Dance: movement patterns and performance
Physical Education · Key Stage 2 · The School
What a dance is built from
Four elements describe any movement. ACTION — what the body does: travel, jump, turn, gesture, stillness. SPACE — where it happens: high or low, forwards or sideways, near or far, the pathway traced on the floor. DYNAMICS — how it is done: fast or slow, sharp or smooth, strong or light. RELATIONSHIPS — what you do with others: matching, mirroring, leading, following.
Making a phrase and varying it
A PHRASE is a short run of movements that belong together, like a sentence. Once you have one, you do not need a new one — you VARY it. Perform it slower, or bigger, or at a lower level, or backwards, or facing another way, or with a partner mirroring it. Four variations of one good phrase make a dance; four unrelated phrases make a mess.
Performing so it reads
A dance is watched, so it has to be readable. That means finishing each movement rather than letting it blur into the next, holding stillness long enough for it to count, keeping a clear front, and matching the timing if others are doing the same movement. Confidence is mostly commitment — a half-done movement reads as a mistake even when it is not.
Make an eight-count phrase. Now vary it four ways without inventing anything new. LEVEL: do it entirely low. SPEED: do it at half speed. DIRECTION: do it travelling backwards. SIZE: do it as small as possible. You now have five sections from one idea, and they hang together because they are related — which is how choreographers build a whole dance from very little.