Grade by Grade
A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Dance: Dancing for Social Justice and the Environment

A1.2 A2.1 A2.2About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can use dance as a language to communicate a message about social justice or environmental health.
  • I can use relationship (proximity, meet and part, groupings, follow and lead) and positive and negative space to show ideas like inclusion and exclusion.
  • I can create symbols in movement and avoid stereotypes when I represent people.
  • I can analyse how a dance uses the elements of dance to communicate its message.

Words to know

social justice
Fairness for all people: equal rights, respect and opportunities, and speaking up when people are treated unfairly.
environmental health
How healthy the land, water, air, plants and animals are, and how people's actions affect them.
proximity
How close or far apart dancers are. Closeness and distance can show relationships.
meet and part
A relationship where dancers come together and then move apart.
positive space
The space filled by the dancers' bodies.
negative space
The empty space around and between the dancers' bodies, which also makes a shape.
stereotype
An unfair, oversimplified idea that all people in a group are the same.

Dance as a language

In Grade 7 you used dance as a language to communicate ideas from your writing. In Grade 8 you will use it to communicate messages about social justice and/or environmental health.

Think of dance like a language:

  • Your movements are the words.
  • Your motifs are key phrases you repeat.
  • Your form (ABA, narrative and so on) is the grammar that organizes the message.
  • The elements of dance (body, space, time, energy, relationship) are how you say it: loudly or softly, close or far, fast or slow.

A message dance works best when it shows an idea instead of preaching it. The audience should feel something and leave with a question or an idea, not a lecture.

Relationship tells the story of fairness

The element of relationship is especially strong for social justice themes, because fairness is about how people treat each other.

  • Proximity: a tight group with one dancer far away shows someone excluded. A circle that opens shows welcome.
  • Meet and part: dancers coming together can show unity; parting can show conflict or loss.
  • Follow and lead: one dancer always leading and the others always copying can show power. Swapping leaders can show sharing power.
  • Groupings: a large group against one dancer, or two groups that never touch, can show division.
Silhouettes of five dancers with arms raised perform on an outdoor wooden stage by a river at sunset.
Notice the spacing between the dancers. Relationship and proximity can show ideas like unity, welcome or someone being left out. AI-generated image
1. Aparteveryone alone2. Shut outgroup closes; one left out3. Welcomedthe circle opens
Three floor plans seen from above. Each circle is a dancer. In panel 2 the group closes and the yellow dancer is shut out; in panel 3 the group has opened into a circle that includes the yellow dancer. Only proximity changed, but the message changed completely.

Positive and negative space

Positive space is the space your body fills. Negative space is the empty shape around and between bodies. Audiences notice both.

Two dancers joining hands above their heads make an arch. The bodies are the positive space; the gap underneath is negative space shaped like a doorway. A doorway can be a symbol: of welcome, of opportunity, or of a door that stays closed.

negative space(the empty shape)positive space:the dancers' bodiesThe gap under their joinedarms looks like a doorway:a symbol of welcome.
Two dancers make an arch. The bodies are positive space; the empty shape under their arms is negative space, and it looks like a doorway. Choreographers use shapes like this as symbols.

Symbols, not stereotypes

A symbol is a movement or shape that stands for an idea: a doorway for opportunity, hands cupped like a bowl for clean water, a slowly tightening circle for something that traps.

When a dance represents real people, be careful:

  • Do not use costumes, accents or "typical" gestures to show a cultural group. That creates stereotypes.
  • Show actions and feelings that anyone can relate to: being ignored, being welcomed, working together.
  • If your message is about a group you don't belong to, learn from that group's own voices first (books, articles and interviews by people from the community), and give credit.
Worked example

Example: Let's choreograph a message about inclusion

A group wants to make a dance about including people who are new to a school. The message: Small actions can open a closed group. Let's plan it with the elements of dance.

  1. Section A (exclusion): four dancers move in tight unison in the centre. A fifth dancer tries to join from the edge. Each time she comes close, the group turns its back and travels away (proximity and meet and part).
  2. Turning point: one dancer in the group stops, breaks the unison, and looks at the newcomer. Everything freezes for 4 counts (stillness for focus).
  3. Section B (inclusion): that dancer and the newcomer make an arch (negative space as a doorway). The others pass through it one by one and the group re-forms as an open circle.
  4. Energy: Section A uses bound, tight, percussive movement; Section B becomes fluid and free.
  5. Check for stereotypes: the newcomer has no special costume or accent. She is simply a person trying to belong, so everyone in the audience can connect.

The message is carried by relationship (proximity, unison, meet and part), space (the doorway) and energy (bound to fluid), not by words.

Worked example

Example: Let's analyse an environmental dance

A Grade 8 class performs a dance about plastic in the Great Lakes. Dancers in blue start with smooth, wave-like arm movements across the floor. Three dancers enter with stiff, angular, jerky movements and wrap around the wave dancers, who slow down and sink. At the end, all the dancers pass an imaginary object hand to hand off the stage, and the wave movement returns. Let's analyse it with dance vocabulary.

  1. Body: the wave dancers use curved, flowing shapes; the plastic dancers use angular shapes. The contrast shows two different things meeting.
  2. Energy: fluid (water) versus percussive and jerky (plastic).
  3. Relationship: the plastic dancers wrap around the water dancers, a symbol of being tangled or trapped.
  4. Time: the water dancers decelerate and sink, which suggests the water getting sick.
  5. Form: narrative: healthy water, a problem, a solution (passing the plastic away), then healthy water again.
  6. Interpretation: The message is that pollution harms the lakes, and that people working together can help them recover.

The analysis names specific elements and connects each one to the message.

Just for fun

What did the ocean say to the dancer?

Nothing. It just waved. 🌊

Hands-on activity

Message in motion

You need: a clear space, 2 to 4 people (family members count!) or yourself plus some stuffed animals or pillows to stand for other dancers, and paper.

  1. Choose one message about fairness or the environment. Write it as one sentence.
  2. Draw three floor plans (bird's-eye view, like the picture) showing how the dancers' proximity changes from beginning to end.
  3. Create one symbol using positive and negative space (for example, an arch, a closed fist of bodies, a bowl of hands).
  4. Put it together: beginning, turning point (with a freeze), and ending. Aim for 4 to 6 eight-counts.
  5. Perform it. Ask your audience what message they got, and which movement told them.
  6. Check your dance for stereotypes using the list in this lesson. Change anything that relies on costumes, accents or "typical" gestures.

Safety: move slowly when dancers are close together, and agree on a signal to stop.

Your turn

1

What does social justice mean?

2

What does environmental health mean?

3

How could proximity show that someone is being excluded?

4

What is negative space?

5

Name a symbol you could make with positive and negative space, and what it could mean.

6

Why is it better to show a message than to preach it in a dance?

7

Give one way to avoid stereotypes in a message dance.

More practice: warm-up

1

What is positive space?

2

What does meet and part mean?

3

In dance as a language, what are the "words"?

4

Which element of dance includes proximity, groupings, and follow and lead?

5

Which energy would better show clean, flowing water: fluid or percussive?

More practice: on your own

1

Plan how follow and lead could show unfair power, and then fairness.

2

A dance about wildfire smoke uses dancers who slowly fill the space with grey scarves until the other dancers can barely move. Analyse two elements of dance used.

3

Your classmate wants to show a newcomer from another country by giving her an accent and a "traditional" costume. Suggest a better choice and explain.

4

Turn this message into a symbol: Clean water belongs to everyone.

5

Write an interpretation, with evidence, of a dance where a circle of dancers slowly tightens around one dancer, then suddenly opens and lets that dancer out.

Challenge

1

Design a 3-part dance (beginning, turning point, ending) with the message "Small actions add up for the environment." Name at least three elements of dance you would use and why.

2

Explain how negative space could change the meaning of the same two-dancer shape.

3

A dance about a real community's struggle is being planned by students outside that community. What should they do to make sure the dance is respectful and accurate?

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

A message about environmental health is about ___.

2.

A tight group with one dancer far away mostly uses which element to show exclusion?

3.

Negative space is ___.

4.

Which choice best avoids a stereotype?

5.

In a dance, angular jerky movers wrapping around smooth wave movers most likely symbolize ___.

6.

Passing the lead from dancer to dancer can show ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Students use dance as a language to communicate messages about themes of social justice and/or environmental health (A1.2), interpret themes (A2.1) and analyse dances using dance vocabulary (A2.2).

How to help at home:

  • Talk about a fairness or environment issue in the news or at school. Ask, "How could you show that without words?"
  • Be the extra dancers! Many of the activities need two to four people.
  • When your child shows you their dance, describe what you see (close, far, fast, frozen) before you guess the message.

Common difficulties:

  • Preaching instead of showing. Signs, slogans and miming can replace movement. Encourage symbols and relationships instead.
  • Stereotypes. Students sometimes use costumes or accents to show a group. Redirect to universal feelings and actions.
  • Forgetting negative space. Ask your child to look at the gaps between bodies, not just the bodies.