The Middle School Dance curriculum focuses on technique, performance skills, and choreography. Proper alignment, consistent energy, musicality, confidence and expressiveness are emphasized in each class. Classes begin with a warm-up of stretches, yoga poses, pliés, balances and small jumps, followed by longer dances that include quick entrances and exits, chassés, jumps, leaps and turns. Creative work is central to the curriculum.
Choreography projects explore a wide range of topics, many of which are aligned with the academic curriculum. Recent topics have included the Louisiana Purchase and decoding messages through dance, as well as exploring poetry through movement. Through these projects, students learn how to explore ideas through movement, how to structure a dance, how to create movement phrases, and how to use elements such as level, dynamics, speed, theme and variation and stillness effectively. Frequent in-class presentations of student choreography provide opportunities for detailed discussions, which help students revise their work. Additional performance opportunities include our Winter Concert, which features music and dance, the Middle School Musical (Classes 6 and 7), and our Middle School Dance Club.
