Welcome to Performing Arts Dance!

The primary intent of our Key Stage 3 dance curriculum is to provide students with a rich and engaging learning experience that nurtures their artistic talents, enhances their physical and mental well-being, and equips them with valuable skills and knowledge to work harmoniously with others. Students will learn to convey emotion and communicate characters and stories, show appreciation to culture and diversity and captivate audiences through their movements, enhancing their confidence and self-expression. The lessons and topics encourage students to explore their creativity and experiment with movement, music, style and choreography. Students will have the freedom to express themselves artistically, take risks, and perform, fostering a sense of curiosity, imagination, and self-discovery.

We believe our Dance curriculum enables students to explore the dynamic world of dance through a diverse range of offerings including musical theatre, thematic explorations and dance styles form around the globe, providing exciting opportunities to unleash creativity by encouraging students to choreograph their own routines.

Proud Values

In the art of Dance, we teach Professionalism to shine through every step, embodying discipline and dedication in both rehearsal and performance.

With Resilience as our backbone, we teach students to rise to challenges and take risks, pushing boundaries to master new skills and movements.

We teach Optimism to fuel our passion for movement, infusing each performance with joy, confidence and possibility.

Understanding the power of expression and diversity, we teach students to respect each other’s capabilities, listen to each other’s voices and embrace the diverse talents we each have, to create a united performance.

Driven by our passion for movement, we teach students to perfect their technique, express their creativity and push the boundaries of artistic expression.

Proudly, we teach students to showcase not just their talents but their commitment to excellence, celebrating every moment of their progress along the way.

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Teaching staff and facilities

The subject of Dance is taught by our experienced Dance teacher Mrs Nyberg and is held in our spacious gym with mirrored walls. Adjacent changing rooms are provided for Dance students only, ensuring convenience and comfort. Nearby in our main hall we have a large stage, equipped with professional lights and sound, setting the scene for some unforgettable performances.

Curriculum Intent for Year 8

In Year 8, our Dance curriculum provides an exhilarating journey around the globe celebrating a rich tapestry of dance cultures and traditions. Students will have opportunity to explore of diverse range of styles including the infectious rhythms and dynamic movements of Rock and Roll, the vibrant colours and expressive gestures of Bollywood and rich cultural energetic movements of African Dance as well as thematic explorations through the topic of War and Conflict.  Our intent is to broaden students’ perspectives and deepen their cultural awareness and ignite their passion for movement.

Curriculum Map for Year 8

Dance, Drama and Music lessons are taught on termly carousel. Students will spend 1 term in each discipline receiving a double lesson each week. 

Dance (1^st Half term) War and Conflict

Dance (2^nd Half term) Around the World

Extra-curricular opportunities

Our Street Dance club is run by Mrs Nyberg
All students have the opportunity to perform in the annual Dance show
All students have the opportunity to audition for our school musical

Yr8 Dance Rotation 1	Our first topic is War and Conflict Students will study the art of creating choreographic movement to communicate a theme and narrative and learn how this can be used to inform their choreographic structure, chosen movements, music and costume. Students will use gestures such as Shield, salute, bomb, shoot, dive, spin and kick to create movement as a duet and small group. Students will also explore contact work, lifts, action/reaction and freeze frames. The class will put together a performance piece representing soldiers in battle using instrumental music.
	Learning how to use and interpret a theme in Dance is an important part of communicating with the audience. Relying only on the expression of our movement to tell a story or evoke an emotion and bring a piece of choreography to life is a skill in itself. A theme can inform the content of a piece of choreography and be used as a method of storytelling. This unit is predominately created by students under direction of the teacher and is linked to unit 2 at GCSE Creating from a theme and unit 3 Creating and planning for production.
Yr8 Dance Rotation 2	Our second topic is Around the World Students will study dance styles from around the world focussing on Rock and Roll dance, Capoeira and Bollywood dance. They will spend 2 weeks on each, learning about the history of the style and the set movements from each. Students will work in pairs and small groups to create their own choreography demonstrating their new learning.
	This unit is predominantly created by students following choreographic content of each style from the teacher. This unit builds cultural capital and develop students understanding of the dance styles from around the world. Learning a variety of dance styles allows for versatility in the way your body is able to translate movement and choreography.  This unit links to unit 2 and 3. Students can draw upon different dance styles for the Creating unit and Planning for production unit.