LESSON PLAN FORMAT- DANCE CONTENT AREA

WINTHROP UNIVERSITY
Educator: Brittany M. Johnson
Date:
Target Age Group/ Grade: 8th
Length of Lesson: 45 minutes
Focus of Lesson: Todays lesson will focus on African dance, the origin of jazz dance. Students
will learn an African dance entitled Sowu originated from the Ewe tribe. Students will use our
Jazz Dance Development Timeline to develop a connection between African dance and modernday jazz dancing.
Materials: Stereo, music CD, and observation forms
Resources: National/ SC State Dance Standards
National/ State Curriculum Standards:
Standard 1: Technique
The student will identify and demonstrate movement elements and skills and apply them while
performing dance.
Indicator:
D8-1.2 Identify and demonstrate basic dance steps, positions, and patterns in four or more genres
or forms of dance.
D8-1.3 Form shapes and create designs with his or her body and in relation to others bodies,
using a variety of spatial directions, pathways, and levels.
D8-1.6 Demonstrate accurate memorization and replication of movement sequences.
Standard 5: History and Culture
The student will demonstrate an understanding of dance in various cultures and historical
periods.
Indicator:
D8-5.1 Perform four or more simple folk dances, social dances, classical dances, and/or
theatrical dances and identify and describe the similarities and differences among them.
Vocabulary:
Introduced Vocabulary
Polyrhythms- many rhythms being played simultaneously
African dance posture- stylized functional stance that is typically used in African dance; most
movements are performed from this position

Lesson Objective

Students will be able to.

1. Recall three elements essential to African dance
2. Perform the African dance, Sowu

Instructional
Procedures

Introductory/ Developmental Activity: 40 minutes

1. Introduction: Today we are going to talk about African
dance. African dance is seen as separate dance form that is
very different from other dance forms, but does anyone
remember which dance form started off being influenced by
African dance..Correct, jazz dance. Lets look at our
timeline. African dance first appeared in the Americas during
the 1500s during the era of slavery. Africans were bought to
the Americas and were enslaved so that the land could
prosper. When Africans came to America, they also bought
their cultural dances which we call African dance. We are
going to learn an African dance today called Sowu. We will
then come back to the timeline and write down the elements of
African dance that we learn from Sowu.
The lesson will begin with a movement activity to introduce three of
the African dance elements.
1. Posture: Students will participate in a movement activity to
learn the African dance posture which will later connect to a
second movement activity entitled Machine.
a. Pretend that you are stomping bugs.
b. Stomp the bugs in slow motion.
c. Now as youre stomping the bugs, the ceiling starts to
lower. How does this change your posture?
d. Now every time you lift your knee, I want you to
pretend that you are trying to squeeze a giant grapefruit
in between your knee and your chest. When you place
your knee back down, you release the grapefruit.
e. As youre stomping these bugs in slow motion and
squeezing these grapefruits in between your knees and
chest in a house with a very low ceiling, you lift your
chest towards the ceiling.
f. Now as youre doing this I want everyone to form a
large circle. Students perform movement traveling
clockwise and counterclockwise in the circle.
g. This is the African dance posture. Soft bent knees, flat
feet rooted in the Earth, heavy pelvis, and chest lifted.
Unlike European dance forms which emphasizes the
high-arched, pointed feet; African dance favors flat
feet to represent a connection to the Earth. Ballet was

created as a representation to become closer to the

Heavens. In the African culture we talk about being
rooted in the Earth and being strong. Its hard to be
knocked down in this position. Everyone stop for a
moment and tip toe in the circle, then go back to the
African posture. Which one feels heavier? Lighter?
Stronger? Delicate?
2. Polyrhythms/ Community: Students will continue to walk in
place while remaining in this posture arranged in a large
circle. One student will be asked to create their own rhythm or
a simple sound with their hands, feet, or mouth while
continuing to move in the African dance posture. The next
student in the circle will be asked to create another rhythm that
compliments the other students. The activity will continue to
proceed until we reach the end of the circle.
a. Students will brief discuss how they felt during the
activity. Students should feel that they each
contributed to making the final product. They should
feel a sense of community.
b. We will discuss community as one of the African
dance elements. The sense of community is very
important to the African culture. The structure of their
dances promote or represent community. I will ask
students how do they think community is represented
in African dance The circular structure is used to
represent this element. We will explore this more later.
c. What did you notice about the sounds we were creating
in the Machine activity?...There were many sounds
going on at the same time, but you could still pick out
each one. This is what we call polyrhythms in African
dance. Does anyone know what the stem word poly
means?....Many. Many rhythms are used
simultaneously in African dance, both in the music and
movements. What instrument is mostly used in African
dance?.....Good, drums.
3. Students will now learn and perform Sowu, a dance originated
from the Ewe tribe. This dance reemphasizes the three
elements we discussed, community, polyrhythms, and the
African posture, especially community. The dance will be
performed in a circle.
4. Students will perform the dance for one another in two groups,
so that everyone will have an equal opportunity to observe
how the elements are used. Students will document when they
see community, polyrhythms, and the posture being
emphasized in a post-discussion.

Concluding Activity: 5 minutes

1. Three students will have a chance to come to the Promethean
board and write in the three elements for African dance on the
Jazz Dance Development Timeline.

Assessment of Each
Objective

I will assess students by the concluding activity when completing the

Jazz Dance Development Timeline. I will also assess students by their
performance of Sowu.