Rehearsing Movement for a Contemporary Dance Performance
Students select and practice an excerpt of a dance, learning and integrating technical and performance skills pertaining to the choreography. Opportunities for Peer Feedback nurture a supportive classroom culture and hone students’ observational skills.
Share the SECRET of a useful Warm-Up with your students.
Guide them through the template to design a warm-up for a dance they are working on (this could be a piece of their own choreography, or somebody else’s choreography). This could be done alone or in groups.
Then start a ten-minute timer for them to try it out.
Choose 2-3 exercises from the indexed class excerpts that work on skills needed for the performance. Dance them through as a class, repeating as needed.
Journal, or discuss in partners or as a class:
What new skills or understanding did you gain from these videos?
How can you/we apply these skills and ideas to our performance?
Assign, or ask students to choose, specific movement phrases or sections of choreography to be rehearsed. When working on details, it can be helpful to work on short excerpts of choreography rather than a longer dance.
Facilitate peer feedback using the Peer Feedback Template.
If students are working on solo material, place them in groups of 3, rotating between the roles of Performer, Viewer and Facilitator.
If students are working on a group dance, view the material one group at a time with a teacher facilitating feedback from observing students.
Give time for the integration of feedback, then practice the full dance, placing the excerpt back in context and challenging students to retain their learning.
Give time for the integration of feedback, then practice the full dance, placing the excerpt back in context and challenging students to retain their learning.
You may also wish to incorporate additional resources about the rehearsal process:
Role of a Rehearsal Director Interview
Video of rehearsals at Rambert