Lesson 3 - Fusion and Collaboration

By fusing two or more styles of dance together, you can create an entirely new style of dance.

What is dance fusion?
How can understanding dance fusion assist in the collaboration with another person in the creation of a duet?

Creating, Presenting and Performing

A1. The Creative Process:use the creative process the elements of dance (body, space, time, energy, and relationship), and a variety of sources to develop movement vocabulary;

A1.2 creates and performs phrases that explore two or more elements of dance

A2. Choreography and Composition: combine the elements of dance in a variety of ways in composing individual and ensemble dance creations;

A2.1 demonstrate an understanding of choreographic forms, structures, and techniques in arranging and performing a series of movement phrases

A2.2 construct a short dance composition based on a given stimulus

A4. Performance: apply dance presentation skills in a variety of contexts and performances.
 

A4.1 revise and refine movement to enhance dance presentations and performances

Foundation

C3. Responsible Practices: demonstrate an understanding of safe, ethical, and responsible personal and interpersonal practices in dance activities

C3.2 demonstrate collaborative skills during the rehearsal and performance processes

C3.3 identify and follow safe and ethical practices in dance activities

Learning Goals

(Unpacked Expectations)

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

• describe what a duet is 
• explain how artistic collaboration is imperative when working together
• explain what Dance Fusion is and provide specific examples
• create a dance composition based on their solos and structurally re-compose movements into a duet

Readiness

Students must be able to present dance pieces to the class and have the confidence required to do so. Students should have experience working in pairs or small groups to create choreography.

Terminology

Choreographer
Vocabulary 
Pedestrian Movement

Materials:

Use of LCD Projector and Internet Access

BLMs

BLM #6 Rubric for Summative Assessment

Pairs > Gallery Walk

Instruct students to take a walk, in pairs, around the space viewing dance pictures that have been pre-selected and put out on the floor. (See hyperlinks). Ask each pair to choose two images of contrasting dance styles. Instruct students to discuss what they know about the styles/techniques represented.

Whole Class > Discussion on Dance Fusion

Ask pairs to form a large circle. Introduce them to the definition of Dance Fusion. As a class, read the article about Dance Fusion (hyperlinks).

Invite students to consider the images they have chosen. Prompt: How you would fuse (interweave, mix) the different styles together? How might a choreographer blend the vocabulary from the two distinct styles. For example: Ballet and Bharata Natyam (i.e., pointe shoes and the hand, head and eye gestures of East Indian Dance.)

Whole Class > Clip of Fusion Dance

View Lata Pada's Revealed by Fire (See hyperlinks) to demonstrate to students what Dance Fusion looks like. This clip demonstrates Bharata Natyam (Classical East Indian Dance and Contemporary Dance) through the use of classical movements, present day narratives, pedestrian movement and sounds. 

Assessment for Learning (AfL)

Diagnostic - what do students know about different techniques and fusion?  
Teacher student conferences - checking in, reviewing goals.

Assessment as Learning (AaL) 

Students participate in the talk around and continue to add to their collage.

Differentiation (DI)

Consider providing an example of dance fusion through the use of a video or by actually taking two different movements and by re-composing them so students can see how it is done.  (This will be based on students skill level and experience with composition)

Quick Tip

You may wish to read the following book for information on Collaboration: 

The Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together by Twyla Tharp

Link and Layer

Students have already created their solo, so they have movement vocabulary. The duet will require them to learn another persons' vocabulary and then put the movements together.

Hyperlinks in the Lesson

Photos of Dance Styles:

http://artsalive.ca/en/dan/mediatheque/photos/photos.asp

Dance Fusion Article:

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com
/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0009203

Revealed by Fire: http://www.artsalive.ca/en/dan/mediatheque
/videos/videosDetails.asp?mediaID=399

Whole Class > Summative Rubric of Character Duet

Handout BLM #6 and go through the criteria for the collage and the dance piece you will be asking students to create. Allow time for students to seek clarification and ask questions.

Pairs > Creating Duets

Instruct students to work with a partner to blend their solo's (from the previous lesson) into one piece, creating a duet. Both phrases will be combined using movement vocabulary from their solos. Encourage students to keep the theme of character traits at the centre of the theory work as they fuse their movement ideas.

Ask students to make an artistic choice based on the movements from their solos that are representative of both character traits. Invite students to collaborate through the creative process, exploring and experimenting and working with feedback and revisions. Remind students to continue to add to their collage work documenting their learning around collaboration and interpersonal skills and what they continue to learn about dance and themselves. As in their solo work, students may choose to blend in text from their quote at some point in their duet.
Students can use BLM #6 as a checklist to set goals and ensure that the criteria is met.

Whole Class > Presentations

Ask each pair to share their duet with the class. As students will already know each character trait, invite students to examine how pairs have re-constructed the duet using the elements of dance and how they have used the elements to fuse the meaning of both traits. 

Pairs > Teacher Conferencing

Conference with each pair to give students an opportunity to ask questions, reflect, receive feedback and review goals. 

Individual > Reflection

• themselves
• artistic collaboration
• fusion dance

Whole Class > Response-Talk Around

Invite students to gather in a circle to share another section of their collage.

Prompt: How do the words/images express new understandings you may have about yourself and dance?