2019/20 SEASON NUTCRACKER SUITE
LESSON 2: TELLING A STORY IN A BALLET LESSON OBJECTIVE: The students will perform basic ballet steps and watch a scene from The Nutcracker. Students will also complete a venn diagram and compare their experience of doing ballet steps versus pantomime. DURATION: 50 mins MATERIALS: YouTube video of “The Battle” scene from The Nutcracker, The Nutcracker Curriculum Video, Handout 2: Ballet Steps, and Handout 3: Venn Diagram. STANDARDS: CCSS ELA/Literacy: Reading Standards for Informational Text, Grade 5: 5 Compare and contrast the overall structure of events, ideas, concepts in two or more texts. CCSS ELA/Literacy: Speaking and Listening Standards, Grade 5: 5.1 Engage effectively in a range of discussions with diverse partners on Grade 5 topics and texts, building on other’s ideas and expressing their own clearly. VAPA Dance, Grade 5: 1.5 Use appropriate dance vocabulary to describe dances. VAPA Dance, Grade 5 1.2 Name and use a wide variety of movements. CONCEPTS/VOCABULARY: Battement Tendu: A movement in which one leg is extended until the point of the stretched foot barely touches the ground. Choreographer: The person who creates or composes and arranges dances. Choreography: The creation and composition of dances by arranging or inventing steps, movements and patterns of movement linked together in a sequence. Demi-Plie: Half bend. A position in which the knees are half bent. Five Positions: The 5 basic steps used at the beginning and end of movements and in passing from one movement to another. Grand Jete: A big jump from one leg to the other, with legs outstretched in the air. Grand Plie: A position in which the legs are fully bent. Pirouette: To whirl about on one foot or on the points of toes. Pas De Deux: A dance for two. Releve: Raised. A movement in which the body is raised on pointes (points of toes) or demi-pointes. (Half raised on ball of foot) Saute: A jump. Venn Diagram: a diagram that shows the relationship between two groups of things by means of overlapping circles. GUIDING QUESTIONS: How does seeing the ballet steps and hearing the music from an actual scene of The Nutcracker help you to better understand how telling a story in ballet is similar and different from pantomime? Why is movement effective in telling a story?
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