Dance 3 - Lesson 6

In Year 1's Dance 3, Lesson 6, the learning objective is to enable pupils to create and perform a dance that captures the essence of a day at the beach. To succeed, students must be able to generate and express movement ideas in response to various stimuli, listen and respond to music, and coordinate a sequence of actions. They will also learn to observe and provide feedback on each other's dances using simple dance terminology, with the support of their teacher. The key vocabulary for this lesson includes terms like motif, phrase, gesture, movement, and words related to the seaside such as waves, ebb, flow, and flotsam. The equipment needed includes gymnastic mats for the cooldown and music that evokes the theme of summer or the seaside, with Debussy's 'La Mer' being a suggested track.

The lesson begins with a warm-up session where the class teacher models different travelling steps and body part movements, with variations and leadership opportunities for pupils to demonstrate and instruct. The main activity involves students working in groups to rehearse and perform a dance using movements inspired by beach activities like walking along the beach, building sandcastles, and swimming. They will explore the concept of a motif and how it can be developed into a dance phrase. The class will discuss a narrative for their performance, imagining a day at the beach from start to finish, and consider how to end the performance, such as depicting the sea becoming rougher. The lesson concludes with a performance, which may be filmed for evaluation, followed by a cooldown session with stretching and breathing exercises on gymnastic mats.