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HOPE 3 Lesson 1 Elements of Dance

This document discusses the five elements of dance: body, action, space, time, and energy. It provides details on each element, such as the different body shapes, types of movement that constitute action, ways space and time are manipulated, and qualities of energy. Mastering these five interconnected elements allows dancers and choreographers to fully express themselves through movement.

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Jay El Taypin Ordaneza
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307 views29 pages

HOPE 3 Lesson 1 Elements of Dance

This document discusses the five elements of dance: body, action, space, time, and energy. It provides details on each element, such as the different body shapes, types of movement that constitute action, ways space and time are manipulated, and qualities of energy. Mastering these five interconnected elements allows dancers and choreographers to fully express themselves through movement.

Uploaded by

Jay El Taypin Ordaneza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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HOPE 3

HEALTH OPTIMIZING
PHYSICAL EDUCATION
Do You Wanna Dance?

What is Dance?
That’s a big question! Here’s an answer that’s short and
sweet:
Dance is an art form that uses movement to communicate
our ideas, feelings, and experiences.
ELEMENTS OF
DANCE
The Elements of Dance
Dance can be broken down into the following five elements:
• Body
• Action
• Space
• Time
• Energy
These five elements are interconnected; at times, it’s hard to separate one
from the other. But as we discuss each one, we’ll include specific
vocabulary used to talk about dance and examine how each element can be
manipulated to create different results.
Body: 
Who Dances?
The Dancer!
• Imagine a body moving with rhythmic purpose and motions,
usually performing to music. That’s dance. Sounds simple,
right? Dance critic Walter Terry put it best this way:
• “No paints nor brushes, marbles nor chisels, pianos or violins
are needed to make this art, for we are the stuff that dance is
made of. It is born in our body, exists in our body and dies in
our body. Dance, then, is the most personal of all the arts . . . it
springs from the very breath of life.”
BODILY SHAPES
This refers to how the entire body is molded in space on the
configuration of body parts.
The body can be rounded, angular, or a combination of two. Other
body shapes can be from wide to narrow and from high to low.

They can be symmetrical and asymmetrical.

a. Symmetrical- balanced shape; movements are practically identical or


similar on both sides.
b. Asymmetrical- unbalanced shape, movements of two sides of
the body do not match or completely different from each other.
• GROUP SHAPES:

In this element, a group of dancers perform movements in


different group shapes. They are arranged in ways that are
wide. narrow, rounded, angular, symmetrical, or asymmetrical
and are viewed together as a total picture or arrangement
within.
Action: 
The Dancer Does
What? Moves!
Any movement in dance is an action. Action is any human
movement involved in the act of dancing. What do dancers do?
They move—this is the action they perform. Movement can be
divided into two general categories:
• Non-locomotor or axial movement: Any movement that
occurs in one spot including a bend, stretch, swing, rise, fall,
shake, turn, rock, tip, suspend, and twist.
• Locomotor movement: Any movement that travels through
space including a run, jump, walk, slide, hop, skip, somersault,
leap, crawl, gallop, and roll.
• Action includes small movements like facial expressions or
gestures, as well as larger movements like lifts, carries, or
catches done with a partner or in a group. “Action” is also
considered the movement executed as the pauses or stillness
between movements.
• Dancers work together with a choreographer to practice and
refine the action of the dance. When the action has been “set,”
or finalized, the dancers must memorize their movement
sequences in order to be able to perform them.
Space: 
Where Does the
Dancer Move?
Through Space!
We’re not talking about the final frontier here! We’re talking
about where the action of dance takes place. Dance moves through
space in an endless variety of ways.
To better explain, here are some ways a choreographer or dancer thinks
about space:
• Level: Is the movement on the floor or reaching upward? Are they
performed high, medium, or low?
• Direction: Does the movement go forward, backward, sideways,
right, left, or on a diagonal?
• Place: Is the movement done on the spot (personal space) or does it
move through space (general space, downstage, upstage)?
• Orientation: Which way are the dancers facing?
• Pathway: Is the path through space made by the dancers
curved, straight, or zigzagged? Or is it random?
• Size: Does the movement take up a small, narrow space, or a
big, wide space?
• Relationships: How are the dancers positioned in space in
relationship to one another? Are they close together or far
apart? Are they in front of, beside, behind, over, under, alone,
or connected to one another?
• The list above helps us understand how to think about
movement through space. Imagine how many ways you could
perform a simple movement, like clapping your hands if you
ran it through the different concepts listed above. Remember,
space can be both indoors and outdoors, and some dances are
created with specific spaces in mind.
Time: 
How Does the Body Move in Relation to Time?
Choreographers have to make decisions about timing. Are their
movements quick or slow? Are certain steps repeated in different
speeds during the work? If so, why? We can think of time in the
following ways:
• Clock Time: We use clock time to think about the length of a
dance or parts of a dance measured in seconds, minutes, or
hours.
• Timing Relationships: When dancers move in relation to each
other (before, after, together, sooner than, faster than).
• Metered Time: A repeated rhythmic pattern often used in
music (like 2/4 time or 4/4 time). If dances are done to music,
the movement can respond to the beat of the music or can move
against it. The speed of the rhythmic pattern is called its
tempo. 
• Free Rhythm: A rhythmic pattern is less predictable than
metered time. Dancers may perform movement without using
music, relying on cues from one another.
Energy: 
How? The Dancer Moves Through Space and
Time With Energy!
So now we have bodies moving through space and time. Isn’t that
enough? Not quite. We need the fifth and last element of dance—
energy.
Energy helps us to identify how the dancers move. What effort
are they using? Perhaps their movements are sharp and strong, or
maybe they are light and free. Energy also represents the quality
of the movement—its power and richness. For choreographers
and dancers, there are many possibilities.
The effort the dancers use can communicate meaning, depending
on the energy involved. A touch between two dancers may be
gentle and light, perhaps indicating concern or affection; or it
may be sudden and forceful, indicating anger or playfulness.
Energy is crucial in bringing the inner expression of emotion out
to the stage performance.
Some ways to think about energy are:
• Attack: Is the movement sharp and sudden, or smooth and
sustained?
• Weight: Does the movement show heaviness, as if giving into
gravity, or is it light with a tendency upward?
• Flow: Does the movement seem restricted and bound with a lot
of muscle tension; or is it relaxed, free, and easy?
• Quality: Is the movement tight, flowing, loose, sharp,
swinging, swaying, suspended, collapsed, or smooth?
Finally, a great way to remember the five elements is
by thinking of....
BASTE: 
Body, Action, Space, Time and Energy.

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