Dance

What is our overarching curriculum intent including link to TKAT ‘achieving more together’ and what do you intend students leave Bridgemary School with?

We intend that our curriculum supports our Trust ambition of ‘achieving more together’.  We do this by delivering a Dance curriculum that ensures our students can perform, choreograph and critically appreciate the work of professional dance practitioners as well as their own work. We promote students being both creative and confident in lessons and encourage individuality in their styles and provide many opportunities for them to work both independently and as part of a larger group. Whilst some lessons are structured and choreography is teacher led, most of our schemes of work provide many opportunities for students to be autonomous and create their own choreography.

Within the curriculum students experience a broad range of dance styles in order to develop their versatility as a performer, this also supports their knowledge and understanding of dance from different cultures. Students are also taught both how to appreciate and analyse professional dance works and how to critique their own and others’ performances and compositions to enable a continuous process of self-development.

What is the structural intent of the subject curriculum, & how is it sequenced so that students know and remember more?

The curriculum across all subjects is carefully sequenced so that prior core declarative and procedural knowledge is built upon, with continual opportunities for core knowledge to be interleaved throughout both key stages so that students know more, remember more and can apply that knowledge in a range of contexts.  Facilitating knowledge adds important local, national, and global context to core knowledge, and our curriculum intends to provide a richness and diversity that enables our students to experience learning in real life contexts.

How do any school values and focuses influence or feed through the curriculum?

The school curriculum is built on 4 aims to ensure our students receive and are able to access it fully, those being:

• Reading and comprehension that aims to ensure all students leave with a reading age at least equivalent to their chronological age
• Our school ethos of Be Kind, Work Hard, Be the Best Version of Yourself
• A deepening understanding of core and facilitating knowledge that enables students to know and remember more
• A wide appreciation of the world that we live in, and the celebration of the diversity this brings

In Dance we support these aims by providing students with an opportunity to explore and engage with a wide ranging and varied curriculum whilst focusing on core knowledge. Students are assessed on their performance, choreography and appreciation skills within Dance lessons. At Key Stage 3, these strands have been linked directly to our ASPIRE ethos which is a new assessment model just designed recently. Students will be introduced to this from next term so they are fully aware of how to be successful within the three strands they are assessed on. The introduction of the learning journey for KS3 and KS4 students will support students to understand what stage they are at with their learning and why they are completing particular tasks within lessons. The dance department will deliver lessons promoting a positive climate for learning in which students will feel safe to contribute and participate in the lessons. Overall, the Dance Curriculum is highly practical in order to provide students with maximum opportunity to develop their skills, whilst also supporting their general health, fitness and well-being. Through their dance education, students will develop many transferable skills including: confidence, leadership and the ability to self-manage and collaborate effectively with their peers. We aim to equip our students with the necessary skills and resilience to succeed in a career within the Performing Arts Industry. The skills developed in Dance can be valuable and transferable in any career path. 

What is our intent to assess how well students access the curriculum and how the school intends to adapt the curriculum to close gaps in knowledge?

To ensure any gaps in prior or new knowledge are quickly identified, we check progress frequently through a range of assessment opportunities, from lesson-by-lesson declarative knowledge tests and end of topic practical assessments to assess the students ability to demonstrate and apply performance and choreographic skills as well as appreciate their own and others work.  The information from these assessments are used to adapt the curriculums intending to quickly close gaps in knowledge and keep students on track to achieve at our ambitious academic flightpaths.

The curriculum we intend to deliver to students at each Key Stage:

At KS3 students will begin their journey by being introduced to the five basic actions in Dance. They will learn a teacher-led routine incorporating all five actions and will then start to gain an understanding of choreography where they will create their own work applying basic compositional devices. Students will then move on to study two different dance styles in Year 7 - Rock ‘n’ Roll and Bollywood. Within these schemes of work they will learn the key stylistic features of each dance style and will go on to choreograph within the style whilst broadening their knowledge and understanding of composition. 

In Year 8 students will study a range of different ‘pop icons’ such as Michael Jackson and Beyonce and will learn the repertoire used in their music videos. Students will take ownership and choose one specific pop icon to focus on in preparing an assessment choreography piece. Students will then be introduced to the professional dance work piece ‘Enter Archilles’ by DV8 and will develop their understanding of contact work.They will choreograph routines demonstrating key principles of contact work such as safe lifting technique and will continue to develop their knowledge of composition. In the last term students will study the professional work ‘Swansong’ by Christopher Bruce. They will create a trio choreography piece communicating the choreographic intent of ‘interrogation’ as well as show three clear links to the professional work in their trio choreography; characters, theme and use of a prop (chair). 

In Year 9 students will start the term by learning what a ‘stimulus’ is and how it can be used in dance by exploring a variety of different stimuli such as poems and images to create movement material. Students will go on to work in small groups and choose a stimulus and choreographic intent of their choice. Using their knowledge and understanding of composition they will create a group or solo choreography inspired by their chosen stimulus. Students will then move on to study a fusion of dance styles by taking part in workshop style lessons to study a different dance style each lesson such as ‘Street Dance’ and ‘African’. They will have the opportunity to choose a dance style of their choice and create a group choreography demonstrating stylistic features of their chosen dance style as well as develop their understanding of composition further. To finish KS3 students in Year 9 will take part in workshop style lessons focusing on a range of different musical theatre pieces such as ‘Chicago’ and ‘Hairspray’. Using their knowledge and understanding of composition they will create a group choreography or solo piece based on a specific ‘musical theatre’ production of their choice. 

At KS4 students will study the AQA GCSE Dance course which is a fun and challenging way to develop performance, choreography and analytical skills which continues to build on the skills students have acquired during their Key Stage 3 Dance lessons. Students will participate in regular technique exercises to develop and enhance their physical and technical skill and then put these skills into practice both during informal sharing in class and performances in school productions and shows. Students are assessed on their practical dance skill which is worth 60% of their final grade. Assessment includes two short solo set phrase performances and a duet or trio group performance piece. Students also explore the process of choreography by creating a solo or group dance of their own inspired by a stimulus set by the exam board. The theory component is a written examination at the end of Year 11 which makes up 40% of their final grade and includes the study of six professional dance works in detail as well as hypothetical choreography tasks and critical appreciation questions. 

How does the co-curriculum enhance the curriculum?

We aim to provide students with regular performance opportunities so that they can take pride in their hard work whilst performing in front of big audiences. We also provide many extra-curricular opportunities such as our Dance Company that are made up of our most gifted and talented dancers within the school. We work hard to develop the skills of our dancers within the company to prepare them effectively for the GCSE Dance Course, this also enables them to participate in more complex, challenging choreography and performance content. We also encourage students to come together and work collaboratively as a school team to take part in the Dance Live competition. Students that take part in this event can develop their skills as a performer or can delve into a more technical role such as a lighting director, video director or a member of the stage crew team. Students will be invited to attend trips to go and see live professional performances which we hope would inspire by giving students opportunities to see what an ‘outstanding’ level of performance looks like on stage. Students will also take part in workshops led by professional dance practitioners to help broaden their experiences outside of the classroom as well as develop their skill level further.