Classroom Residencies
Notes in Motion’s residency programs fall into two categories: Process and Performance and Inter-disciplinary Creative Curriculum.

In Process and Performance Residencies, participants experience a creative process and work collaboratively to create original, movement-based performance pieces. In Inter-disciplinary Creative Curriculum Residencies, dance is linked with an academic subject and the study of dance illuminates that subject as that subject in turn illuminates the study of dance. These programs offer unique learning experiences, opportunities for inter-disciplinary study, personal and cooperative growth, and collaboration within a school community. All residency programs are united by our singular approach to arts education, The Movement Exchange Method, in which students take on leadership roles in their own learning, have creative input in the design of the curriculum, participate in critical discussions of the work of their peers, and develop collaborative skills. Programs foster self-discovery, risk-taking, and making connections between different topics, themes, and areas of learning. We aim to provide access to the art form of dance to inspire the next generation of dance appreciators.

Students are physically active throughout class sessions practicing improvisation exercises, developing technical skills, working in small groups, and creating original dance performances. In addition, during all residency sessions, there are many opportunities for students to process their learning through class discussion, writing and drawing exercises, and audience feedback sessions. Notes in Motion teaching artists provide collaborating classroom teachers with detailed lesson plans and follow-up activities prior to the beginning of the residency. In both types of programs, topics are created and crafted in conversation with the Notes in Motion artist and the program sponsor. Residency topics draw on the diverse strengths of Notes in Motion’s trained and experienced Education Ensemble and can serve a range of school populations and ages. Residencies are offered with a minimum of 10 sessions including a culminating performance event. Residency programs can be catered to all ages from Pre K-12.


Process and Performance Residencies

Choreography/Dance Composition
• Space, time, energy – the elements of dance
• Rehearsal process
• Videos of dance performance and discussion
• Theme exploration – find your inspiration
• Documenting your process through pictures, words, journaling
• Showings with feedback and critique
• Working with dancers
• Remembering movement
• Generating movement
• Improvisation
• Culminating event including a performance of an original dance

Visual Movement Mapping
• How to read maps
• What do we use maps for? What different types of maps exist?
• Mapping a journey/making your own map
• How you can dance a map
• Treasure maps
• Time-lines
• Different ways of locamoting
• Macro and micro interpretation of maps
• Developing a legend for a map
• Creating a class large scale map
• Following and interpreting directions
• Map of your block
• Directions – up, down, north, south, etc.

Identity and Dance (Personal and Community)
• Writing autobiography/dancing autobiography
• Self-portraits/movement portraits
• The self in community
• Community dancing
• Exploring labels and stereotypes
• Expression of personality through movement
• Characterization
• Awareness of one’s environment and community
• Relationships
• Building confidence
• Individual risk taking

Movement Expression
• Non-verbal communication
• Conducting a silent orchestra
• Following the leader, mirror exercises
• Improvisation
• How are feelings, identity, personality, and character expressed through movement
• Pantomime
• Writing exercises
• Movement response to different stimuli
• Basic dance skills and simple composition exercises

Playwriting/Collaborative Theatre
• Group theme exploration
• Character Development
• Dialogue Writing
• Story boarding
• Creating environment
• Improvisation
• Editing and revising
• Memorization
• Vocal exercises
• Staging and Directing

Dance and the Senses
• Basic Sensory Awareness
• Blindfold activities and games
• Working with Rhythm and Percussion
• Responding to different sensory cues
• Communicating sensory response through dance
• Writing exercises exploring the different senses

The Courage to Perform
• Solo performance development
• Public speaking exercises
• Character development
• Audience skills
• Learning to give and receive constructive criticism
• Free writing
• Improvisation and creative play


Inter-disciplinary Creative Curricula Programs

Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Subjects include: Visual Art and Dance, Music and Dance, Dance and Technology, Dance and Math, Dance and Science, and many more...

Literacy and Dance

• Telling a story through dance/ Writing a dance story
• Learning the words of dance
• Journal writing
• Word walls
• Drawing pictures of dance, describing dance
• Arranging movement phrases from words
• Performing sentences
• Poetry Dances
• Guided improvisations based on words
• Reading Comprehension and Dance Interpretation
• Dance and Imagery
• Abstracting Narrative

History and Dance
• Cultural/Ritual dance performance
• Social Dance
• The origins of concert dance
• Religious dancing
• How has dance changed over time and through different cultures?
• What role does gender play in dance’s history?
• Dance videos and discussion
• Learning historical dances
• Exploration and expression of a historical moment through dance
• Costume and staging in dance
• How does the way we dance speak to the world we live in?
• How has fashion/politics/social fads affected movement?

Dancing Geography and Social Studies
• Dance around the world
• Dance as revolution
• Dance in response to oppression
• Dance and religion
• Climate and dance
• Street performers and vaudeville
• Costume
• Flappers and social dance fads
• Animal behavior and dance

Dance and Culture
• Folk dancing
• Dance genres: ballet, modern, tap, jazz, hip-hop
• Cross cultural dance forms
• Dance and celebration
• Ritual dance – creating a ritual as a class
• How do you define culture?
• How does dance keep culture alive?
• Looking at other art forms in relation to dance
• Development of dance movements

Our Dancing Body
• Anatomy
• Gender issues
• Physical fitness and health
• Physics – momentum, gravity, magnetic force
• Muscular involvement and movement
• Energy – in our environment and in our movement
• Dancing from different body parts
• Skeletal structure – body architecture
• Obstacle courses
• Making connections between dance and sports

Why People Dance?
• Games and activities focusing on the why behind movement with a historical and cultural perspective
• Movement as communication
• Celebration/ Social and ritual dancing
• Create classroom celebration and reason to dance
• Study various social dancing forms
• Telling a story, marking the passage of time <

 

© 2010 Notes in Motion, Inc.