Repertory Dance Theatre

Welcome back to RDT’s series of posts for teachers who want to include movement/dance in their classrooms. Feel free to take a look at the previous posts here, under Lesson of the Month section. Our goal is to inspire teachers to use simple dance moves with their students to help them get to know each other as the school year starts. 

The initial idea for what we are calling #RDTlessonplanofthemonth emerged from a joint teacher workshop held in tandem with Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company. In the forum discussion, many teachers voiced their desire for more frequent lesson plan ideas to assist in their teaching and to avoid “burnout.”

Using the blog as a landing page, RDT will present one, quick and fun lesson plan each month geared toward Jr. and Sr. High School Dance Teachers, but by no means limited to that group. In each post you can expect an RDT Dancer or Artistic Staff to present a dance idea with video and a brief written explanation. 

We hope to inspire creativity and lead you to take the lesson plan to many levels. We also want to encourage you to share your results with us! Please post comments, videos, new ideas based on the original plan, etc. You can post at the hashtag #RDTlessonplanofthemonth.

Enjoy! And, again, please feel free to provide feedback and make suggestions below in the forum. Also, join us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter if you’d like to post pictures or video of your work with students.


Attack & Flow

by Tyler Orcutt

This combination is a mixture of attack and flow. There are instances when force is used to create a faster and “harder” feeling impact.  But there are also few stops. This means, that after a forceful move, there is a natural flow out of the movement as it finishes. What this creates is a beginning point of momentum, a middle point where that momentum carries you through, and an ending point as it begins to slow down before initiating something new.

This phrase also focuses on level and directional changes.

Because of these elements, I am recommending it as an advanced level combination meant for a senior class, high school dance team, or an advanced junior class.

The level changes in this phrase focus on moving in and out of the floor, and continue the same theme as mentioned before, with moments of attack and flow. The directional changes also follow this same pattern, but also create a new dimension in which a student must be able to shift and reroute their momentum. This is an area where students can either begin to, or continue to, increase their skills and understanding of negotiating their body and weight in space.

I suggest that you teach this combination over the course of two days.  You can then practice for a few days to give students a sense of accomplishment as they find achievements within it over a longer period of time.

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