific_dance_and_new_performance_spaces)

Step Dance - A percussive style of dance, in which the body is the instrument.  The dancer creates his or her own rhythms through stepping, clapping, slapping etc.  This style of dance emerged out of fraternities and sororities in the Southern United States and has roots in African Gumboot dancing.

Urban Dance - Any of the various dances influenced by the rhythms and techniques of funk and hip-hop music.
Refer to Ministry document glossary for all other terms.

Lesson #1 - The Four Pillars of Hip Hop (from Unit 2)
Lesson #2 - Reclaiming a Space through Dance (from Unit 3)

Overview of BLMs

BLM #1 Exit Slip
BLM #2 The Four Pillars of Hip Hop
BLM #3 Creating a Site Profile

Creating, Presenting and Performing

A1. The Creative Process: use the creative process, the elements of dance (body, space, time, energy, and relationship), and a variety of sources to develop movement vocabulary;

A1.1 use the elements of dance to create and perform increasingly complex dance phrases inspired by a theme

• gather and generate their own stimuli for choreography
• understand how the character of a space can influence a dance and how a dance can breathe life into a space

Readiness

This lesson is part of the third and final unit of the course. Students should feel comfortable using both the critical analysis and creative processes.  Students will have already learned about and experimented with composition and choreography.

Terminology

Site Specific Choreography
(see Glossary for this term)

Materials

cameras
writing utensils, paper
computer connected to LCD projector

BLMs

Whole Class > Running Commentary

Jog around the school, with students following, single file. Along the way, verbally identify a spot where the student behind you must stand (e.g.: water fountain, cafeteria, stairwell, etc.) While the class jogs by the standing student, the student must tell "the history" of their appointed space by improvising on the spot. Once the class has jogged past the student giving the "running commentary," the student joins the end of the line and continues jogging. During this time, continue to identify interesting locations for the student directly behind you. 

Students can use the rubric for self-assessment and/or peer assessment as they continue to work on the Site Profile project.

Small Group > Choosing a Space

Divide the class into small groups. Each group is responsible for choosing a space (in consultation with the teacher), in or around the school that could be "given new life" through a dance that is choreographed in it. Review Creating a Site Profile (see BLM #3) and then ask groups to adjourn to their chosen space. Visit groups as they work on their Site Profiles.

Whole Class > Co-Constructing Criteria

Students return to the studio/classroom. Use of an LCD projector or Overhead is helpful for this activity. Ask a student (or students) to re-state the Creating a Site Profile assignment, including their interpretation of its purpose and expectations.  As a class, brainstorm a list of criteria to look for in the final product. Organize the the list into broad categories (content, creativity etc.)

Decide together on the value of each category out of 100 points. For each category, students identify how to earn the total number of points. Once the class agrees the Site Profile rubric is complete, print copies for every member of the class.