Massachusetts K–6 dance standards

Use a variety of props when exploring movement.

Identify and distinguish between body parts in movements, (e.g., feet and toes).

Focus on and pursue a process or idea to completion during dance activities.

With prompting and support, choose favorite movement ideas, practicing and demonstrating them. (PK-K.D.3)

Contrast movements in different levels (including, high, middle, low) and pathways (including, curvy, straight, circle, zig-zag, wavy, spiral).

Maintain personal and general space safely and respectfully (e.g., stop, start, and control one’s own body).

Perform short dance works expressively.

Meet expectations of an audience member (e.g., listening quietly, clapping at the end).

Articulate personal responses to dance (e.g., “this piece made me feel… this piece made me think…”).

Share observations regarding a dance performance (e.g., "I noticed that everyone had a turn").

Identify examples of dance in their daily life.

Respond in movement to music cues associated with various dance styles. e.g., tap, hip-hop, ballet, square).

Make connections between personal experience and a work of dance.

Identify different styles of dance (e.g., tap, hip-hop, ballet, square).

Generate dance ideas that utilize levels (e.g., high, low), pathways (e.g., straight, curvy), shapes (e.g., symmetric and asymmetric) and directions (e.g., backward, diagonal).

Initiate movements from locomotive or non-locomotive movements using different body parts.

Demonstrate accuracy in moving to a musical beat and responding to changes in tempo.

Demonstrate the difference between pantomime and gesture in dance.

Demonstrate partner skills of copying, leading, and following.

Move in ways that match cues, directions and artistic interpretations.

With support, identify the basic elements of dance (including, body, action, space, time, and energy).

Move to and categorize dance works by mood.

Demonstrate active observation as an audience member (e.g., noticing details, making connections).

Improvise movement ideas that explore space (e.g., levels, shapes, directions, pathways) and time (e.g., fast and slow) as elements of dance.

Create a dance phrase with a beginning, middle, and end; be able to repeat it.

Respond to a movement challenge and hypothesize possible solutions (e.g. how to complete entrances and exits in a given space).

Distinguish one’s own preferences in dance from those of others (e.g., peers, friends or family).

Describe ways dance performance is different from other forms of movement used in sports and everyday gestures. (i.e., identify the role of artistic intent).

Dance Connection: Students employ physical theatre movements and modern dance gestures to tell a story.

Demonstrate accuracy in memorizing and reproducing movement phrases.

Identify strategies to improve strength, flexibility, endurance, balance, and coordination.

Move expressively to a musical beat and responding to changes in tempo.

Analyze how different movement elements (e.g. space, time, effort) contribute to the meaning of a dance.

Explain the relationship between culture, venue, and audience behavior (e.g., street performance, formal presentation).

Identify how the basic technical elements of dance (e.g., lighting, sound) can be used to support the artist's purpose.

Describe and demonstrate personal artistic style and how to use it to maintain a positive body image (e.g., mindfulness, injury-prevention).

Identify influential works of dance from different periods and how they impact current dance forms.

Generate interdisciplinary ideas that explore space (including direct and indirect), and time (including sudden and sustained) and force (including strong and light) as elements of dance.

Organize choreographed phrases using compositional forms (e.g., AB, ABA, canon, rondo, retrograde, theme-variations).

Record movements and choreography using proper dance terminology.

Refine a dance phrase by making changes in space, time, and energy/force. (5-6.D.Cr.03.a)

Create sequences of movement that demonstrate various technical elements such as unison, contrast, repetition, and climax.

Develop an artistic statement that explains their movement choices.

Demonstrate understanding of flexibility, alignment, initiation of movement, weight shift, and balance.

Formally present a short movement work to an audience.

Analyze how a movement work's form (e.g., ternary (ABA), rondo) supports the choreographer's intention.

Use specific vocabulary to identify details about a movement work.

Apply a rubric to evaluate a dance work (e.g., a rubric that includes skills of performers, originality of movement, visual and/or emotional impact, variety, contrast and appropriateness of the artistic elements).