Dance

Watch now: To find out more about the Arts Foundation to Level 6, watch ‘Understanding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, The Arts Foundation to Level 6’ on the About the Arts page. To find out more about Dance Levels 7–10, watch ‘Understanding the Victorian Curriculum F–10 Version 2.0, Dance Levels 7–10’ on the Resources page.

Rationale and Aims

Rationale

Dance is a distinct discipline and body of knowledge within the arts. Dance is expressive movement with purpose and form. Early sensory experiences through play and playful dance are fundamental to students’ learning in Dance and to the development of kinaesthetic and discipline knowledge. Through Dance, students explore the elements of dance, skills, techniques and processes. They question and celebrate human experience, using the body as the instrument and movement as the medium for personal, social, emotional, spiritual, cultural and physical communication. For children in the early years, Dance is play and playful movement.

Like all art forms, dance has the capacity to engage, inspire and enrich all students and excite the imagination. Learning in Dance is inclusive and encourages students of all abilities to reach their creative and expressive potential. Dance develops students’ creativity, imagination, aesthetic knowledge, collaborative skills, communication, confidence, curiosity, problem-solving skills and self-expression.

In Dance, students draw on a diverse range of experiences, sources and ideas for creating dances. Students use the elements of dance to explore and practise technical and expressive skills for choreography and presentation to an audience. As they learn in Dance, students develop a movement vocabulary with which to explore and refine ways of moving both individually and collaboratively. They learn to choreograph, present, perform and appreciate as they engage with dance practices and practitioners from their own and others’ cultures and communities.

Dance as an art form enhances students’ knowledge and understanding of diverse cultures, times and places, developing their personal, social and cultural identity. Dance is a central element in the diversity and continuity of local and global cultures, particularly the cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Through Dance, students develop an understanding of how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples express connection to and responsibility for Country and Place.

Aims

The Dance curriculum aims to develop students’:

• capacity as artists and audiences
• play and playful movement
• body awareness and technical and expressive skills to communicate through movement confidently, creatively and intelligently
• choreographic and performance skills and appreciation of their own and others’ dances
• aesthetic, artistic and cultural understandings of dance in past and contemporary contexts, its relationships with other art forms and its contributions to cultures and societies
• respect for and knowledge of the diverse purposes, traditions, histories and cultures of dance by making and responding as active participants and informed audiences
• knowledge of the diversity and significance of dance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ artistry, cultures and communities.