Elements of Dance
Author: John Morris
Students show literacy in the discipline through understanding and demonstrating concepts, skills, terminology, and processes. This comprehensive resource includes documents and videos for each of the Elements of Dance.
Time - All dancers move in time
Body
- Stillness – still/moving
- Tempo – fast, slow, speeding up/slowing down (video resource)
- Rhythm – musical (3/4, 4/4), breath, pulse (video resource)
- Stage directions – traditional directions used by performers while on stage (video resource)
- Personal Directions – front, back, sides, diagonals, up, down (video resource)
- Pathways – curved, straight, zigzag (video resource)
- Formations – lines, circles, chaos (video resource)
- Levels – high, middle, low (video resource)
- Strong/light - contrast of strength and lightness of effort (video resource)
- Direct/indirect - contrast of changes in direction or dynamics. Different from tempo (video resource)
- Flow – free/bound - how energy is made (video resource)
- Sharp/Smooth - contrast in movement qualities (video resource)
- Swingy/Bouncy - contrast in movement qualities (video resource)
Body
- Body parts – head, neck, shoulders, ribs, hips, pelvis, knees, ankles, feet, arms, elbows, wrists, hands, whole body (video resource)
- Shapes – large/small, wide/narrow, straight/round, angular/twisted, symmetrical/asymmetrical (video resource)
- Locomotor movements – walk, run, hop, jump, skip, leap, slide, crawl, roll (video resource)
- Non-locomotor movements – bend, stretch, twist, reach, turn, melt, fall, kick, push, pull, slash, float, glide (video resource)
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