Introducing a Stimulus-based Choreographic Brief (e.g. GCSE Choreography Paper)
Students will practice skills for creating original movement and relate their choices to the work of professional choreographers. They will then be introduced to a choreographic brief. They will consider their choreographic intent and use it as the starting point for their creative process.
To Start
Begin the lesson with an Improvisation warm-up to support creation of original movement.
Share this past GCSE paper and ask students to consider/journal/discuss:
What would you choose and why would you choose it?
What’s the first thing you would do to make your dance?
Discuss as a class:
Watch some of our Professional choreographers responding to this paper.
What strategies did they use?
What might you have done differently?
Task
Introduce the choreographic brief (exam paper or task) to your students. Give them some time to consider their options, perhaps inspired by some of the choices they saw in the videos.
As a first step in their creative process, distribute the Artist Statement Mindmap for students to complete. Answers may change as they make their dance, but it is important to begin making choreographic choices from a clear artistic intention.
Distribute or display Creating Movement from Stimuli. Guide your students through some of the ideas to see which ones they like best, or which best suit their choreographic intent.
Using video or written notes, ask students to record the movements that they want to come back to in their next session/rehearsal.