Dance
Dance Curriculum Intent
Dance is present across many different cultures and societies around the world which offers a universal language for all to enjoy. Dance at Blenheim is inclusive of ability, gender and background and provides students with the opportunity to explore many different styles and choreographers to understand the basic functions of movement expression. Students focus on a wide range of dance skills and techniques, which lead to improving performance, choreography and analysing dance. The curriculum is designed to be engaging, exciting and inspiring for all students, with performance and evaluation at the heart of Dance at Blenheim. We strive to ensure the course content is accessible for all, regardless of dance ability, but also ambitious, to ensure all learners are challenged and make progress. Studying Dance increases confidence levels and helps develop lifelong transferable skills such as communication and literacy, team work and creativity.
Dance is a very specialist subject for many students in KS3. Therefore, the curriculum is designed so that students gain baseline skills in term 1 across three areas; physical, expressive and analytical and build on these across the academic year. The skills that students are expected to learn revolve around skills that are needed for life. These are; communication with peers, understanding how the body moves, safety and awareness of others and basic rhythm. These skills are developed across three Dance disciplines; Performance, Choreography and Analysis. Once students have a basic understanding of body actions, the focus shifts to learning more challenging movement and incorporating this in to teacher and student choreography. Students will also develop an understanding of how to analyse professional work, their own work and their peers work, through clear communication and learning of Dance specific language and terminology.
In transitioning from KS3 to KS4, the use of Dance literacy becomes much more common as the 6 anthology works are studied and theory lessons are introduced. The units of work studied at KS3 build the foundation of skills required at KS4, as students focus on choreographers and professional works studied at GCSE level. This prior learning helps the student transition in to KS4 and allows students to build on the knowledge and skills they have gained at KS3 and develop them further.
The GCSE Dance course is an individual option subjects and is suited to students who have a keen interest in, and aptitude for dance.
Extra Curricular Activities
Blenheim offers an extensive Dance extracurricular programme which runs through the entirety of the academic year. Students in all year groups are able to join the Blenheim Ambition Dance Academy and separately audition to be part of our dance competition teams. Students will also perform in the annual Blenheim Dance Show. Full details can be found below.
KS4 Dance GCSE
Board and Exam
AQA GCSE Dance
View the full course specification
Course Details
This course offers a broad variety of practical and theoretical work for our students. Students complete this course over 3 years with 6 lessons every fortnight; 4 practically based and 2 theory based. The course is assessed through 2 components; practical and theory.
The practical component is worth 60% of the overall grade, marked through live performances and the theory component is worth 40%, marked through a written exam (1 hour 30 minutes) at the end of Year 11.
How students are assessed
|
Exam |
Critical Analysis of Dance |
40% of the qualification |
|
Non exam assessment |
Practical Performance |
60% of the qualification |
The 60% practical examination side of the course allows students to be assessed in their performance and choreographic skills. These key dance skills are taught practically and theoretically across the 3 years. Students will undergo mock exams for each unit and they must also perform in front of an audience throughout the course. This helps to develop their skills and understanding of Dance further.
The practical content is broken down as follows;
- Performance – 2 set phrases performed as a solo (1 minute in duration) and a duet/trio performance (3 minutes in duration)
- Choreography – solo (2 minutes in duration) or group choreography (two to five dancers, 3 minutes in duration)
The 40% theoretical examination side of the course focuses on dance appreciation of professional works and the students’ own work. Students are assessed in their knowledge of 6 anthology works and these works are taught both practically and theoretically. They are also assessed on their ability to critically analyse dance performance. Students will complete regular mock exams to understand the language and terminology required for the written paper.
The theoretical content is broken down as follows;
- Written exam at the end of Year 11 – 1 hour 30 minutes in duration
Homework
Students studying Dance in Years 9, 10 and 11 will have 2 hours of homework per week. One hour will be spent on theoretical based tasks while during the other hour, students are expected to participate in at least one extra-curricular dance club. Throughout the examination periods, all students are required to rehearse additionally for at least one hour per week on their solo and group exam pieces. All homework tasks are planned to build on the knowledge learned in lesson and frequently these tasks make use of student iPads.
How parents can help
As the course is heavily weighted in terms of practical ability, students must be participating in dance outside of lesson time. It is therefore vital that parents actively encourage students to be participating in dance classes both in and outside of school.
To achieve the best grades, students must use the knowledge gained in theory lessons and be able to apply it. Please encourage your child to regularly practice the material learned as well as taking an active role in discussion and analysis of their own performance.
