Dancing Through the Decades Program Description
The goal of the Dancing Through the Decades Program is to introduce dances from the 20th Century that were “crazes” in their time. Discussion of specific dance crazes and their role in social dancing through time will be included in each lesson. Appropriate partnering etiquette, locomotor and non-locomotor skills in social dance forms, dance vocabulary, historical context, presentation, will be taught with an emphasis on character education.
The dances that the students will learn include the:
- One Step and Animal Dances of the early 20th century (partner dances)
- The Charleston from the 20s
- Novelty dances from the 50s and 60s i.e., the Twist, Hand Hive, the Jerk, the Pony, and the Swim
- Disco dance from the 70s i.e., The Hustle
- Hip Hop from the 80s and 90s
Extension Ideas and Objectives for the classroom: (Library Media/Technology)
Students will
- observe excerpts from each of the dance forms in a PowerPoint presentation.
- use the content information from the summary to create a timeline with text features such as photographs and captions to summarize the history of social dance in the 20th Century.
- present their timelines orally to an audience to develop speaking and listening skills.
- utilize technology along with other forms of multi-media components to express a historical summary.
The cost of the program is $600 per school payable directly to the instructor. Interested schools are asked to fund the program in-house. Schools that are interested will need to look for other funding sources, either in-house or through community resources such as PTA, parent boosters, operating budgets, etc. If using school funds, a consultant agreement is needed to contract with the guest instructor. All guest instructors are approved BCPS vendors.
The Office of Performing Arts coordinates the Dancing through the Decades program and schedules schools as a part of the Rhythms and Dance Unit for Physical Education. If you are interested in bringing this program to your school, please contact Darryl Pilate, [email protected].
The interest form can be accessed by clicking here.