Folk Dance - Full scheme of work Year 7

Inspired by professional dance works, Petrushka, River dance and Walt Disney’s Fantasia.
The unit makes cross-curricular links with music and history taking on a social and cultural theme and setting.
The unit focuses developing an awareness of social/folk dance in a cultural context.

• Technical skills Introduction to folk dance technique using a Russian theme. Development of characterisation. Transference of their technical skills to typical Russian dance structures.
• Expressive skills Pupils will be asked to play contrasting roles, taking on a variety of roles depicting characters at the social setting of a fairground, as in Petrushka.
  Use of focus and facial expression to assist in the telling of a narrative and to support the mood of the dance.
• Choreographic skills pupils will reflect the structure of the dance work and the narrative. Pupils will use a variety of group sizes and relationships, with some opportunity solo, duet and trio work.
• Appreciation skills Pupils are provided with the opportunity to interpret and analyse the professional performance, they will discuss the social and cultural influences surrounding the event gaining a greater awareness of the influences of folk dance throughout Europe. The work will also introduce students to a basic knowledge and understanding of the development and changes in Ballet in the early 20th Century. Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes etc.