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Rhythmic Movement Dance Series Textbooks

By Susan Helene Kramer

and

USA National Standards in Dance

Photo at Jacob’s Pillow Theater: Ted Shawn standing 6^th from left. Susan H. Kramer standing at far right. Quote says: To Susan with love from “Papa” Shawn Sept 2, 1964. Photo credit John Lindquist.

Contents

1. Introduction
2. Is Rhythmic Movement Dance Modern or Ballet?

Dance Books and Ebooks: (at links)

1978: Free to Move While Learning

1999: Rhythms and Dances for School Age Kids

2000: Rhythms and Dances for Toddlers and Preschoolers

2001: Adaptive Dance and Rhythms

2002: Sing and Dance While Learning Math

2002: Classical Ballet Beginning to Advanced

2003: Fundamentele bewegingen voor kinderen Nederlandse taal

2008: Dance Meditation Handbook

2017: Ballet Dances for School Age Kids

2019: Kinder bewegen – Tanz, Meditation, Yoga deutsche Sprache

2019: Enfants en mouvement – Danse Méditation Yoga English and French

2019: Niños en movimiento – Danza, Meditación, Yoga español e inglés

3. Research | Teaching | Publications

4. USA National Standards in Dance, as applicable in my texts

5. Appendix: Archived Document of National Standard for Arts Education from U.S. Government

Rhythmic Dance Rhythms demonstrated on YouTube

1. Introduction

This is an educational site, begun in 1965 when I began creating texts in a collection called Rhythmic Movement Dance Series.

Offered for children in the format of ballet, modern dance and rhythmic movement, with some material for adults and those challenged, collections include choreography, dance elements and lesson plans, all with the aim of developing basic body-mind coordination. One collection offers tips for adaptive teaching.

I have taken my dance and music education into the classroom to teach children how to move to clapping and percussion instruments, and to the rhythms, phrases and melodies of music and song. Through the somatic process of moving their bodies enthusiastically, dynamically and rhythmically in time through space in the classroom and outdoors, the students have learned basic academic skills of patterns and rhythms in language, reading, math, and the social skills of cooperation and collaboration.

These publications in HTML may be downloaded for personal use, but not commercially without permission.

The Rhythmic Movement Dance Series was included in the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) of the U.S. Department of Education in the early 2000s.

2. Is 'Rhythmic Movement Dance' modern or ballet?

For the sake of categorization, modern is the more appropriate label, though I learned the 16 basic rhythmic movements in ballet classes with Carol Lynn, who had a Denishawn (Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn) influence. Carol Lynn instituted the women’s dance education program in the mid-1930s at Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and University of Dance founded by Ted Shawn, where she served as Associate Director from 1943 to 1960.

I consider myself a disciple of Ted Shawn, a 1st generation modern dancer and choreographer, with whom I studied the summers of 1963 and 1964 at the Pillow. My own work over the intervening years developed from Shawn's vision of dance in education.

The main body of my dance training was with Carol Lynn and Margaret Craske in classical ballet; Myra Kinch and Ted Shawn in modern ballet and choreography; Ann Hutchinson in Labanotation; Carola Goya in classical Hindu dance; Mateo, Roberto Ximenez and Manolo Vargas in classical Spanish dance; Nel Roos in choreography. Since 1965 I have been teaching rhythmic movement dance and ballet to people of all ages and degrees of mobility.

3. Research | Teaching | Publications

In the fall of 1965 I was referred by Carol Lynn of the Peabody Preparatory Dance Department of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Baltimore, Maryland, to teach as a dance specialist in after school arts programs in Clarksville, Atholton, and later, Cape St. Claire, Maryland, for children, teens, adults, and challenged students. This part-time teaching of rhythmic movement, modern dance and ballet continued in Maryland and then after 1975 in California, until 1986 in Buckingham, Virginia.

Additionally, 1971 through 1986, I developed my notes on the practical application of rhythmic movement and modern dance in teaching academics into lesson plans through the progress I saw while volunteering my efforts weekly, with small groups, in my children's elementary school classrooms in Cape St. Claire, Maryland, and Goleta, California.

During the 1972-1973 school year I taught rhythmic movement and dance weekly at a preschool in Annapolis, Maryland - doing the research for what I later published as Rhythmic Movement for Toddlers and Preschoolers.

It was during the years 1965 to 1986 that I choreographed the dances for the online collections Dances for Preschoolers, and Rhythmic Dances for Children and Adults. I also composed the music, choreographed, and wrote the songs for Sing and Dance While Learning Math.

For 6 weeks during the summer of 1979 I taught daily rhythmic movement sessions with small groups of learning and severely handicapped students in Santa Barbara County, California. As our base we sat in a circle and did the sequence of floor exercises I developed to stretch and strengthen, and clapped rhythms. The students took turns moving around the outside of the circle while the students sitting clapped sets of (1, 2, 3, 4) and substituted silent claps for each of the numbers. These students, age 5 to 9, though academically challenged could, nonetheless, clap the patterns rhythmically, somatically. This period of time added to the material for the text Adaptive Rhythmic Movement for Children to Seniors.

During the 1984-1985 academic year I voluntarily taught rhythmic movement every school day for 45 minutes to a kindergarten class in Santa Barbara County, California, carefully recording how the students' body-mind skills, confidence, self-discipline, and attention span improved over the 9-month period. Included in the daily class were, eventually, all the 16 basic rhythmic movements and floor exercises from my text "Free to Move While Learning the 3Rs," copyright 1978, which has been expanded into the current online text Free to Move - Body-Mind Rhythmic Movement. I developed the sequence of the 16 basic rhythmic movements by noting from my research over the years in what order the students were most easily able to perform the increasingly more complex rhythms, beginning with walking in levels as the easiest, to the polka which is made up of 2 gallops and a step through to 2 additional gallops and on, which is the most complex. I choreographed the basics into simple dances using patterns and sets, adding and subtracting. Many of the mini-lessons in 'Body-Mind Rhythmic Movement' were developed in a year giving daily kinesthetic lessons to kindergartners - who all succeeded in learning to skip, and many learned the more advanced polka movement. The students learned to move in sets, then, adding and subtracting their sets, and they moved by stopping and starting in the phrases of music just as the phrases in a sentence have shorter and longer pauses. The students moved dynamically and changed directions by watching my non-verbal hand signals - somatically teaching the students how to concentrate on what was happening in the moment and to respond appropriately.

Spring, 1986, I taught a 6-week session of fundamentals of ballet to children and physical education teachers as a 'Dance Artist in Residence' under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in Education, Project MARK - More Arts for Rural Kids, in Buckingham, Virginia.

Fall, 1999, I published Clapping, Moving for Learning 16 Basic Rhythmic Movements as a text that child or adult could pick up and use just from the illustrations. Making the language very concise and the many rhythmic practice combinations easy to follow, I have had translations done and published in Dutch, French, German and Spanish. For further practice in ABA sequencing see my text Combinations of Basic Rhythmic Movements with Clapping.

In 2002 I compiled and annotated my notes on Cecchetti ballet. I published this text online as Classical Ballet Beginning to Advanced. Ballet may not generally be thought of as a way to teach academics somatically, but I recorded a list of applications I discovered while teaching, which I have included in the introductory notes of this classical ballet text.

4. USA National Standards in Dance as applicable in my texts:

Dance Skills and Lesson Plans for the Classroom Teacher

Grades K-12

Susan Kramer

Part of the 'Rhythmic Movement Dance Series'

http://www.susankramer.com/DanceSeries.html

Excerpts included in the INTRODUCTION to this text are from the

United States Government Public Reference Document:

NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE

GRADES K-12 CONTENT AND ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS[1]

Source:

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/professional_resources/standards/natstandards/standards_print.html

Copyright Notice:

Susan Kramer's work in this paper may be copied for personal or educational purposes but not used for profit.

Disclaimer:

This paper is not a governmental publication; the skills and lesson plans are solely the work of the author.

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE

Part I.

16 BASIC RHYTHMIC MOVEMENTS

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.2] [1.1.3] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6]

Part II.

NONLOCOMOTOR/AXIAL MOVEMENTS

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.4] [1.1.6] [1.1.7]

Part III.

PRACTICE COMBINATIONS

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.3] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6] [1.1.7] [1.1.8] [1.2.1] [1.2.5] [1.2.6]

Part IV.

DANCES

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.2] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6] [1.1.7] [1.1.8] [1.2.5] [1.2.6] [1.4.2] [1.7.1]

Part V.

LESSON PLANS

INTRODUCTION

Important Note: For the purpose of targeting a specific 'Achievement', I have added a third number in the sequence of the numbering system in the NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE.

This example shows the three number sequence in square brackets [ ] at the beginning of each item under Achievement Standard.

Example:

1. DANCE (K-4)

Content Standard #2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard:

[1.2.1] Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence

[1.2.2] Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts from other sources

NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE

CONTENT AND ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS[2]

1. DANCE GRADES (K-4)

"Children in grades K-4 love to move and learn through engagement of the whole self. They need to become literate in the language of dance in order to use this natural facility as a means of communication and self-expression, and as a way of responding to the expression of others. Dancing and creating dances provide them with skills and knowledge necessary for all future learning in dance and give them a way to celebrate their humanity."

"Dance education begins with an awareness of the movement of the body and its creative potential. At this level, students become engaged in body awareness and movement exploration that promote a recognition and appreciation of self and others. Students learn basic movement and choreographic skills in musical/rhythmic contexts. The skills and knowledge acquired allow them to begin working independently and with a partner in creating and performing dances."

"Experiences in perceiving and responding to dance expand students' vocabularies, enhance their listening and viewing skills, and enable them to begin thinking critically about dance. They investigate questions such as "What is it? How does it work? Why is it important?" Practicing attentive audience behavior for their peers leads to describing movement elements and identifying expressive movement choices. Students learn to compare works in terms of the elements of space, time, and force/energy and to experience the similarities and differences between dance and other disciplines."

"Through dance education, students can also come to an understanding of their own culture and begin to respect dance as a part of the heritage of many cultures. As they learn and share dances from around the globe, as well as from their own communities, children gain skills and knowledge that will help them participate in a diverse society."

Content Standard #1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] Students accurately demonstrate non-locomotor/axial movements (such as bend, twist, stretch, swing)

[1.1.2] Students accurately demonstrate eight basic locomotor movements (such as walk, run, hop, jump, leap, gallop, slide, and skip), traveling forward, backward, sideward, diagonally, and turning

[1.1.3] Students create shapes at low, middle, and high levels

[1.1.4] Students demonstrate the ability to define and maintain personal space

[1.1.5] Students demonstrate movements in straight and curved pathways

[1.1.6] Students demonstrate accuracy in moving to a musical beat and responding to changes in tempo

[1.1.7] Students demonstrate kinesthetic awareness, concentration, and focus in performing movement skills

[1.1.8] Students attentively observe and accurately describe the action (such as skip, gallop) and movement elements (such as levels, directions) in a brief movement study

Content Standard #2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard:

[1.2.1] Students create a sequence with a beginning, middle, and end, both with and without a rhythmic accompaniment; identify each of these parts of the sequence

[1.2.2] Students improvise, create, and perform dances based on their own ideas and concepts from other sources

[1.2.3] Students use improvisation to discover and invent movement and to solve movement problems

[1.2.4] Students create a dance phrase, accurately repeat it, and then vary it (making changes in the time, space, and/or force/energy)

[1.2.5] Students demonstrate the ability to work effectively alone and with a partner

[1.2.6] Students demonstrate the following partner skills: copying, leading and following, mirroring

Content Standard #3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning

Achievement Standard:

[1.3.1] Students observe and discuss how dance is different from other forms of human movement (such as sports, everyday gestures)

[1.3.2] Students take an active role in a class discussion about interpretations of and reactions to a dance

[1.3.3] Students present their own dances to peers and discuss their meanings with competence and confidence

Content Standard #4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance

Achievement Standard:

[1.4.1] Students explore, discover, and realize multiple solutions to a given movement problem; choose their favorite solution and discuss the reasons for that choice

[1.4.2] Students observe two dances and discuss how they are similar and different in terms of one of the elements of dance by observing body shapes, levels, pathways

Content Standard #5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods

Achievement Standard:

[1.5.1] Students perform folk dances from various cultures with competence and confidence

[1.5.2] Students learn and effectively share a dance from a resource in their own community; describe the cultural and/or historical context

[1.5.3] Students accurately answer questions about dance in a particular culture and time period (for example: In colonial America, why and in what settings did people dance? What did the dances look like?)

Content Standard #6: Making connections between dance and healthful living

Achievement Standard:

[1.6.1] Students identify at least three personal goals to improve themselves as dancers

[1.6.2] Students explain how healthy practices (such as nutrition, safety) enhance their ability to dance, citing multiple examples

Content Standard #7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines

Achievement Standard:

[1.7.1] Students create a dance project that reveals understanding of a concept or idea from another discipline (such as pattern in dance and science)

[1.7.2] Students respond to a dance using another art form; explain the connections between the dance and their response to it (such as stating how their paintings reflect the dance they saw)

*********************************************************************

NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE

CONTENT AND ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS[3]

2. DANCE (GRADES 5-8)

"Through creating, performing, and responding to dance, middle school students can continue to develop skills and knowledge that enhance the important development of self-image and social relationships. Cooperation and collaboration are emphasized at this age, fostering positive interactions.

Dance education can offer a positive, healthy alternative to the many destructive choices available to adolescents. Students are encouraged to take more responsibility for the care, conditioning, and health of their bodies (both within and outside the dance class), thus learning that self-discipline is a prerequisite for achievement in dance.

Students in grades 5-8 develop a sense of themselves in relation to others and in relation to the world. As a result, they are ready to respond more thoughtfully to dance, to perceive details of style and choreographic structure, and to reflect upon what is

communicated. The study of dance provides a unique and valuable insight into the culture or period from which it has come. Informed by social and cultural experiences, movement concepts, and dance-making processes, students integrate dance with other art forms."

Content Standard #1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Achievement Standard:

[2.1.1] Students demonstrate the following movement skills and explain the underlying principles: alignment, balance, initiation of movement, articulation of isolated body parts, weight shift, elevation and landing, fall and recovery

[2.1.2] Students accurately identify and demonstrate basic dance steps, positions, and patterns for dance from two different styles or traditions (e.g., ballet, square, Ghanasian, Middle Eastern, modern)

[2.1.3] Students accurately transfer a spatial pattern from the visual to the kinesthetic

[2.1.4] Students accurately transfer a rhythmic pattern from the aural to the kinesthetic

[2.1.5] Students identify and clearly demonstrate a range of dynamics / movement qualities

[2.1.6] Students demonstrate increasing kinesthetic awareness, concentration, and focus in performing movement skills

[2.1.7] Students demonstrate accurate memorization and reproduction of movement sequences

[2.1.8] Students describe the action and movement elements observed in a dance, using appropriate movement/dance vocabulary

Content Standard #2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard:

[2.2.1] Students clearly demonstrate the principles of contrast and transition

[2.2.2] Students effectively demonstrate the processes of reordering and chance

[2.2.3] Students successfully demonstrate the structures or forms of AB, ABA, canon, call and response, and narrative

[2.2.4] Students demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in a small group during the choreographic process

[2.2.5] Students demonstrate the following partner skills in a visually interesting way: creating contrasting and complementary shapes, taking and supporting weight

Content Standard #3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning

Achievement Standard:

[2.3.1] Students effectively demonstrate the difference between pantomiming and abstracting a gesture

[2.3.2] Students observe and explain how different accompaniment (such as sound, music, spoken text) can affect the meaning of a dance

[2.3.3] Students demonstrate and/or explain how lighting and costuming can contribute to the meaning of a dance

[2.3.4] Students create a dance that successfully communicates a topic of personal significance

Content Standard #4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance

Achievement Standard:

[2.4.1] Students create a movement problem and demonstrate multiple solutions; choose the most interesting solutions and discuss the reasons for their choice

[2.4.2] Students demonstrate appropriate audience behavior in watching dance performances; discuss their opinions about the dances with their peers in a supportive and constructive way

[2.4.3] Students compare and contrast two dance compositions in terms of space (such as shape and pathways), time (such as rhythm and tempo), and force/energy (movement qualities)

[2.4.4] Students identify possible aesthetic criteria for evaluating dance (such as skill of performers, originality, visual and/or emotional impact, variety and contrast)

Content Standard #5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods

Achievement Standard:

[2.5.1] Students competently perform folk and/or classical dances from various cultures; describe similarities and differences in steps and movement styles

[2.5.2] Students competently perform folk, social, and/or theatrical dances from a broad spectrum of twentieth-century America

[2.5.3] Students learn from resources in their own community (such as people, books, videos) a folk dance of a different culture or a social dance of a different time period and the cultural/historical context of that dance, effectively sharing the dance and its context with their peers

[2.5.4] Students accurately describe the role of dance in at least two different cultures or time periods

Content Standard #6: Making connections between dance and healthful living

Achievement Standard:

[2.6.1] Students identify at least three personal goals to improve themselves as dancers and steps they are taking to reach those goals

[2.6.2] Students explain strategies to prevent dance injuries

[2.6.3] Students create their own warmup and discuss how that warmup prepares the body and mind for expressive purposes

Content Standard #7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines

Achievement Standard:

[2.7.1] Students create a project that reveals similarities and differences between the arts

[2.7.2] Students cite examples of concepts used in dance and another discipline outside the arts (such as balance, shape, and pattern)

[2.7.3] Students observe the same dance both live and recorded on video; compare and contrast the aesthetic impact of the two observations

******************************************************

NATIONAL STANDARD IN DANCE

CONTENT AND ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS[4]

3. DANCE (GRADES 9-12)

"High students need to continue to dance and create dances in order to develop more highly their ability to communicate in a way that is different from the written or spoken word, or even from other visual or auditory symbol systems. They also need to respect their bodies and to understand that dance is the product of intentional and intelligent physical actions. Continued development of movement skills and creative and critical thinking skills in dance is important regardless of whether students intend a dance career."

"Technical expertise and artistic expression are enhanced through reflective practice, study, and evaluation of their own work and that of others. Because dance involves abstract images, students can develop higher order thinking skills through perceiving,

analyzing, and making discriminating judgments about dance. Education in dance, which has been an integral part of human history, is also important if students are to gain a broad cultural and historical perspective. Students examine the role and meaning of dance in diverse social, cultural, and historical contexts through a variety of dance forms. Experience with dance of many cultures helps students to understand the cultural lives of others."

Content Standard #1: Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.1.1] Students demonstrate appropriate skeletal alignment, body-part articulation, strength, flexibility, agility, and coordination in locomotor and non-locomotor/axial movements

[3.1.2] Students identify and demonstrate longer and more complex steps and patterns from two different dance styles/traditions

[3.1.3] Students demonstrate rhythmic acuity

[3.1.4] Students create and perform combinations and variations in a broad dynamic range

[3.1.5] Students demonstrate projection while performing dance skills

[3.1.6] Students demonstrate the ability to remember extended movement sequences

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.1.7] Students demonstrate a high level of consistency and reliability in performing technical skills

[3.1.8] Students perform technical skills with artistic expression, demonstrating clarity, musicality, and stylistic nuance

[3.1.9] Students refine technique through self-evaluation and correction

Content Standard #2: Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.2.1] Students use improvisation to generate movement for choreography

[3.2.2] Students demonstrate understanding of structures or forms (such as palindrome, theme and variation, rondo, round, contemporary forms selected by the student) through brief dance studies

[3.2.3] Students choreograph a duet demonstrating an understanding of choreographic principles, processes, and structures

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.2.4] Students demonstrate further development and refinement of the proficient skills to create a small group dance with coherence and aesthetic unity

[3.2.5] Students accurately describe how a choreographer manipulated and developed the basic movement content in a dance

Content Standard #3: Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.3.1] Students formulate and answer questions about how movement choices communicate abstract ideas in dance

[3.3.2] Students demonstrate understanding of how personal experience influences the interpretation of a dance

[3.3.3] Students create a dance that effectively communicates a contemporary social theme

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.3.4] Students examine ways that a dance creates and conveys meaning by considering the dance from a variety of perspectives

[3.3.5] Students compare and contrast how meaning is communicated in two of their own choreographic works

Content Standard #4: Applying and demonstrating critical and creative thinking skills in dance

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.4.1] Students create a dance and revise it over time, articulating the reasons for their artistic decisions and what was lost and gained by those decisions

[3.4.2] Students establish a set of aesthetic criteria and apply it in evaluating their own work and that of others

[3.4.3] Students formulate and answer their own aesthetic questions (such as, What is it that makes a particular dance that dance?

[3.4.4] How much can one change that dance before it becomes a different dance?)

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.4.5] Students discuss how skills developed in dance are applicable to a variety of careers

[3.4.6] Students analyze the style of a choreographer or cultural form; then create a dance in that style (choreographers that could be analyzed include George Balanchine, Alvin Ailey, Laura Dean; cultural forms include bharata natyam, classical ballet)

[3.4.7] Students analyze issues of ethnicity, gender, social/economic class, age and/or physical condition in relation to dance

Content Standard #5: Demonstrating and understanding dance in various cultures and historical periods

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.5.1] Students perform and describe similarities and differences between two contemporary theatrical forms of dance

[3.5.2] Students perform or discuss the traditions and technique of a classical dance form (e.g., Balinese, ballet)

[3.5.3] Students create and answer twenty-five questions about dance and dancers prior to the twentieth century

[3.5.4] Students analyze how dance and dancers are portrayed in contemporary media

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.5.5] Students create a time line illustrating important dance events in the twentieth century, placing them in their social/historical/cultural/political contexts

[3.5.6] Students compare and contrast the role and significance of dance in two different social/historical/ cultural/political contexts

Content Standard #6: Making connections between dance and healthful living

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.6.1] Students reflect upon their own progress and personal growth during their study of dance

[3.6.2] Students effectively communicate how lifestyle choices affect the dancer

[3.6.3] Students analyze historical and cultural images of the body in dance and compare these to images of the body in contemporary media

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.6.4] Students discuss challenges facing professional performers in maintaining healthy lifestyles

Content Standard #7: Making connections between dance and other disciplines

Achievement Standard, Proficient:

[3.7.1] Students create an interdisciplinary project based on a theme identified by the student, including dance and two other disciplines

[3.7.2] Students clearly identify commonalities and differences between dance and other disciplines with regard to fundamental concepts such as materials, elements, and ways of communicating meaning

[3.7.3] Students demonstrate/discuss how technology can be used to reinforce, enhance, or alter the dance idea in an interdisciplinary project

Achievement Standard, Advanced:

[3.7.4] Students compare one choreographic work to one other artwork from the same culture and time period in terms of how those works reflect the artistic/cultural/historical context

[3.7.5] Students create an interdisciplinary project using media technologies (such as video, computer) that presents dance in a new or enhanced form (such as video dance, video/computer-aided live performance, or animation)

********************************************************************

Part II.

16 Basic Rhythmic Movements

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.2] [1.1.3] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6]

Names:

1) Walking

2) Running

3) Marching

4) Galloping

5) Sliding

6) Hopping

7) Jumping

8) Leaping

9) Pedaling

10) Prancing

11) Toe Pointing

12) Skipping

13) Waltzing

14) Minuet

15) Schottische

16) Polka

How to Clap with the Basic Rhythmic Movements:

tum = a beat that is accented

ta = half the time of a whole beat

& = a brief pause or transition in action

Example:

walk:

tum, tum, tum, tum

gallop:

a tum, ta tum, ta tum, ta tum

walk, walk, walk, walk & gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop

tum, tum, tum, tum & ta tum, ta tum, ta tum, ta tum

Descriptions of Basic Rhythmic Movements and Clapping Pattern:

1) Walking

Continuous steps alternating feet.

Arms are in opposition to legs:

If the right foot is forward,

swing the left arm forward.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

2) Running

Even quick steps.

Arms are in opposition to legs:

If the right foot is forward,

swing the left arm forward.

Clap:

ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta

3) Marching

Brisk even steps.

Supporting leg remains straight.

Working knee bends with thigh raised parallel to floor.

Arms swing in opposition, one forward, one back,

(arm of the front leg swings back).

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

4) Galloping

Rhythmic loping movements

leading with the same foot forward throughout.

Front foot steps forward

and back foot pulls up to front foot with a shuffle.

Arms in opposition, (as described in marching).

Clap:

ta tum, ta tum,

ta tum, ta tum

5) Sliding

Many variations of basic step

of keeping knees slightly bent

while feet slide along the floor.

One foot leads, the other slides to meet it,

and then the opposite foot leads.

Hands on waist; arms outstretched to sides.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

6) Hopping

Always done on one foot with a pause in between.

For balance; hands on waist or arms outstretched to sides.

Clap:

ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta

7) Jumping

Both feet leave floor and land at the same time.

Bend knees and press feet into floor to begin and land.

Arms outstretched to sides for balance.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

8) Leaping

Large springs from one foot to the next, to the next, etc.

Bend knees and press feet into floor to begin and land.

Arms are in opposition to legs:

If the right foot is forward,

swing the left arm forward.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

9) Pedaling

Standing with feet parallel,one foot pushes forward

onto ball of foot, (half toe), stretching instep, then lowers

while other foot simultaneously pushes up to ball of foot.

Feet remain parallel, almost touching, along inside edges.

Hands on waist or arms outstretched to sides for balance.

Slow tempo, then quicker.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

10) Prancing

As in Pedaling—but active foot raises

off floor slightly, toe pointed.

Once step sequence is mastered bounce like a horse prancing.

Hands on waist or arms outstretched for balance.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

11) Toe Pointing

Standing in place, one foot points forward,

then steps back to standing leg.

Alternate foot then points.

Arms outstretched to sides.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum

12) Skipping

Series of step-hops changing lead foot after hop.

One knee is raised.

Arms swing from shoulders, one forward, one back,

in opposition to knee that is raised in front.

Clap:

tum ta, tum ta,

tum ta, tum ta

13) Waltzing

Set of 3 walking steps alternating feet.

One count per step.

Count one is emphasized by

bending that knee slightly as it steps.

Arms outstretched to side for balance.

Clap:

tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

tum ta ta, tum ta ta

14) Minuet

Pattern of 3 steps with the 4th count a toe point.

Begin each set with the foot of the toe that points.

Arms outstretched to side.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum

15) Schottische

Series of 3 walking steps

with the 4th count being a hop

on the same foot

that took step number three.

Place hands on waist for balance.

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum

16) Polka

Two gallops in sequence,

with the lead foot being changed at the beginning

of the following set of two gallops.

Arms swing in opposition to raised knee.

Clap:

tum ta tum, & tum ta tum,

& tum ta tum, & tum ta tum

********************************************************

Part III.

NONLOCOMOTOR/AXIAL MOVEMENTS

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.4] [1.1.6] [1.1.7]

Sitting and lying on the floor and then standing 14) Swinging. Begin exercises in 4/4 time with changes in rhythm, faster or slower in progressive movements. These exercises are arranged in progressive order, one flowing into the next in sequence.

1) The Leaf

Sitting on floor, back straight, knees bent, bottom of feet together close to body, holding ankles with hands, gently round back and let head fall towards lap, letting the natural weight of body and gravity stretch the spine. Gently return to upright position; back stretched up straight like pulling up a 'zipper'.

2) The Flower

Sitting as in The Leaf, still holding ankles with bottom of feet together, straighten vertebrae one at a time beginning at lower end of spine. While holding the 'zip' allow knees to fall towards floor. Bounce knees gently toward floor.

3) The Cricket

Holding body position as in The Flower, allow chin to rest forward to chest; then gently lift head till once again in the neutral position of looking straight forward. Slowly look upward and again return head to neutral. Now, allow one ear to lean towards its shoulder returning to neutral; and repeat with the opposite ear, returning to the neutral looking forward position. Now, chin to chest. Curl spine, one vertebra at a time from top of head down to base of spine, moving slowly. To unfold, reverse the process beginning with the base of spine straightening upward.

4) The Bird

Body position as in The Flower. Clasp hands behind lower back and pull shoulder blades together slowly, look up; hold momentarily and release, look down.

5) The Squirrel

Sitting cross-legged, back still zipped: Raise both arms overhead and stretch one at a time slowly towards the ceiling. With back still zipped, stretch arms to side, making forward and backward arm circles, large and small. Alternately stretch arms to ceiling,

then to one side and the other

6) The Chipmunk

Sitting as in The Squirrel: Gently twist upper torso above waist from side to side. Arms are extended to sides, head following direction of the back arm, then repeat with arms extended overhead. Twists mostly above waist, shoulders remain relaxed.

7) The Rocker

Sitting as in The Squirrel: Keeping movement above waist, bend body sideways one way, then the other. Front of body remains looking forward. Rock gently side to side, but not so far as to fall over.

8) The Seal

Sitting with legs straddled; stretched but not tightened; back zipped to begin: Rotate body to face one leg, reach down to hold onto leg with both hands and gently lean towards the leg, letting the weight of gravity help with the stretch. Repeat towards the other leg.

Sitting up facing forward: Hold onto both legs, round back and gently lean forward looking towards the floor. Place palms of hands on floor in front of body for support: Point and flex feet and ankles in unison, then try to point one foot while flexing the other foot. Repeat rhythmically.

Legs still straddled, back zipped, legs stretched but not tightened, toes pointed: Press palms of hands together prayer fashion, applying medium tension. Lower arms should be parallel with the floor. Release tension, press again, release tension and extend hands and arms upward and outward in large circles, tips of fingers leading.

9) Back Exercise

Lie on back, legs touching, knees flexed, bottom of feet on floor, arms alongside of body on floor. Lower spine below waist presses to floor, upper back is relaxed. Breathe evenly in and out in lung area. Contract abdominal muscles, hold 10 seconds, relax and repeat.

(This back exercise strengthens the muscles along the lower spine and abdomen.)

10) The Turtle

Lie on back, legs touching, knees flexed up towards the chest, arms resting on floor above head. Keeping lower back pressed to floor throughout extend legs towards sky while pointing toes, knees stretched. Lower legs as far as possible without releasing back from floor. Raise legs, flex in and repeat.

11) Cat Stretch

On hands and knees: Allow back to slope towards floor. Then arch back, allowing stomach and abdomen to sag; looking forward and slightly up. Change position by rounding spine, contracting abdominal and stomach muscles and looking down to

front of thighs. (This exercise gives flexibility to the spine countered with strengthening of the muscles alongside the lower spine through the tightening of the abdominal and stomach muscles.)

12) Starfish

Lying on back, limbs stretched and separated from each other: Keeping arms and legs stretched; one arm at a time is lifted towards ceiling and then lowered; later opposite arm and leg are raised at the same time. Develops capacity to isolate movement and exercises shoulder and hip joints.

13) The Owl

Sitting cross-legged, hands at sides, palms on floor: Turn head to look to one side over shoulder, then look over the other shoulder. Now focus forward and spin body around once in a complete movement, using hands to push off, coming back to the original position. This exercise prepares for single turns while standing. Also, 'head turning' position is established as opposed to head leaning.

14) Swinging

An axial movement for energizing and for the transition from sitting to standing: Standing with legs apart to maintain balance. Hold arms stretched upward, taut, and still for 3 seconds, and then stretch arms out to the side, held taut for 3 seconds. The body feels more energized after this stretch.

Then with a more relaxed body bend torso and knees and sway rhythmically in succession, with arms over head up and down, side to side. Then swing arms down in front and keeping feet on floor twist body to one side and look to that side while swinging arms up overhead. Repeat to opposite side.

Then, swing one leg at a time back and forth while balancing on other leg.

General benefits include improved circulation, limbering large body muscles, increased flexibility of arm and hip joints.

********************************************************

C. PRACTICE COMBINATIONS

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.3] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6] [1.1.7] [1.1.8] [1.2.1] [1.2.5] [1.2.6]

While learning the steps, it is fun to practice them in sets

—moving in circles, lines, forward, back, sideward, diagonally; high, middle, low level; turning in place; moving singly and with partner; making changes in time, space, and/or force/energy; moving in improvised patterns; leading, following, mirroring.

walk, walk, walk, walk,

& slide, slide, slide, slide,

& walk, walk, walk, walk,

& slide, slide, slide, slide, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum, &...

jump, jump, jump, jump,

& walk, walk, walk, walk,

& jump, jump, jump, jump,

& walk, walk, walk, walk, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum, &...

walk, walk, walk, walk,

& skip, skip, skip, skip,

& walk, walk, walk, walk,

& skip, skip, skip, skip, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, tum ta,

& tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tumta, tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, &...

march, march, march, march,

& gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop,

& march, march, march, march,

& gallop, gallop, gallop, gallop, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum,

& ta tum, ta tum, ta tum, ta tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum,

& ta tum, ta tum, ta tum, ta tum, &...

waltz, waltz, waltz, waltz,

& slide, slide, slide, slide, &...

Clap:

tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

& tum, tum, tum, tum, &...

polka, & polka,

& skip, skip, skip, skip,

& polka, & polka,

& skip, skip, skip, skip, &...

Clap:

tum ta tum, & tum ta tum,

& tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, tum ta,

& tum ta tum, & tum ta tum,

& tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, &...

schottische, & schottische,

& polka, & polka, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum, & tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum ta tum, & tum ta tum, &...

minuet, & minuet,

& waltz, waltz,

waltz, waltz, &...

Clap:

tum, tum, tum, tum, & tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum, tum, tum, tum, & tum, tum, tum, tum,

& tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

tum ta ta, tum ta ta, &...

waltz, waltz, waltz, waltz,

Clap:

tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

& polka, & polka,

Clap:

& tum ta tum, & tum ta tum,

& waltz, waltz, waltz, waltz,

Clap:

& tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

& skip, skip, skip, skip,

Clap:

& tum ta, tum ta, tum ta, tum ta,

& waltz, waltz, waltz, waltz,

Clap:

& tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

& slide, slide, slide, slide,

Clap:

& tum, tum, tum, tum,

& waltz, waltz, waltz, waltz,

Clap:

& tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta, tum ta ta,

& polka, & polka &...

Clap:

& tum ta tum, & tum ta tum, &...

***************************************************

C. DANCES

Achievement Standard:

[1.1.1] [1.1.2] [1.1.4] [1.1.5] [1.1.6] [1.1.7] [1.1.8] [1.2.5] [1.2.6] [1.4.2] [1.7.1]

1) Marching and Galloping Dance

This dance has 4 sets of 16 counts.

Pattern changes every 16 counts; one count per march; one count per gallop.

Dancers who are taking a turn on the sideline as accompanists clap hands or a rhythm instrument once for each march or gallop. At the end of each set of 16 counts there is a slight pause in clapping to allow dancers to change direction or step.

During marching arms swing in opposition to raised knee -- that is when right knee is raised, left arm swings forward.

During galloping the opposite arm and leg remain forward -- that is when right foot is leading the left arm is forward and the right arm is slightly back; behind.

Preparation: The front of room is determined. Facing front of room; called facing forward, dancers stretch arms to side, hands joined, to form a straight line. Then drop hands and remember this spot as their "place" for this dance.

1st set of 16 counts: Part A

1. Dancers do 4 marches forward; then 4 marches backward (while facing forward) to "place" with arms swinging in opposition -- that is as right knee lifts up, left arm swings forward.

2. Repeat the sequence of number 1.

2nd set of 16 counts: Part B

3. Dancers take 4 gallops forward with right foot in front.

4. Dancers turn toward their own right shoulder to face the back of room and with right foot still in front take 4 gallops back to "place."

5. Turning to face forward and changing to left foot in front, dancers take 4 gallops forward to front of room.

6. Dancers turn toward their own left shoulder, keeping left foot in front and take 4 gallops back to "place."

3rd set of 16 counts: Part C

7. Back to marching: Dancers take hands in the straight line facing forward and the two dancers on the ends of the line with 16 marching steps bend the line by moving toward the front and center of the room into an open circle shape. All are now facing the center of the circle with hands still joined.

4th set of 16 counts: Part D

8. Back to galloping: Dancers drop hands, turn toward their right shoulder 1/4 turn to face the back of the dancer next to them.

9. Then gallop 8 times in the circle shape, counter-clockwise direction.

10. For the final 8 gallops, a designated leader set ahead of time lets go of his right hand with his neighbor's left hand and leads the dancers in a line out of the room or to a corner.

********************************************

2) Skipping Dance

This dance has 4 sets of 16 counts.

Pattern changes every 16 counts; one count per skip; one count per slide.

Dancers who are taking a turn on the sideline as accompanists clap hands or a rhythm instrument once for each skip or slide. At the end of each set of 16 counts there is a slight pause in clapping to allow dancers to change direction or step.

During skipping when not holding hands, arms swing in opposition; that means when right leg is forward, left arm is forward.

Preparation: Dancers stand together in center of room, take hands and walk backward till arms are stretched forming a circle.

1st set of 16 counts: Part A

1. Holding hands, take 4 skips in to center of circle; arms remain low.

2. Still holding hands take 4 skips backward to beginning place.

3. Repeat 1. and 2.

2nd set of 16 counts: Part B

4. Everyone quickly drop hands and make a quarter turn clockwise, to right, so now dancer is facing the back of the dancer who was alongside.

5. Take 8 skips moving in a forward counter-clockwise direction keeping the circle shape; arms swing in opposition.

6. Turn to face opposite direction and take 8 skips in a forward clockwise direction keeping open circle shape; arms swing in opposition.

3rd set of 16 counts: Part C

7. Turn to face center of circle again; back at starting position.

8. Take hands with dancer on either side.

9. Holding hands, all slide to right for 8 slides in a counter-clockwise direction, keeping open circle shape; pause.

10. Still holding hands, change direction of circle by sliding 8 times toward left in clockwise direction, keeping circle shape open; pause.

4th set of 16 counts: Part D

11. Still holding hands take 4 skips in to center of circle, arms starting down at side, then arms moving forward and up to overhead by the end of the 4th skip.

12. Still holding hands take 4 skips backward to again form the open circle shape; arms coming down to sides again by the 4th skip.

13. To end dance, a dancer designated ahead of time breaks right hand with adjoining dancer's left hand while remaining dancers hold hands and leads the dancers in a line out of the room or to one corner with 8 skips.

3) Waltz and Polka Dance

This dance has 4 sets of 16 counts.

Dancers who are taking a turn on the sideline as accompanists clap hands or a rhythm instrument once for each polka or waltz. At the end of each set of 16 counts there is a slight pause in clapping to allow dancers to change direction.

During polka steps, when not holding hands, arms are in opposition; that means when right leg is forward, left arm is forward.

During waltz steps arms are held to side for balance.

Preparation: A front of room is determined. Dancers enter from right back corner of room. An example to determine which is the right back corner: if a dancer stands in the center of the room and faces the front, the audience, the corner behind the right shoulder is the back right corner. The corner in front of the right shoulder is the front right corner. (Both corners just described are called 'back stage right' or 'front stage right'.)

1st set of 16 counts: Part A

1. With 16 polka steps, dancers enter the room from 'back stage right' moving toward 'front stage right', across the front toward 'front stage left' and moving toward 'back stage left', moving toward their entry point and stopping to form a circle; dancers turning to face center of circle.

2nd set of 16 counts: Part B

2. Dancers make a 1/4 turn toward their left shoulder to face back of dancer next to them. Then do 16 waltz steps clockwise, leading with the left foot forward, which will be moving in the opposite direction from the way they just entered the room, (returning them to their beginning place at beginning of the 16 waltz steps).

3rd set of 16 counts: Part C

2. Turning to face the center of circle, do 4 polka sets in to center of circle.

3. Turn to face outward and do 4 polka sets back to place, keeping circle open.

4. Turning to face center of circle, again, repeat numbers 2. and 3.

4th set of 16 counts: Part D

5. Waltz steps again: make 1/4 turn toward right shoulder and with a designated leader waltz 16 times counter-clockwise in the circle shape, exiting at back stage right; the entry point.

Appendix:

5. The following is an archived document from https://www2.ed.gov/pubs/ArtsStandards.html

National Standards for Arts Education

Summary Statement: Education Reform, Standards, and the Arts

Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts

What Students Should Know and Be Able to Do in the Arts

There are many routes to competence in the arts disciplines. Students may work in different arts at different times. Their study may take a variety of approaches. Their abilities may develop at different rates. Competence means the ability to use an array of knowledge and skills. Terms often used to describe these include creation, performance, production, history, culture, perception, analysis, criticism, aesthetics, technology, and appreciation. Competence means capabilities with these elements themselves and an understanding of their interdependence; it also means the ability to combine the content, perspectives, and techniques associated with the various elements to achieve specific artistic and analytical goals. Students work toward comprehensive competence from the very beginning, preparing in the lower grades for deeper and more rigorous work each succeeding year. As a result, the joy of experiencing the arts is enriched and matured by the discipline of learning and the pride of accomplishment. Essentially, the Standards ask that students should know and be able to do the following by the time they have completed secondary school:

They should be able to communicate at a basic level in the four arts disciplines--dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts. This includes knowledge and skills in the use of the basic vocabularies, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods of each arts discipline.
They should be able to communicate proficiently in at least one art form, including the ability to define and solve artistic problems with insight, reason, and technical proficiency.
They should be able to develop and present basic analyses of works of art from structural, historical, and cultural perspectives, and from combinations of those perspectives. This includes the ability to understand and evaluate work in the various arts disciplines.
They should have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods, and a basic understanding of historical development in the arts disciplines, across the arts as a whole, and within cultures.
They should be able to relate various types of arts knowledge and skills within and across the arts disciplines. This includes mixing and matching competencies and understandings in art-making, history and culture, and analysis in any arts-related project.

As a result of developing these capabilities, students can arrive at their own knowledge, beliefs, and values for making personal and artistic decisions. In other terms, they can arrive at a broad-based, well-grounded understanding of the nature, value, and meaning of the arts as a part of their own humanity.

Summary Statement

These National Standards for Arts Education are a statement of what every young American should know and be able to do in four arts disciplines--dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts. Their scope is grades K-12, and they speak to both content and achievement.

The Reform Context The Standards are one outcome of the education reform effort generated in the 1980s, which emerged in several states and attained nationwide visibility with the publication of A Nation at Risk in 1983. This national wake-up call was powerfully effective. Six national education goals were announced in 1990. Now there is a broad effort to describe, specifically, the knowledge and skills students must have in all subjects to fulfill their personal potential, to become productive and competitive workers in a global economy, and to take their places as adult citizens. With the passage of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, the national goals are written into law, naming the arts as a core, academic subject--as important to education as English, mathematics, history, civics and government, geography, science, and foreign language.

At the same time, the Act calls for education standards in these subject areas, both to encourage high achievement by our young people and to provide benchmarks to determine how well they are learning and performing. In 1992, anticipating that education standards would emerge as a focal point of the reform legislation, the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations successfully approached the U.S. Department of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant to determine what the nation's school children should know and be able to do in the arts. This document is the result of an extended process of consensus-building that drew on the broadest possible range of expertise and participation. The process involved the review of state-level arts education frameworks, standards from other nations, and consideration at a series of national forums.

The Importance of Standards Agreement on what students should know and be able to do is essential if education is to be consistent, efficient, and effective. In this context, Standards for arts education are important for two basic reasons. First, they help define what a good education in the arts should provide: a thorough grounding in a basic body of knowledge and the skills required both to make sense and make use of the arts disciplines. Second, when states and school districts adopt these Standards, they are taking a stand for rigor in a part of education that has too often, and wrongly, been treated as optional. This document says, in effect, "an education in the arts means that students should know what is spelled out here, and they should reach clear levels of attainment at these grade levels."

These Standards provide a vision of competence and educational effectiveness, but without creating a mold into which all arts programs must fit. The Standards are concerned with the results (in the form of student learning) that come from a basic education in the arts, not with how those results ought to be delivered. Those matters are for states, localities, and classroom teachers to decide. In other words, while the Standards provide educational goals and not a curriculum, they can help improve all types of arts instruction.

The Importance of Arts Education Knowing and practicing the arts disciplines are fundamental to the healthy development of children's minds and spirits. That is why, in any civilization--ours included--the arts are inseparable from the very meaning of the term "education." We know from long experience that no one can claim to be truly educated who lacks basic knowledge and skills in the arts. There are many reasons for this assertion:

The arts are worth studying simply because of what they are. Their impact cannot be denied. Throughout history, all the arts have served to connect our imaginations with the deepest questions of human existence: Who am I? What must I do? Where am I going? Studying responses to those questions through time and across cultures--as well as acquiring the tools and knowledge to create one's own responses--is essential not only to understanding life but to living it fully.
The arts are used to achieve a multitude of human purposes: to present issues and ideas, to teach or persuade, to entertain, to decorate or please. Becoming literate in the arts helps students understand and do these things better.
The arts are integral to every person's daily life. Our personal, social, economic, and cultural environments are shaped by the arts at every turn--from the design of the child's breakfast placemat, to the songs on the commuter's car radio, to the family's night-time TV drama, to the teenager's Saturday dance, to the enduring influences of the classics.
The arts offer unique sources of enjoyment and refreshment for the imagination. They explore relationships between ideas and objects and serve as links between thought and action. Their continuing gift is to help us see and grasp life in new ways.
There is ample evidence that the arts help students develop the attitudes, characteristics, and intellectual skills required to participate effectively in today's society and economy. The arts teach self-discipline, reinforce self-esteem, and foster the thinking skills and creativity so valued in the workplace. They teach the importance of teamwork and cooperation. They demonstrate the direct connection between study, hard work, and high levels of achievement.

The Benefits of Arts Education Arts education benefits the student because it cultivates the whole child, gradually building many kinds of literacy while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. This process requires not merely an active mind but a trained one. An education in the arts benefits society because students of the arts gain powerful tools for understanding human experiences, both past and present. They learn to respect the often very different ways others have of thinking, working, and expressing themselves. They learn to make decisions in situations where there are no standard answers. By studying the arts, students stimulate their natural creativity and learn to develop it to meet the needs of a complex and competitive society. And, as study and competence in the arts reinforce one other, the joy of learning becomes real, tangible, and powerful.

The Arts and Other Core Subjects The Standards address competence in the arts disciplines first of all. But that competence provides a firm foundation for connecting arts-related concepts and facts across the art forms, and from them to the sciences and humanities. For example, the intellectual methods of the arts are precisely those used to transform scientific disciplines and discoveries into everyday technology.

What Must We Do? The educational success of our children depends on creating a society that is both literate and imaginative, both competent and creative. That goal depends, in turn, on providing children with tools not only for understanding that world but for contributing to it and making their own way. Without the arts to help shape students' perceptions and imaginations, our children stand every chance of growing into adulthood as culturally disabled. We must not allow that to happen.

Without question, the Standards presented here will need supporters and allies to improve how arts education is organized and delivered. They have the potential to change education policy at all levels, and to make a transforming impact across the entire spectrum of education.

But only if they are implemented.

Teachers, of course, will be the leaders in this process. In many places, more teachers with credentials in the arts, as well as better-trained teachers in general, will be needed. Site-based management teams, school boards, state education agencies, state and local arts agencies, and teacher education institutions will all have a part to play, as will local mentors, artists, local arts organizations, and members of the community. Their support is crucial for the Standards to succeed. But the primary issue is the ability to bring together and deliver a broad range of competent instruction. All else is secondary.

In the end, truly successful implementation can come about only when students and their learning are at the center, which means motivating and enabling them to meet the Standards. With a steady gaze on that target, these Standards can empower America's schools to make changes consistent with the best any of us can envision, for our children and for our society.

Endorsers

The following professional organizations join with the Consortium of National Arts Education Associations in promoting the vision of K-12 arts education as described in the National Standards for Arts Education:

Alliance for Curriculum Reform
American Arts Alliance
American Association of School Administrators
American Choral Directors Association
American Council for the Arts
American Federation of Musicians of the U.S. and Canada
American Guild of English Handbell Ringers
American Music Conference
American Symphony Orchestra League
Association of Art Museum Directors
Association of Teacher Educators
Capezio/Ballet Makers Dance Foundation
Chorus America
College Band Directors National Association
The College Board
Council for Basic Education
Educational Theatre Association
Future Business Leaders of America--Phi Beta Lambda, Inc.
Getty Center for Education in the Arts
Guitar and Accessories Marketing Association
Industrial Designers Society of America
International Association of Electronic Keyboard Manufacturers
The International Network of Performing and Visual Arts Schools
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Meet the Composer, Inc.
Music Distributors Association
Music Industry Conference
National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, Inc.
National Assembly of Local Arts Agencies (NALAA)
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA)
National Association of Band Instrument Manufacturers
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of Music Merchants
National Association for Music Therapy, Inc.
National Association of Pastoral Musicians, Music Education Division
National Association of School Music Dealers
National Council of Music Importers and Exporters
National Education Association
National Federation of Music Clubs
National Movement Theatre Association
National Music Publishers' Association, Inc.
National Piano Foundation
National School Orchestra Association
North American Montessori Teachers' Association
North American Steel Band Association
OPERA America
Percussive Arts Society
Piano Manufacturers Association International
Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc.
Sweet Adelines International
United States Amateur Ballroom Dancers Association
The VoiceCare Network
Young Audiences, Inc.

Supporters

The following professional organizations have added their support for the goals and ideals implied in the National Standards for Arts Education:

American Association of Museums
American Bandmasters Association
American Orff-Schulwerk Association
Arts & Business Council, Inc.
ASSITEJ/USA (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People/United States Center)
Center for Civic Education
College Art Association of America
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Dance Notation Bureau
Dance/USA
International Council of Fine Arts Deans
International Reading Association
Music Publishers' Association
Music Teachers National Association
National Alliance for Media Arts & Culture
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors
National Association of Schools of Art and Design
National Association of Schools of Dance
National Association of Schools of Music
National Association of Schools of Theatre
National Band Association
National Council for the Social Studies
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
National League of Cities
National School Boards Association
Very Special Arts

Ordering Information

National Standards for Arts Education. What every young American should know and be able to do in the arts. ISBN 1-56545-036-1; MENC stock #1605

Summary Statement: Education Reform, Standards, and the Arts. A brief statement that spells out the goals of the standards and describes the context from which they have emerged. ISBN 1-56545-037-x; MENC stock #4001 (pack of 10); stock #4001A (single copy)

The Vision for Arts Education in the 21st Century. The ideas and ideals behind the development of the National Standards for Education in the Arts. ISBN 1-56545-025-6; MENC stock #1617.

Write to: MENC Publications Sales, 1806 Robert Fulton Drive, Reston, VA 22091.

Credit card holders may call 1-800-828-0229.

webmaster | page updated November 2009; March 28, 2011; February 16, 2014; August 14, 2016 added National Standards in Dance section; August 12, 2020 added Appendix

The Rhythmic Movement Dance Series was included in the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) of the U.S. Department of Education in the early 2000s.