The NC Dance Curriculum consists of the following Essential Standards:
- Creating and Performing 1 - Use choreographic principles, structures, and processes to create dances that communicate ideas, experiences, feelings, and images.
- Creating and Performing 2 - Understand how to use performance values (kinesthetic awareness, concentration, focus, and etiquette) to enhance dance performance.
- Dance Movement Skills 1 - Understand how to use movement skills in dance.
- Responding 1 - Use a variety of thinking skills to analyze and evaluate dance.
- Connecting 1 - Understand cultural, historical, and interdisciplinary connections with dance.
Over the course of a child's six years at Underwood, he/she will go from a basic understanding of these concepts (isolating body parts, freezing on cue, etc) in Kindergarten to a complex use of skills and concepts to create dance and analyze it's role in the world around us by 5th grade. In addition to growing in their dance knowledge, students will:
- collaborate within partner pairings and small groups
- learn that a given problem may have multiple solutions
- develop creative thinking
- utilize higher order thinking skills, and
- integrate content from other subject areas (reading, math, science, social studies, etc) within dance experiences.
For more detailed information about the NC Esssential Standards for Dance, please visit http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/acre/standards/new-standards/arts/dance/k-8.pdf.