The Elements of Dance – Worksheets & Teaching Tips

Tips and Ideas for Teaching The Elements of Dance

Do you need to teach the dance elements but don’t know where to start? The elements of dance are the “building blocks” of dance and form the foundation of many dance education curriculums, such as the Ontario Dance Curriculum.

What are the elements of dance?

Body

• zones of the body
• shapes the body makes
• base (what part of your body is holding your weight)

Action

• locomotor movements (movements that move the body across the floor – steps, leaps, etc)
• non-locomotor movements (movements that do not involve a changing of location – turns, arm movements, balancing, etc)

Space

• levels (reaching high, low to the floor)
• directions (forward, backward, etc)
• pathways (moving in a straight line, zigzagging, turning, etc)
• size of movement

Time

• tempo, rhythm, freezes, acceleration/deceleration (the timing of movements)

Energy

• quality, force, effort (HOW you do the action)

Relationship

• dancing with a partner or in various groupings (trio, quartet, etc)
• interconnected shapes
• following/leading
• use of props/objects

Teach the elements of dance for kids by breaking them down

• Start with an overview of what each element of dance means, and then go into it in more detail.

• Use Examples: Teaching dance without watching examples of dance is like teaching music without listening to examples of music. Make sure you are providing lots of opportunity to appreciate the art of others.
  
• Which dance elements to teach first? Body, action, and space should always be taught first as they are concrete concepts and easier for students to grasp. Time, energy, & relationship get increasingly abstract and more difficult to explain, especially for younger students.
  
• When assigning dance work to students, focus on only one element at a time for assessment.
  
• The elements of dance can be taught from year to year by applying them to different dance styles. Ballet is an under-appreciated dance style in schools that can actually be really fun to teach.

Teach the elements of dance from different angles

A good rule of thumb for teaching the arts is making sure that every element you teach includes both examples of the element from high quality sources, as well as opportunities for students to create using that element themselves.

Typically, the examples always come first. Once students has seen enough examples of a particular dance element to feel comfortable with it, then they have the opportunity to use it in their own dance creation.

These dance creations do not need to be long! Often, teachers get caught up in assigning large dance projects, but the truth is that when students are learning the elements of dance it is usually better to have several short assignments (dance phrases rather than full-length performances) to shorten the feedback loop as well as reduce performance anxiety.

Teaching students who don’t want to dance

Not all students are comfortable dancing themselves or in front of others. Click here for a separate blog post on how to approach dance lesson plans for reluctant dancers.

Elements of Dance Lesson Plans

Don’t have time to come up with your own elements of dance lesson plan? These done-for-you dance units include everything you need to teach the elements of dance like a rockstar – complete instructions and lesson guides, video links and worksheet printables.