10. The Elements of Dance

The Elements of Dance

A part of the Ontario Dance Curriculum is the exploration of the elements of dance. These elements are similar to Laban's Theory of Movement (see post 9), where body, effort, space and shape are its central tenets.
Likewise, the Ontario Curriculum has listed 5 elements of dance, that are explored at different Grade levels throughout junior/intermediate classrooms.

The 5 elements of body, space, energy, time and relationship are described in detail below:

Source: http://dsc2e.weebly.com/the-5-elements-of-dance.html

I have included a useful video that also describes these elements using examples of dance! This video could be played and therefore modelled to students that are studying and using these elements.

Dance Movement Cards

Source: https://multimodalportfolioproject.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-elements-of-dance-dance-i.html

In our dance class, we made use of the cards in the photo above, in almost every dance lesson. These cards are wonderful as they are prompts to various movements that could be modified using different elements of dance. For example, the element of body (e.g., shapes), or space (e.g., negative) could be applied to the movement "expand". The element relationship (with another person) could be applied with the movement "push". There are endless possibilities!

I plan to find and use this fantastic resource in my own classroom. For example, I could use them when integrating dance and math. I could ask students to show probabilities, percentages, or fractions with the movement "reach". Students could work on the element "relationship" and they could show, with their bodies, a different percent or probability. An example would be where one student was 'highly likely' and the other 'unlikely', they could both "reach" different ways to communicate this idea. 

These were always fun to explore and I think students will love using them as well!