This lesson allows students to understand the value of their role as both an audience member. Students become more perceptive and thoughtful about the role of the performer by engaging in the Critical Analysis Process to respond to and evaluate dance performances. Students develop their ability to express informed responses to dance as an art form and write a dance review.

Learning Goals

  • Demonstrate the ability to use the critical analysis process to identify, describe, interpret a variety of dance forms.

Materials

  • Arrange to attend a live dance performance and/or view a performance on video.
  • Sample dance reviews to provide examples of professional writing for dance performances.

Minds On (Approximately 30 minutes)

Gathering Information for Written Critique of Dance Performance

  • Instruct students how to properly observe and appreciate the dance performance:
  1. Performance Facts:
    • Who, what, where, and when, including the title of the dance and the name of the choreographer.
  2. Evaluating the Choreography:
    • What impression does the dance make?
    • What story does the movement suggest?
    • What is the style of the dance?
    • When and how were soloists used?
    • When and how were duets or small groups used?
    • When and how were large groups used?
    • How did the dance performance make you feel?
    • What structures do you recognize in the choreography?
    • How did the dancers demonstrate performance skills?
  3. Stagecraft:
    • How did sound, lights, costumes, props, and special effects enhance the dance performance?
  4. Image:
    • What moment do you remember most about the dance?
    • What stands out?
    • Was the overall performance satisfying to watch?
    • What words come to mind that describe the images seen in the performance?
  5. Your Point of View:
    • What is your opinion of the performance? (Remember: potential audiences could be encouraged by your review.)
    • What connections can you make to your own experiences as a dancer? To other art forms? 
    • Choose words, images, phrases, shapes, colours, and symbols to match your impression of the dance movement in the performance.

Action! (Approximately 30 minutes)

Viewing the Performance

  • Students see a dance performance (live or video).
  • Students come prepared to take notes before, during, and after the performance to write details of set, costumes, lighting, and dance for a written report that critiques the dance performance.
  • Students respond to the creativity of the composition, the use of elements, and the quality of performance with the application of performance skills.

Consolidation (Approximately 10 minutes)

Class Discussion

  • After critiques have been handed in, lead a class discussion on the students' experience of attending/observing dance performance. (The class discussion after the critiques are handed in is to eliminate the potential at this grade level for students to repeat what they have heard rather than search for their true response to the performance.)
  • Assess the critiques written by students based on the Performance Skills Checklist and the components given in Minds On.
  • Students record their experience of attending the live performance in their Dance Scrapbook (journal, blog, portfolio, etc.) and create a page that reflects their artistic impression of the dance performance.