Creative and Performance Dance

Dancing is like dreaming with your feet!

Year Nine Dance Rotations

During the year each Year 9 class will experience a ‘taste’ of what Dance has to offer as a subject at Rotorua Girls’ High School. During the 9-10 week rotation students will learn basic choreographic techniques, improve their confidence in creative and performance based tasks, build positive relationships between their peers and experience a range of dance genres.

Year Ten Dance

Term One
Students work on creating Group Creative Dances to perform to the class, using the elements of dance, along with Choreographic Principles.

Term Two
During Term Two students learn three – four different genres of Dance: Tap, Ballet, Jazz & Partner Dance styles. They choose one genre to perform for their assessment along with creating a written theory brochure about the genre to help inform others.

Term Three
In Term Three students work on putting together a dance show. From the initial concept and group collaborative choreography of a street dance / hip hop dance style, students are responsible for all aspects of performance including MC’s, lighting, music and costumes. Students also learn a teacher choreographed hip hop / street dance piece that they perform as a whole class.

Term Four
During Term Four, students work towards NCEA Preparation for Level One Dance, by completing preparation theory tasks to introduce NCEA Dance theory aspects, resulting in a Year 10 Dance exam. They also experience Contemporary genre of dance, alongside working with props to communicate choreographic intentions.

Senior Dance Programme

Years 11-13 Dance students will have the opportunity to learn and be assessed in a range of both practical and theory achievement standards. Students will be involved in performing and choreographing dance routines for assessment.

Dance fosters innovation and risk-taking. It encourages students to break free from the “rules” of learning to really think on their feet and find new methods of expression.

Dance prepares students for a wide variety of real-world situations and allows students to learn to be responsive and adapt to different learning situations.

Dance teaches skills for project management and people management, working to task briefs and deadlines, utilising technologies, and problem solving.

Dance celebrates the learner as they share the stories of their whānau, their past, their traditions, and beliefs. They learn by engaging with their culture and understanding the many other cultures around them.

Students build relationships through dance as they work with others and negotiate outcomes. They participate and contribute to their own and others’ learning, successes, and challenges.

In dance, students explore their ideas, thoughts, and emotions in a safe social and fun environment.