Create an Alphabet Dance
This is the second course in ARTS:LIVE's Dance Your Socks Off series. Now you've created a "dance vocabulary" or Alphabet Dance, we'll take you through a process of inventing transition moves and forming simple choruses to combine all the elements of the dance. Remembering all the moves is a workout for both your memory and your body!
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Teacher Pack
The teacher pack below contains all the lesson plans associated with this course as a single downloadable document.
All other activity sheets and course materials can be downloaded through the Lessons Tab.
The Curriculum Alignment document below maps this course against the Australian Curriculum.
Maximising outcomes
Work in an open space free of obstructions and ensure the group can move freely.
Take your time! The first six to eight letters of the alphabet can reasonably be covered in the first lesson.
Once the first lesson is completed, explore three to four letters at a time in subsequent lessons. Repeat the letters in alphabetical order and in words to help memory consolidation.
Emphasis the fun factor. The act of making a dance sequence is not a competition to see who reaches the end first, but an enjoyable process allowing for individual expression for all those involved.
Ensure that students are given the opportunity for regular repetition of word/phrase, and opportunities to create their own words and sequences.
Make the Alphabet Dance part of daily class physical activity - spell out greetings, the day and date, or words from the week's spelling vocabulary.
Provide students with as much ownership as possible. Encourage their suggestions for moves and words to gain variety in dance sequences.
Consider a performance for peers. This gives the students a goal to work towards and a sense of excitement around the activity.
The Alphabet Dance provides an opportunity to sharpen problem-solving skills and work constructively as a group. Foster leadership behaviours when working through the activities.
Tips
Ensure that students have learned the concepts in each activity clearly before moving on to the next activity.
Encourage all styles of dance and all levels of ability.
Encourage students' physical learning through the creation of unique dance sequences using their knowledge of spelling and familiar words.
Reinforce your literacy goals for the class and for individuals through this innovative and engaging process.
Adapt the activity to fit small or large amounts of time or use it incrementally over a longer period of time.
Encourage interpersonal and physical learning through student collaboration, sharing of ideas and ownership.
Things to remember
Ensure all dance activities take place in a suitablespace that is free of trip hazards (eg bags, chair legs, lifting corners of carpet).
If you need to move tables and chairs regularly, develop a routine for this (perhaps in time to a song or chant) so that your students become familiar with what is required, and efficient at doing it.
Familiarise your students with the concept of "personal space" (see Learn The Alphabet Dance Teacher Notes), so that they learn to position themselves a safe distance apart in the dance space.
Physical activity can be tiring, so monitor your students' responses, especially when first beginning the Alphabet Dance project. Tired brains can mean less controlled, less thoughtful physical gestures, which can result in people getting hurt accidentally.
Encourage slow, controlled movements in the warm-up sequences. Vigorous shaking often feels invigorating, but can result in suddenly dislocated limbs!
Stretches, slow rolls and circles, and shifts of weight from one foot to the other are good things to include, and there are many possible variations on each of these.
Maintain a respectful, warm appreciation of individuals' contributions to ensure no-one feels exposed or subject to ridicule by other students through one of their suggestions.
As a teacher, join in everything you ask the class to do. This is not only good modelling, it also validates and endorses each of the ideas as being appropriate and possible.
In dance, teacher participation can be a vital element in individual student's sense of emotional safety.
Body Percussion: When you hit, tap, brush, stamp or rub parts of the body to create a sound. Body percussion can be incorporated with dance moves to create something that is both visual and aural.
Choreography: Refers to making decisions about what to put into a dance - which moves, when, how to get from one move to the next, and how to arrange people in the space. Anyone who makes an Alphabet Dance is choreographing moves; the Alphabet Dance is a project that gets people choreographing as well as dancing.
Dance Style: A genre of dance characterised by particular moves. There are countless dance styles that your students may have knowledge of - hip-hop, breakdancing, ballet, traditional dance from Africa, Asia, Europe, indigenous Australia, the Americas, and many, many more.
"Dancerly": This is a term used to indicate choreographic decisions that look like dance, rather than mime, written letter shapes, or real-life actions.
"In sync": "Sync" is an abbreviation of "synchronised", and relates to events coinciding exactly. For example, if your dance sequence is in sync with your accompanying music, the main emphasis of each of your dance moves will be in time (ie. coincide exactly) with the main beats you hear in the music.
Travelling Move: This refers to a dance move that moves across the floor, finishing in a different place to where you started. For example, a moonwalk is a travelling move, as is a series of skips or side-steps. A jump may or may not be a travelling move, depending on whether you jump on the spot or not.
Unison: This is a musical term meaning that all the performers are singing / playing the same notes in an identical rhythm, at the same time. In dance, everyone would be doing the same dance move at the same time.
Personal Space: "Personal Space" means each person can stand and move their arms around them in a helicopter shape, without their fingers touching anyone else.
Transition: Transitions between moves are an important part of dance creation - they help the dance to flow. In the Alphabet Dance, transitions are also useful for helping students keep in time with the accompanying music.
Phrase: A phrase in Dance is the grouping of movement into logical chinks. Usually phrases are in multiple of 4 counts as this assists dancers in memory retention and generally matches music with a 4/4 beat.
Sequence: A Dance sequence may be a phrase or a series of phrases joined together in a longer chunk. The terms ore often interchangeable in Dance.
This is a valuable resource for the Dance curriculum for the middle primary years. It is particularly relevant to content descriptions in the Making strand that emphasise exploring movement through the elements of Dance and structuring movement sequences. It comprises activities using elements of Dance such as body, space and time, and using choruses and transitions to create dance sequences.
This resource has pedagogical value for Dance in the curriculum. The activities provide for all levels of capability in dance, and provide opportunities for students to use repetition in their dance, modify their dances to create interest, and record their movements using video. The activities are scaffolded and provide students with opportunities to collaborate with their peers in groups.
This resource may also be relevant to the general capabilities, Literacy and Information and Communication Technology competence. The dance supports the use of vocabulary and strategies to spell words accurately. The resource also provides opportunities to document and share their dances using digital images and video.
Produced by The Song Room with Gillian Howell, with support from Education Services Australia on behalf of the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations
Additional Documentation by Katrina Rank in partnership with Ausdance
Video created by X:MACHINE Productions
Additional Talent in Video: and The Collingwood English Language School
With thanks to the Leigh Warren Dance Company
Learning Focus
Students create transitions between the letter moves they developed in the Learn the Alphabet Dance course.
Learning Focus
Students combine the individual moves developed in previous lessons to form words and a dance routine.
Learning Focus
Students develop dance transitions between dance moves.
Learning Focus
Students explore timing and duration in dance.
Learning Focus
Students use music and timing to refine their dance piece.