Dance of the times: African-American expression of jazz

Explore jazz dance as a social dance form and a uniquely expressive art of African-American culture from the 1920's and 1930's. Students will learn about the complexity of African-American experiences that generated the dance and musical style. The activities develop students' understanding of jazz dance while integrating visual, audio, and kinesthetic learning styles.

A lesson plan for grades 6–8 Dance Arts Education

By Shelese Douglas

Learn more

• Jazz Interactive resource of lessons and ideas from PBS presentation of Ken Burns' Jazz series
• 42eXplore Summary of information on jazz musical history with lots of great links
• Smithsonian American Art Museum Try searching for jazz and viewing artwork from the collection

Related pages

• Freedom songs of the civil rights movement: Students will listen to freedom songs recorded during the civil rights movement, 1960–1965. Students will write about personal reactions to the music and lyrics. Through reading and pictures, students will briefly explore historical events where these songs were sung. Listening again, students will analyze and describe — musically — particular song(s).
• Harvey B. Gantt Center for African- American Arts + Culture : This cultural center was created to preserve the visual and performing arts heritages of African-Americans and other minorities. The Center has an art gallery with “over 100 works of art from renowned artists such as Elizabeth Catlett, Romare Bearden, John Biggers.” It also offers art classes to all age groups.
• Native American music: Two North Carolina tribes: In this lesson plan, students will listen to songs from two North Carolina tribes. Students will learn about the music through listening, analyzing, singing, moving, and playing instruments.

Related topics

• Learn more about African Americans, arts, dance, music, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

This lesson will explore jazz dance as a social dance form and a uniquely expressive art of African-American culture as it was in the 1920’s and 1930’s. It provides the opportunity for students to learn about the complexity of African-American experiences that generated the dance and musical style. The activities presented give students the opportunity to create their own expression and develop their understanding of jazz dance while integrating visual, audio, and kinesthetic learning styles.

Students will be able to communicate and express their understanding of the African-American experience with jazz dance and musical styles in their own choreography and written work.

Students will be able to distinguish characteristics of social jazz dance forms made popular by African-Americans in the 1920’s–1930’s.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

Three or four 45-minute class sessions over the course of a week

Materials/resources

• Pencil
• Paper
• Visual images or photographs of African-American art
• Large open space: Move desks out of the way if possible or obtain use of the gym, cafeteria, or auditorium. If weather permits, students can also use an outdoor space such as a courtyard, play area, etc., however outdoor spaces may pose some additional technology demands or constraints since electrical outlets may not be available to operate boom box(es).
• Dance Rubric
• Lesson/Unit Student Reflection
• PowerPoint Presentation: Includes background and historical information about jazz as well as reflection activities. This presentation has been edited to remove images due to copyright restrictions. However, images titles are listed in the Notes section with a link to the named image. After downloading the presentation, the teacher may attached the listed images. Music suggestions are also included in the Notes section.

Supplementary audio and print resources:

• Ken Burns. Jazz, The Story of American Music (music compilation). Sony Music Entertainment, 2000.
• Weatherfod, Carole Boston. The Sound That Jazz Makes. Walker Publishing, 2000.
• The Story of Music. Vol.5. Groiler Educational, 2001.
• Jazz Dance Today. West Publishing Company, 1994.

Technology resources

For Part I

• Music boom box, portable stereo system with an ability to play CDs, or some other way to play music
• One stand-alone computer or laptop equipped with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Windows MediaPlayer, or Real Player software, and overhead projector and screen or
• One laptop computer and LCD projector and screen

If a laptop and LCD projector are available, the attached PowerPoint presentation in the supplementary resources section can be run from the laptop unit. Otherwise, the PowerPoint presentation can be printed and photocopied to transparency and presented on the overhead projector.

For Part III

• Music boom box, portable stereo system with an ability to play CDs, or some other way to play music

Pre-activities

If students have not already had an opportunity to learn about African-American contributions, it may be appropriate to introduce this lesson by playing different selections of jazz music as students enter your classroom. However, the PowerPoint Presentation can also be used as an introductory tool. Because Part III includes movement activities, you may want to set up some ground rules for group interactions prior to doing that section (Example: students must work in their designated area/group, share boom box etc.)

To save time you may also want to arrange students in groups prior to beginning Part II of the activities. Locomotor and non-locomotor movement cards have been provided as a supplemental resource. You may ask a student to cut these or have them pre-cut and laminated if you plan to re-use them in the future.

Activities

Part I

This section will introduce the material. It uses visual imagery depicting African-Americans in social settings or other striking images evoking a particular tone, mood, or experience. Show three or four images included in the resources section one at a time.

Allow the students to observe each image for three to five minutes while listening to the musical selection suggested in the presentation or a similar one of your choice. Using instrumental selections challenges the students to also generate their own perceptions. You may or may not choose to “prompt” them with ideas of what to note in the images depending on their skill level.

For each slide or image, ask the students to write down three observations describing the specific action(s) they saw in the images and the emotional feeling(s) of the participants. Again, you can use the images found in the PowerPoint presentation or use the additional websites and resources to choose your own.

Part II

Separate students into groups of 4–5 or allow them to choose their own. Using their observations from Part I, students will create a haiku poem together from their responses of one of the images.

Each group should decide on one image to use. Before allowing the groups to discuss and work out the poem on their own, choose an image you have not previously presented and create a “class” haiku. This activity will give the groups a clearer idea of the poem’s structure; a three–line poem having five, seven, and five syllables respectively in each line. An example follows.

Rhythms shaking jazz

Jumping music in my soul

Jazz body runs free

When all the groups have finished, ask each group to choose a representative to share their haiku with the rest of the class and indicate the image they chose and why.

Part III

This part of the activity will require more space. It gives the students an opportunity to express their haiku to a musical selection and integrates problem–solving skills by asking them to include specific criteria in their works. Use the groups previously formed in Part II. Give each group two cards: a locomotor and a non-locomotor movement card. Initially, it may be useful to use the sample haiku with two movement cards and create a sample dance as a class effort. This may encourage more ideas from those that are somewhat unclear about the assignment and others who are more inhibited with movement expression. If it is helpful, indicate that their dance can use the following structure: A-B-C-A. The first and the final actions are exactly alike and the in–between movements are unique.

• Each group will choreograph a short dance expressing their haiku and including the two movements from the cards they received.
• Begin the dance with a group “tableau” similar to the image they chose to use. Each tableau should appear to be a collection of actions or poses seemingly frozen in time.
• Continue to create and explore with the movement cards, making sure that the movements appear somewhere in their mini-dance. Encourage the students to use their own movements and expressions also to convey the meaning or ideas in their haiku.
• Complete the dance the same way it began: with the group tableau or frozen poses and shapes.
• Once the work is complete, allow the students to choose a jazz music selection that they think will present and express their dances.
• Have students share their mini dances with the class.

Assessment

Evaluations can be done by teacher, student, or peers on any part of the lesson. Verbal assessment works best for Part I. Students can complete the reflection. For the more critical teacher evaluation of Part III, use the dance rubric. Because the last part is heavily dependent upon class/student involvement, you may consider incorporating an evaluation of attitude and participation.

Supplemental information

Modifications

Resource students or students with learning disabilties: For Part II, provide students with samples of haikus or other short poems complete and incomplete. Include a word bank. Ask them to complete the poems with words from the word bank.

English language learners: For Part Iand II, show students a simple image of those used in the class discussion. Use a photocopy of the image and number some of the items (i.e. legs, hat, hair, saxophone, etc). Provide students with a word/picture bank of English vocabulary of the numbered items. Have them write the English word next to the numbered items in the photocopy.

Academically gifted students: For Part III, students can be challenged with more movement cards. Ask them to change their ending tableau or include changes in directions and levels in their dance. They could also make their own PowerPoint presentation of their understanding of the lesson. If the equipment is available, these students can also record their dances on a digital camera and include that in their PowerPoint presentation.

Alternative assessments

Resource Student: Try peer assessment and have them share their poems with another student.

Non-Native English Speaker: If possible, pair this student with a non-ELL student to review their work.

Academically Gifted Student: Peer assessment will also work well here also, but you may want to create a rubric that specifically addresses their presentations for completion of technology requirements, movement requirements, etc. You could also have these students write a brief summary or essay of their experience.

Critical vocabulary

• Syncopation. Rhythm created with an accent on the non-dominant down-beat. Also described as “finding the rhythm inbetween the beats.”
• Isolations. Moving one body part at a time or in a different direction.
• Choreography. The process of creating a dance.
• Improvisation. Movement that is created spontaneously, occurring within free or highly structured environments, but always with an element of chance.
• Self-space. Space immediately within arm’s reach surrounding the body; personal “space bubble.”
• General Space. A defined area of space through which dancers can travel using all the available space.
• Locomotor. Movements that carry the individual into general space traveling from place to place; using transferring weight. (Examples: run, walk, slide, roll, crawl, leap, skip, hop, jump, etc.)
• Non-locomotor. Movements that can be completed in self-space.(Examples: twist, spin, stretch, poke, swing, sway, bounce, etc.)
• Tableau. A striking incidental scene such as a picturesque group of people.

Comments

Variation in the time required for this lesson will likely depend upon how much time is necessary for set-up and/or clean-up after completing part III of the activity. In addition, there is flexibility to spend more or less time on any of the specific parts depending upon the learning styles and abilities of the students and overall classroom dynamics and physical constraints.

Students will likely want to spend the most amount of time on Part III, however not all students will comfortable doing the movement activity or presenting it to their classmates. It may be helpful to have a short discussion on sharing space and respecting everyone’s contribution by not laughing at each other, etc. The group work will allow your more inhibited students to find some support and their own comfort zone while also stretching their boundaries for personal expression. If things are going well during that part of the lesson, allow the students to use more time to complete their dances or challenge those that complete their work early with other movement cards. However, Part III will occur more efficiently if you provide the students with a specific time in which to have their dances complete.