Exploring Dance Forms and Styles

Exploring Dance Forms and Styles: A Guide to Concert, World, Social, and Historical Dance helps all teachers introduce students to a variety of dance forms and styles—without having to leave the classroom! 

This book–DVD package is an all-in-one resource that will help your students appreciate various dance forms and begin to recognize the characteristics that make each dance form or style distinct. And because of the way the information is packaged, you can be a dance novice yourself and still expertly guide your students in being both an effective audience member and an astute observer.

Exploring Dance Forms and Styles: A Guide to Concert, World, Social, and Historical Dance presents a systematic approach for building four critical thinking skills in dance:

• Viewing: What did you see?

• Connecting: What do you know?

• Responding: What do you think? What do you wonder?

• Performing: What can you do?

Part I of the book outlines these four critical thinking skills and why they are important for viewing dance performances. In part II, the four critical thinking skills are incorporated on student-tested worksheets located in the book and available as printable PDFs from the bound-in DVD. Each worksheet template facilitates an understanding of the elements of dance, builds movement vocabulary, and guides students’ recognition of cultural, historical, and artistic diversity.

As students build their skills, they are introduced to selected dances in each of the four broad categories of dance: concert, world, social, and historical. These categories are constantly evolving, and many dances can be cross-linked across these four categories. For those students new to dance, the four broad categories provide a starting point from which to see the evolution of the forms.

In part III, the authors provide specific suggestions for comparing and contrasting either within a category or across dance categories and for identifying selected dance forms and styles that present universal themes. These tasks require application of higher-level thinking skills, and they develop aesthetic values. Part III also offers lesson plan and unit ideas, using the dance forms and styles introduced earlier in the book.  

With Exploring Dance Forms and Styles, you can select individual dances as you like, or develop complete dance units; you can use the materials to meet state standards and national dance standards; and you can introduce various forms of dance to students in geographic areas where they would otherwise not be able to view live dance performances. But best of all, you can deepen students’ understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of dance.