Welcome to the dance department.

Dance is taught by Mrs Robbins (Head of Expressive Arts) and Mrs Barr (Head of Drama).  We pride ourselves on giving all students access to a broad Dance curriculum.  We have two studios within the school where students are able to perform and choreograph work.  The Dance kit is a black Chafford polo shirt with black tracksuit bottoms.

At KS3 all students are taught Dance.  Students study appreciation of professional works as well as how to choreograph and perform to a high standard.  Students will learn about rock and roll, African dance as well as pop videos and contemporary dance.  Students are encouraged to find their own music to choreograph to in order to put their own stamp on their final pieces.  Students are assessed every six weeks and given a level.  This helps a student to understand where they are and where they are going in the next term.

At KS4 students are able to study Dance at GCSE.  We follow the AQA GCSE specification which allows students of all abilities to achieve in Dance.  Students build on their learning at KS3 and will study a wide range of styles of Dance and also the set works of the GCSE.  Students are able to create work from their own ideas and develop these for their final coursework.  The new specification from AQA is now being taught, with the following assessment tasks:

• Set dance 20%
• Written paper 20%
• Performance in duo/group 20%
• Choreography 40%

Gifted and Talented pupils are encouraged to participate in extra curricular activities and older students are advised to attend the Sadlers Wells trip on careers in the theatre.

The department run many extracurricular activities such as Dance club for each key stage and specialised clubs for Gifted and Talented pupils.  Students are able to perform in school productions, of which there are five throughout the school year.  Dance is part of the Expressive Arts department which consists of Art, Dance, Drama, Media and Music and all school productions are worked on by all areas to produce the best possible shows.

The department follows the school policy that if students fail to bring kit to a lesson they will receive a one hour detention. Homework is set when it is needed, often for pupils to rehearse assessment pieces or to find music to choreograph to.

 www.aqa.org.uk is the GCSE board for Dance