Once students understand the language components of interpretation responses, they can begin to write their own interpretations of performances. The following strategy supports students to write analytical paragraphs using a section of the performance, 'Crowding the Dance Floor', choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek and performed by Chunky Move.
It uses the following structure for an interpretation:
- Theme Identification and preview of element
- Element evaluation
- Theme reiteration (Derewianka & Jones, 2016 p. 266).
The analysis of the performance can be supported by 'Jointly deconstructing interpretation responses', 'Guided reciprocal peer questioning' and 'Using graphic organisers to plan for analysis.'
- The teacher and students reiterate the general structure of paragraphs. For example,
A paragraph has a topic sentence which outlines the main argument of the paragraph. This is usually at the beginning of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph has sentences that elaborate on the topic sentence. These elaborations may be examples, definitions, descriptions, evidence, and explanations. (Derewianka, 2011).
- The teacher explains that the purpose of analytical writing in dance is to offer an interpretation of a performance and assess or evaluate its effectiveness. The topic sentence, therefore, presents an argument or thesis about the purpose of the work, while the supporting sentences elaborate on elements of the dance that relate to the topic sentence.
- The teacher introduces the performance to be viewed: 'Crowding the Dance Floor' choreographed by Gideon Obarzanek and performed by Chunky Move and which explores being part of a crowd and yet feeling alone.
- The teacher asks students to use graphic organisers to respond to the performance by noting descriptions of the movements, dance elements and links to the work's intention.
- After students have viewed the performance and noted their first responses, the teacher leads a discussion based on the following prompts:
- Describe the key phrases and movements in the piece.
- What is the mood of the piece? Provide examples of movement, sound and other production values that support your answer.
- How does movement convey the intention of the work?
During this discussion, students are encouraged to use Dance-specific vocabulary in their responses, and the teacher notes key ideas on the board.
- The teacher selects a phrase of the performance in relation to the interpretations and students view this phrase for a second time.
- The teacher asks students to and asks students to identify elements of the phrase and their intention.
- The teacher asks students to devise a topic sentence that sums up this phrase of the performance, for example:
In Phrase 2 (0:23–0:41), position and movement are used to demonstrate that people can feel alone in a crowd.
- Using a model paragraph as a guide <link to Deconstructing analytical paragraphs> and their graphic organisers and dance glossaries, the teacher asks students to work in pairs to create elaborations on the topic sentence. These elaborations should include:
- descriptions of key phrases and movement
- examples of the above
- links to the intention
- Dance-specific vocabulary.
Elaborations for the topic sentence include:
- A lone dancer is lying on the steps while other dancers walk around her.
- The lone dancer doesn't move.
- The stillness of the lying dancer contrasts with the movement of the other dancers.
- The stillness of the lying dancer suggests she is asleep or dead.
- The students copy down the topic sentence and the elaborations.
- The students edit and reorder the elaborations after the topic sentence to create an analytical paragraph.
- The students share their paragraphs with one another, and the teacher selects some to share with the class, providing feedback to students who have shared.
Curriculum links for the above example: VCADAR038, VCADAR039, VCADAR045, VCADAR046.