Today in Dance Lesson Plans

Today in Dance: Other Ideas for Group Projects

Suggested Grade Level: 6-12, college Activity Time: 3+ class periods Materials Needed: Phone, laptop or iPad for research

The ideas suggested below can extend the Today in Dance group research project. Once students choose groups of 3-4, according to criteria they set, they can choose from the following group projects:

Potluck Dinner Party Report

• Imagine your group at a potluck dinner party

• How would each of them behave?

• What would each of them bring based on their personality and how would the dishes be received by the others?

• What would they talk about?

• What would they argue about?

• How can you creatively deliver the report?

• Slides presentation or as a recipe story or a dishy article in a fan magazine? It needs to be at least 800 words.

• Make sure you give a good sense of their background, works, likes/dislikes, what they found important and how they might get along with others.

• Include photos of the attendees.

Photo Gallery and Journal Entries

• This would be good for photographers, choreographers, or folks who work together in the same sector of the field.

• The photographers, etc. will share three (3) favorite photos each and the accompanying journal entries can describe the work/people pictured in each photo and what might have been happening that day based on research or clues gleaned from the photos themselves.

• Make sure the journal entries give a good sense of the work, what inspired it, who was in it, and any other pertinent information to give it context in the artist’s career.

• This could be a slides presentation or an art gallery app with a place for notes

Dance Concert Program and Notes

• This would be great for choreographers or dancers.

• If they all danced together in one concert, what pieces would they perform from the choreographer’s repertory, or what pieces were the dancers famous for performing? What would the concert be called?

• Put a dance program together (three dances each) and provide the order of the pieces and program notes that discuss the inspiration for the pieces, why they were chosen and placed in this particular order?

• Share information about costumes, music, or any other important elements in each piece.

• This can be expressed as an actual program, or on Powerpoint or Prezi and should include photos of the participants.

Journal Articles and Brief Descriptions/Abstracts

• This would be good for writers, historians, philosophers, or dance critics.

• Submit three imaginary Journal Article Titles each based on some of their most famous ideas, articles, and other written work.

• Would this be a special edition of articles that are related, or is it an assortment of unrelated articles?

• Provide brief descriptions (one paragraph for each) of what each article is about and a photo of the author.

• This could be set up like a publication or it could be a slides presentation

Artist Journals

• This would work for virtually any type of dance professional, and it could give multiple perspectives on the creative process.

• Imagine the lead-up to a famous concert or performance and provide 4 entries each (at least two paragraphs) that discuss issues, hopes, worries, etc. of the participants.

• Another option would be to document a last performance or a barrier to performing, such as war or societal strife.

• This can be a word document, but if you can find a cool way of displaying the entries, that would also be welcome. Please include photographs of the artists.

Twitter/X Feud Thread

• Sometimes folks just don’t get along. If you have dance enemies in your group, you can create dialogue for a flame war.

• Either everyone participates in one flame war as the dance professional or you can submit two separate flame wars.

• This would look best in Twitter frames and each entry must adhere to the character limits. There needs to be at least 20 Twitter-style text bubbles. Don’t forget to figure out the Twitter handle for each along with  a photo of the dance professional.

• The flame war must be based on a real personal conflict.

A great example of conflict between two dancers is the feud between Mathilde Kschessinska and Olga Preobrajenska, or Kschessinska and Anna Pavlova, or Kschessinska and, well…anyone.