Dance

Dance Integration Lessons

 

Choose a subject to find a lesson that integrates dance.

 

 

Dance & Math

 

Counting to Ten with Dance

 

For example, in this lesson the teacher would:

 

  • Assign each child a number 1-10
  • Have students hop, skip, or jump around the room
  • Call “Freeze!” and tell the students to strike a pose in the shape of their number using their arms and legs
  • Select three different students and have the class guess which number they are representing

Hundreds of free lessons to get started today!

Three school children striking a fun dancing pose with their arms spread out.

 

 

Top Lesson Plans

 

 

Children in a class with their arms stretched out following after their teacher. They are happy.

Math in Motion

3rd Grade

A young women and toddler play with blocks together.

Number Ordering

2nd Grade

Children dance like robots in a classroom.

Waddling Ones & Tobogganing Tens

K-6th Grade

Why Dance?

"Before a child talks, they sing. Before they write, they draw. As soon as they stand, they dance. Art is fundamental to human expression."

—Phylicia Rasband

 

  • Support physical development and a healthy lifestyle.
  • Promote social-emotional health and maturity.
  • Integrate kinesthetic learning with conceptual understanding.
  • Provide children with multiple perspectives.
  • Nurture cognitive development and academic engagement.
  • Help children develop literacy.
  • Encourage social interaction and cooperation.
  • Foster critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills.

Elements of Dance

 

Child dancing and making a face

Body

Instrument required for the movement of dance.
Body parts: upper body, lower body, whole body, head, shoulder, back, tail, arm, leg, foot, hand, torso, hip, elbow, neck, wrist, knee, spine, ankle, right side, left side, waist, ear, heel, toe, nose, chin 
A girl with a dark-haired ponytail begins a cart-wheel in a basketball court with children watching behind her

Motion

Movement included in the act of dancing.
  • Locomotor (moves through space): walk, run, leap, jump, hop, gallop, prance, skip, slide, roll, crawl, skitter, scoot, cartwheel, somersault
  • Axial (stays in on place): stretch, bend, shake, sink, push, pull, poke, bounce, twist, slash, kick, jab, freeze, spin, turn, carve, spoke, collapse, swing, sway, clap, squeeze, swipe, slice
A boy in a green shirt punches the air as children watch from behind him in an indoor basketball court.

Energy

Quality that describes how the dancer moves
  • Degrees of energy (force): strong, weak, heavy, light, bound, free, active, passive
  • Energy qualities: smooth, sustained, loose, collapse, weightless, suspend, shudder, vibrate, sharp, percussive, explode, swing
  • Contrasting energies: prickly, airy, lazy, timid, tired, proud, angry, sluggish, excited, droopy, floppy, rough, jagged 
A girl in a pink shirt and with double dutch braided brown hair crawls on her hands and knees across the floor of an indoor basketball court as children behind her watch.

Space

Personal, general, and performance area used by the dancer.
  • Shape: straight, bent, angular, crooked, twisted, curved, symmetrical, asymmetrical
  • Level: high, low, middle
  • Size: huge, tiny, narrow, wide
  • Pathways: straight, curved, zigzag
  • Focus: direct, indirect
  • Direction & Relationship: up, down, side, forward, backward, diagonal, toward etc.
A boy in a blue shirt runs away from the camera with his hands raised in and indoor basketball court as children behind him watch.

Time

Duration that describes when a body moves or holds still
  • Metric rhythm: beat, no beat, meter, accent, tempo note value, rhythm, syncopation, acceleration, deceleration
  • Rhapsodic Rhythm: non-metric, breath rhythm, wind, water
  • Dance can be performed: to the beat, in silence, with music playing, musical instruments, singing or speaking 

 

 

Dance in the Elementary Classroom

 

Dive deeper into dance and how to effectively integrate it in your classroom

 

 

 

 

Explore Other Art Forms