Purpose of Dance

“The truest expression of a people is in its dances…Bodies never lie.” ~Agnes De Mille

“Dance is the only art in which we ourselves are the stuff of which it is made.” ~Ted Shawn

Dance as art represents creative self-expression through the medium of human movement. The essence of dance is to feel, create, compose, interpret, perform, and respond. Dance is the physical expression of an idea developed through a process of research, inquiry, and movement discovery. As students inquire into dance, they gain skills in creating, performing, viewing, and responding. Improvisation and selection lead to the product of dance works using traditional materials or the latest technologies. Participation in dance endows students with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century workforce. For example, dance-making or doing choreography involves beginning with an intent or inspiration followed by framing the intent as a movement problem to be solved – a set of skills that can be extended to problem-solving in other aspects of life. Dance students also display skills in world and historical dance, educational dance, aesthetic education, and expressive dance together with the characteristics of determination, self-direction, perseverance, dedication, risk taking, and team work that are the hallmarks of the dance artist.

The purpose of dance education in preschool through high school is to broadly educate all students in dance as an art form and to promote physical activity for fitness. Students demonstrate competence and confidence in a variety of genres and styles. They perform across cultural and professional boundaries. They communicate and inspire. They take responsibility and show initiative at the expected moment. Investigating the meanings and significance of the works of artists, choreographers, and technicians across time and space provides for the examination of ideas across disciplines. Students connect the concepts of dance to history, science, politics, religion, literature, drama, music, visual arts, and physical fitness. Dance can provide connections with any subject matter and help students to understand concepts important in other disciplines. Analyzing and critiquing dances – past and present – supports understanding of the relevance of the work in its time and culture.

Aesthetic inquiry leads students to make discriminating choices about what they do and see in dance. Appreciating aesthetic values increases a student’s capacity to perform with expression, create dance with clarity and authenticity, and communicate verbally and in writing the intent and context of dance works. Students participating in school-based dance programs gain confidence in communicating and defending their ideas and decisions. They demonstrate a strong sense of self-worth and satisfaction.

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Prepared Graduates in Dance

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Standards in Dance

Standards are the topical organization of an academic content area.

The four standards of dance are:

The goal of this standard is to develop students’ competence and confidence during a performance. In exploring movement vocabulary and developing skill and technique, students gain a better understanding of their bodies in relation to space, time and energy. Technical expertise and artistic expression through reflective practice, study, and self-evaluation of one’s own abilities and the abilities of others is essential to developing movement skills for performance.

Creating in dance involves using the dance elements of space, time, and energy to explore, improvise, and develop movement phrases, sequences and dances. Choreography is the art of dance making using meaning, intent, and principles of structure and design. In dance, there are a number of levels or stages in the creative process that define and are involved in solving artistic problems in order to present a completed work of art. These stages include: observing or studying the stimulus or intent, becoming engaged with that intent; tapping into feelings, memories and the imagination that relate to the intent, problem solving by creating a shorter dance study or longer dance, and using critical thinking skills to analyze and evaluate the finished product.

This standard focuses on understanding the global and cultural relevance of dance. The goal is to understand how dance shapes and reflects cultures and history over time, and acknowledge dance in society as creative, expressive, communicable, and social.

This standard focuses on reflecting upon dance, connecting it with other disciplines, responding to it to discuss and analyze dance as art. Critique and analysis of new dance works, reconstructions, masterworks allows for distinguishing and understanding of aesthetic values and artistic intent.

Purpose of Fundamental and Extended Pathways in Dance

Fundamental Pathway – When approaching the revision of the Colorado Academic Standards for Dance, all subcommittee members were adamant that instruction in dance is fundamental to the education of all students preschool through high school. The fundamental pathway is meant to enrich each student in movement literacy and expression and to be accessible to anyone entering the pathway at any stage of their education. Graduate competencies for the fundamental pathway ensure that all graduates have dance in their personal repertoire to apply toward life-building decisions and experiences.

Extended Pathway – The extended pathway is intended to provide students who are seeking a possible career in dance opportunities to be better prepared to meet the requirements relative to postsecondary options such as university, professional, and apprenticeships. Graduate competencies for the extended pathway ensure that public school graduates in the state of Colorado are competitive in their field for further advancement.

1. Apply Technical Dance Skills and Language of Movement to retain and execute choreography.
2. Apply kinesthetic awareness to develop lifelong and safe movement practices.
3. Participate in the dance production process in multiple roles.
4. Apply elements of dance in movement improvisation.
5. Compose a dance study applying the knowledge of the Elements of Dance and Principles of Choreography within the creative process.
6. Research, perform, identify and differentiate the Language of Movement from various cultures and eras.
7. Investigate and synthesize how dance developed in terms of the culture or era in which it is experienced.
8. Critique, analyze, reflect upon, and understand new works, reconstructions and masterworks using the Language of Movement.
9. Analyze connections between all content areas, mass media and careers.
10. Movement, Technique, and Performance
2. Create, Compose and Choreograph
3. Historical and Cultural Context
4. Reflect, Connect, and Respond

Purpose of Music

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” ~ Victor Hugo

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything.” ~ Plato

By implementing a structured and standards-based music education, students continue the generational conversation and become fluent in the language of music as a manner of artistic, intellectual, and cultural expression. The acts of performing, creating, and responding to music provide a means for development and growth in the ability to express the otherwise inexpressible and to facilitate growth in many areas of academic development.

Learning to read and notate music opens for students the limitless body of musical styles, forms, and repertoire, and allows them to see what they hear and hear what they see. The interconnections in music bring together the understanding of contemporary and historical cultures as well as self-knowledge. Participation in music provides students with unique experiences and skills essential for success in the 21^st-century workforce.

Music produces creativity, innovation, and cornerstone life skills that will be the key to opening doors for a more diverse and competitive workforce. In learning music, students use critical thinking, self-assessment, reasoning, problem solving, and collaboration, and make connections in new and imaginative ways as they progress through their musical education. All of these skills prepare our students for higher education and the 21^st-century workforce. These standards outline the knowledge and skills needed by all Colorado citizens to participate productively in an increasingly creative economy and innovative society.

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Prepared Graduates in Music

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Standards in Music

The Colorado Academic Standards in music are the topical organization of the concepts and skills all Colorado students should know and be able to do throughout their preschool through twelfth-grade experience.

The expression of music is the process of practice, refinement, and performance of acquired musical knowledge and skills to communicate a range of thoughts and emotions.

The creation of music is the demonstration of learned skills in the composition, improvisation, and arranging of music.

The theory of music is the understanding of the distinctive language, conventions, mechanics, and structure of organized sound. Investigation of music theory allows for a more complete understanding of all aspects of the musical process.

The aesthetic valuation of music focuses on the knowledge and perspectives needed to make informed evaluations and critiques of music. It also addresses the historical, cultural, and societal contexts which are often the beauty, heart, and soul of music.

1. Apply knowledge and skills through a variety of means to demonstrate musical concepts.
2. Perform with appropriate technique and expressive elements to communicate ideas and emotions.
3. Demonstrate practice and refinement processes to develop independent musicianship.
4. Compose, improvise, and arrange sounds and musical ideas to communicate purposeful intent.
5. Read, write, and analyze the elements of music through a variety of means to demonstrate musical literacy.
6. Aurally identify and differentiate musical elements to interpret and respond to music.
7. Evaluate and respond to music using criteria to make informed musical decisions.
8. Connect musical ideas and works with societal, cultural and historical context to understand relationships and influences.
9. Expression of Music
2. Creation of Music
3. Theory of Music
4. Aesthetic Valuation of Music

Purpose of Drama and Theatre Arts

“The stage is not merely the meeting place of all the arts, but is also the return of art to life.” --Oscar Wilde

“Too often, we glimpse the outlines of a scene and fail to notice the details that fill it in, making it truly interesting and unique.” --Eric Booth

Theatre Arts are Important to Life and Learning

Theatre arts are a universal force in the everyday life of people around the world. This force connects each new generation to those who have gone before. Students need theatre arts to make these connections and to express the otherwise inexpressible. Theatre, the imagined and enacted world of human beings, is one of the primary ways children learn about life – about actions and consequences, customs and beliefs, and others and themselves.

Theatre arts benefit the student because they cultivate the whole person, gradually building many kinds of literacy, including innovations in technology, while developing intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. Theatre honors imagination and creativity, and students who engage in theatre benefit from learning these skills and many others that prepare them for the 21st century. Additionally, as they work at increasing their understanding of the challenges presented by theatre arts, they prepare to make their own contributions to the nation's storehouse of culture. The theatre process also is important for a student’s individual growth. A strong and clear sense of the theatre process, which takes the creative theatrical act from inception to completion, teaches the importance of follow-through and responsibility.

Theatre arts have both intrinsic and instrumental value. That is, they have worth in and of themselves and also can be used to achieve a multitude of purposes such as to present issues and ideas, to teach or persuade, to entertain, to design, to plan, and to beautify. Students grow in their ability to comprehend their world when they learn theatre arts. As they create dances, music, theatrical productions, and visual works of art, they learn how to express themselves and how to communicate with others. Because theatre arts offer the continuing challenge of situations in which there is no standard or approved answer, those who study the arts become acquainted with many perspectives on the meaning of "artistic value." The modes of thinking and methods of theatre arts disciplines can be used to illuminate situations in other disciplines that require creative solutions. Attributes necessary to the arts such as self-discipline, collaboration, and perseverance transfer to the rest of life.

The more students live up to these high expectations, the more empowered our citizenry becomes. Indeed, helping students meet these standards is among the best possible investment in the future of not only our children, but also our country and civilization.

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Prepared Graduates in Drama and Theatre Arts

1. Theatre artists rely on intuition, curiosity and critical inquiry.
2. Theatre artists work to discover different ways of communicating meaning.
3. Theatre artists refine their work and practice their craft through rehearsal.
4. Theatre artists allow awareness of interrelationships between self and others to influence and inform their work.
5. Theatre artists make strong choices to effectively convey meaning.
6. Theatre artists develop personal processes and skills for a performance or design.
7. Theatre artists share and present stories, ideas and envisioned worlds to explore the human experience.
8. Theatre artists reflect to understand the impact of drama processes and theatre experiences.
9. Theatre artists' interpretations of drama/theatre work are influenced by personal experiences and aesthetics.
10. Theatre artists apply criteria to investigate, explore and assess drama and theatre work.
11. Theatre artists critically inquire into the ways others have thought about and created drama processes and productions to inform their own work.

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Standards in Drama and Theatre Arts

Standards are the topical organization of an academic content area. The three standards of drama and theatre arts are:

1. Create

The creation of drama and theatre is a demonstration of learned skills in forming new theatrical works, interpreting theatrical works for performance and design, and developing characters and analyzing roles.

2. Perform

The theatre process is a product of the knowledge and essential skills gained in the study of theatre toward the expression of the human experience in story, movement, speech, and staging for an intended audience.

3. Critically Respond

An informed literacy, thoughtful critique, and cultural research are key aspects of theatre arts study. Responding focuses on the artistic and scientific knowledge of conventions, cultures, styles, genres, theories, and technologies needed to know better choices and best practices.

Purpose of Fundamental, Advanced, and Professional Pathways in High School:

In order to meet the basic needs of all students, the advanced needs of those engaging theatre arts as a focus area and the needs of those pursuing careers in theatre, the standards review subcommittee developed Fundamental, Advanced, and Professional pathways.

The Fundamental pathway describes students who have limited interest in theatrical performance or theatre-related vocations, or whose interest lies within other aspects of theatre-related vocations, such as acoustic and structural engineering, advertising and marketing, event management, fashion design, mass communications, or publishing.

The Advanced pathway is designed to engage students that demonstrate a dedicated interest in the art form to explore connections throughout their immediate community and the world at large, providing intentional opportunities for students to engage with Theatre Arts skills and concepts that reach far beyond the stage. 

The Professional pathway is directed at students who intend to pursue postsecondary education or vocation in theatre, which might lead to careers in theatre education, performance, technical production, theater management, or other theatre-related areas. The expectations in the Professional pathway meet all of the prepared graduate competencies with a much higher degree of rigor appropriate to the expectations of postsecondary and career theatre opportunities.

Purpose of Visual Arts

The 2020 Revisions to the Colorado Academic Standards in Visual Arts provide an organizational framework acknowledging the importance and the complexities of teaching and learning in the visual arts. This document is written with the following underlying beliefs:

The visual arts are an academic and scholarly discipline defined by theoretical frameworks connecting learning, critical thinking and making. Artists, like other scholars, utilize discipline specific vocabulary, practice unique skills, build upon cultural histories and use research practices to frame new ideas. The standards allow teachers to translate complex ideas into accessible terms and facilitate opportunities for learning in the classroom. To this end, the standards are written using the academic vocabulary of the discipline and build upon interdisciplinary integrations which strengthen students’ well-rounded academic profile.

The nature of the visual arts discipline is formative, iterative and has different purposes within various contexts. Art is a fluid and expansive process of learning that has a central role in our schools. It is a point of entry for questions and ideas discussed in other classes. It is a space where learning can be questioned, critiqued and personalized. The standards, grade level expectation and evidence outcomes are stated broadly so that they can be specifically applicable to many different schools, classrooms and learning environments.

The standards identify various components of art making that may occur simultaneously. A student may form an idea as they are working on developing a skill, and have that idea reinforced by a personal experience, exposure to another artwork or recognition of a cultural value. Multiple grade level expectations or evidence outcomes may be addressed within a single artmaking experience. Art studio and art appreciation are not separate instructional practices, rather, they occur simultaneously as students make art. In the same way, authentic assessments are naturally integrated within the processes of ideation, reflection, and making. 

The importance of students’ personal stories and individual expression in artmaking are influenced by one’s environment and communities and are reinforced in the visual art standards. References to “multiple cultures” in the standards prompt inquiry about one’s own influences and learning about various perspectives. Students reflect on the purposes of their own art, that of classmates, and connect their work to art history or contemporary sources. Participation in the visual arts provides agency for student artists to influence the community and transform the world around them. 

Resources:

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Prepared Graduates in Visual Arts

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Standards in Visual Arts

The Colorado Visual Arts Standards provide teachers a framework to engage students in the complex learning that occurs in the art classroom. The standards define a cyclical and interconnected creative process. A student may be utilizing the skills defined by all four standards simultaneously in one learning experience. The four standards of the visual arts are:

1. Observe and Learn to Comprehend

Artists make art from what they see, know and are curious about. As students create new artworks they synthesize interdisciplinary learning, social and cultural norms, personal narratives and the influences of visual culture. This standard includes research activities such as examination of details in the environment, noticing overlooked aspects of one’s surroundings, telling stories before, during and after making art, and using academic and informal learning to form new ideas. It includes viewing and researching the work of artists to broaden perspectives.

2. Envision and Critique to Reflect

Artists think with intention and purpose about what they want to express and evaluate the effectiveness of what they are making during the creative process. The interplay of ideas, materials, and skills makes art challenging and rewarding. This standard recognizes that the intention of the maker and the interpretation of the viewer are both valid as part of the work of art. Learning experiences may include preparatory sketches, personal reflection while working, group critique, inquiry, writing personal philosophies and artist’s statements, and analysis or interpretation of historical and contemporary artwork and ideas.

3. Invent and Discover to Create

Artists learn by making art. They ideate and employ skills to generate works of art for functional, expressive, conceptual, and social/cultural purposes. Making can involve prototyping, building, crafting, inventing, assembling, programming, fashioning and other ways of bringing visual form to ideas.

4. Relate and Connect to Transfer

Artists make new connections to their own environments, cultures, and stories through the process of making art. They integrate learning from various disciplines and philosophies, and formulate questions to study. Learning experiences include exploring creative careers, applying artistic processes to everyday challenges, studying and responding to historical and contemporary art, and applying interdisciplinary content.

Explanation of Content Specific Vocabulary and Defining Practices in the Visual Arts Standards

Agency

Artistic agency is the acknowledged ability to make choices and create change. Agency implies a belief that what artists do affects the world around us and makes a difference. (Gude, 2009)

Gude, O. (2009). Art education for a democratic life. Lowenfeld Lecture, National Art Education Association.

Artistic Praxis

Praxis is defined as the exercise or practice of an art, science or skill (Merriam-Webster).

Artistic praxis encompasses various reciprocal relationships that occur when learning by making art. The making may precede the forming of a concept. It includes relationships between critical reflection and action, material and envisioned image, and lived experience and final product.

Praxis. (n.d.) in Merriam-Webster online dictionary

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/praxis

Zurmuehlen, M. (1990) Studio art, praxis, symbol, presence. National Art Education Association

Arts Based Research or Arts Practice as Research

Arts Based Research practices include Inquiry that is part of artmaking and research approaches that are artistic in nature. Pedagogical strategies guiding students into forming a question, finding other resources, making, analyzing the results and looking at next steps is aligned with established research forms. Arts based research is able to address complex issues to deepen understanding and engage empathy.

Barone, T, & Eisner, E. (2012) Arts based research. Los Angeles, Sage Publications. RD

Marshall, J. (2007) Image as insight: Visual Images in Practice-Based Research, Studies in Art Education, 49(1) pp 23-41

Assessment Practices

Assessment in the arts classroom involves a variety of practices to monitor and track student learning through describing, collecting, recording, scoring, and dialogue. Effective assessment techniques can improve classroom instruction, empower students, heighten student interest and motivation, and provide the teacher with continuous feedback on student progress.

Huffman, E. (1998) Authentic rubrics. Art Education 51(1), 64-68.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework for art is a system of intentions, ideas, key factors, assumptions and beliefs that are consciously or unconsciously relied on. As in research, a conceptual framework includes “the main things to be studied—the key factors, concepts, or variables—and the presumed relationships among them” (p. 18).

https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/48274_ch_3.pdf

Context

Art objects gain meaning from the conditions surrounding their origins and change meaning as they are seen or used in different circumstances. Instruction in the visual arts includes cross disciplinary study of the many interrelated conditions that contribute to how an image is interpreted. “When artistic objects are separated from both conditions of origin and operation in experience, a wall is built around them that renders almost opaque their general significance.”(Dewey, p.3)

Dewey, J. (1934/1958). Art as experience. New York: NY. Minton, Balch & company.

Community

Community can be defined as a group of people considered collectively including their commonalities and differences. These may include but are not limited to time, place, heritage, traditions, culture, and interests. The visual arts standards use the term “community” and “diverse communities” to allow for the expression of differing viewpoints within our democratic society. 

Increasing Levels of Mastery

A “master” artist is one who is continuing to learn and improve. “Mastery” can be seen as engagement in processes of continual learning. Art teachers can actively construct learning experiences that build off of students’ prior understanding and support growth.

Inquiry Questions as Used in This Document

The inquiry questions found on the right side of the 2018 Standards document are phrased for a teacher to reflect on their instructional practices and their students’ learning. The questions may be rephrased to use as direct questions to students, to assist them as they reflect on their own artmaking experiences

Language of Visual Art and Design

The term “language of visual art and design” refers to the components of art that artists use when they make and they talk about art. The term replaces “characteristics and expressive features of the visual arts” used in the 2009 Standards, continuing to recognize multiple interpretations for addressing ways to construct and deconstruct works of art across various times and cultures. It includes the elements and principles of design used in teaching the formal qualities of artmaking, but allows for additional or other interpretations as is appropriate to student, teacher, and/or community needs. The term acknowledges that visual elements such as line, shape, color and compositional choices such as perspective, balance, rhythm and more can be an element of “text” that conveys artistic intent and meaning.

Philosophy

The etymology of philosophy is from the Greek “love of wisdom.” Philosophy can be defined as the study of knowledge or thinking about thinking. The study of philosophy in the arts includes inquiry into the nature of knowledge, values and beauty. It encompasses the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group.

http://www.philosophybasics.com/general_whatis.html

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/philosophy

https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/philosophy

Synthesis

Synthesis is the combination of parts or elements to form a whole. It includes the creative processes of finding visual problems and creating unique solutions by combining multiple ideas, and influences.

Synthesis. (n.d.) in Merriam-Webster online dictionary

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/synthesis

Visual Culture

The study of Visual Culture connects popular and fine arts forms. It includes the fine arts, advertising, popular film and video, folk art, television and other performance, housing and apparel design, computer game and toy design, and other forms of visual production and communication.

Freedman, K. (2003).  Curriculum Aesthetics and the Social Life of Art, Columbia College, New York: NY.

• Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education: An introduction to the philosophy of education. New York: The Macmillan Company.
• Dewey, J. (1934). Art as experience. New York: Minton, Balch & company.
• Efland, A. (1976). The school art style: A functional analysis. Studies in Art Education, 17(2), 37-44.
• Eisner, E. W. (2002). The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Fahey, P. G. (2012). Common questions about the Colorado visual arts standards. Collage: A Magazine for Colorado's Art Educators, 24(2), 20-22.
• Freedman,K (2003)  Curriculum Aesthetics and the Social Life of Art, Columbia College, New York: NY.
• Gude, O. (2009). Art education for democratic life. Art Education, 62(6), 6.
• Hetland, L., Winner, E., Veenema, S., & Sheridan, K.M. (2013). Studio thinking 2: The real benefits of visual arts education (Second ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
• Marshall, J. (2007) Image as insight: Visual Images in Practice-Based Research, Studies in Art Education, 49(1) pp 23-41.
• Marshall, J. (2014). Transforming education through art-centered integrated learning. Visual Inquiry, 3(3), 361-376. oi:10.1386/vi.3.3.361_1NAEA.
• Learning in a Visual age: The critical importance of visual arts education. (2016). National Art Education Association Retrieved.
• Sullivan, G. (2010). Art practice as research: Inquiry in visual arts (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
• Szekely, G. (2015) Play and Creativity in Art Teaching, Routledge.
• Thompson, C. M. (2015). Constructivism in the art classroom: Praxis and policy. Arts Education Policy Review, 116(3), 118-127.
• Zander, M. J. (2004). Becoming dialogical: Creating a place for dialogue in art education. Art Education, 57(3), 48-53.
• Zurmuehlen, M. (1990). Essential conditions for making art. Studio art: Praxis, symbol, presence. Reston, VA: The National Art Education Association.

1. See oneself as a participant in visual art and design by experiencing, viewing or making.
2. Visually and/or verbally articulate how visual art and design are a means for communication.
3. Practice critical and analytical skills by using academic language to discuss works of art and visual culture.
4. Critique connections between visual art and historic and contemporary philosophies.
5. Interpret works of art and design in the contexts of varied traditions, histories and cultures.
6. Create works of visual art and design that demonstrate increasing levels of mastery in skills and techniques.
7. Allow imagination, curiosity and wonder to guide inquiry and research.
8. Participate in the reciprocal relationships between visual art and communities.
9. Persist in the creative process and innovate from failure.
10. Develop new knowledge by actively doing and making (artistic praxis), acknowledging relationships between materials, objects, ideas and lived experience.