1997 Arts Assessment Strategies ReportGrade 12
Dance Responding Task

In the dance assessment, paper-and-pencil exercises asked students to describe, analyze, interpret, and critique excerpts from dances of different genres. Dance excerpts were presented to classroom-size groups of students using video. To allow more time for students to view the dances and to analyze them in an in-depth way, no more than three different dances were featured for student observation.

In the Grade 12 Dance block explored below, students were asked to view video clips of three different dances:

• an excerpt from the ballet Sleeping Beauty (Due to copyright constraints, the video excerpt used in the assessment is not included in this report.)
• an excerpt from a flamenco dance (QuickTime video 0:55, 5,231K)
  
  [This excerpt of a Demonstration Waltz from the video Ballroom Dancing: The International Championships - 1993 is used with the permission of V.I.E.W., Inc.]
• an excerpt from a ballroom dance competition (QuickTime video 0:49, 4,707K)
  
  [This excerpt from Alegrias, on the video Show Flamenco: Una Noche de Luz, 1986, is used by permission of Pilar Perez de Guzm?n, Videos Flamencos de la Luz, Madrid.]

The exercises required students to view the dances and then compare and contrast aspects of the different dance genres by answering multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. Because dance is a kinetic art form best understood over multiple viewings, students were given repeated opportunities to view the dance excerpts. To help students pay attention to the particular aspects of the dances they were being asked about, students were given time to read the questions they were to answer and then were allowed to watch the dances again before responding.

NEXT: First Three Exercises From the Sleeping Beauty Task