DANCING CLASSROOMS LOS ANGELES
CURRICULUM INTEGRATION
An important element in our residencies is the integration of ballroom dance into the
curriculum. In our residencies, we encourage teaching artists to provide classroom
teachers with inspiration for making the integration happen. Curriculum pieces will be
featured in the culminating event. During a residency, reflections are assigned after
lesson #1 and within lessons 7-13.
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
1. Students will keep a Ballroom Dance Journal or class blog
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WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students'
awareness of the audience and purpose.
WS 1.2b: Students will provide details and transitional expressions that link one paragraph to
another in a clear line of thought.
2. Students will create a poem inspired by each dance learned.
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LRA 3.1: Students will identify and analyze the characteristics of poetry
3. Students will write a fairy tale inspired by one of the dances with vocabulary
learned.
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LRA 3.6: Evaluate the meaning of archetypal patterns and symbols that are found in myth and
tradition by using literature from different eras and cultures.
LRA 3.7: Evaluate the author's use of various techniques (e.g., appeal of characters in a picture
book, logic and credibility of plots and settings, use of figurative language) to influence readers'
perspectives.
WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students'
awareness of the audience and purpose.
4. Students will write a letter to your teaching artist about your ballroom dance
experience.
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WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students'
awareness of the audience and purpose. Essays contain formal introductions, supporting
evidence, and conclusions. Students progress through the stages of the writing process as
needed.
5. Students will write a reflection about teamwork, elegance and respect.
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WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students'
awareness of the audience and purpose.
WS 1.2b: Students will provide details and transitional expressions that link one paragraph to
another in a clear line of thought.
6. Students will write a reflection on the history and culture of one of the the
ballroom dances they learn.
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WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the students'
awareness of the audience and purpose.
WS 1.2b: Students will provide details and transitional expressions that link one paragraph to
another in a clear line of thought.
7. Student will compare and contrast the works by choreographers: Fred Astaire,
Frankie Manning, Jerome Robbins, Graciela Daniele.
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WA 2.3 a-c: Write research reports about important ideas, issues, or events by using the
following guidelines: Frame questions that direct the investigation. Establish a controlling idea or
topic. Develop the topic with simple facts, details, examples, and explanations.
MATHEMATICS & SCIENCE
1. Students will create a blueprint for the patters and shapes learned in dances.
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MG 2.0: Students identify, describe, and classify the properties of, and the relationships between,
plane and solid geometric figures
2. Students will create their own word problem riddles using ballroom dance and
vocabulary.
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MR 2.0: Students use strategies, skills, and concepts in finding solutions
MR 3.3: Develop generalizations of the results obtained and apply them in other circumstances.
3. Students will measure the dimensions of their dance area; the perimeter of the
dance circle; the angles in tango.
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MG 1.0: Students understand and compute the volumes and areas of simple objects.
 MG 2.1 Measure, identify, and draw angles, perpendicular and parallel lines, rectangles, and
triangles by using appropriate tools (e.g., straightedge, ruler, compass, protractor, drawing
software).
4. Students will create a brand new element for the periodic table that represents a
dance they learned.
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PS 1d: Students know that each element is made of one kind of atom and that the elements are
organized in the periodic table by their chemical properties.
VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS
1. Students will create artwork expressing the feelings or choreography of a dance
by using painting, clay, collage or sculpture.
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CE 2.0: Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate
meaning and intent in original works of art.
CE 2.2: Create gesture and contour observational drawings.
CE 2.3: Communication and Expression Through Original Works of Art. Students create
an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.
CE 2.5: Assemble a found object sculpture (as assemblage) or a mixed media twodimensional composition that reflects unity and harmony and communicates a theme.
CE 2.7: Communicate values, opinions, or personal insights through an original work of
art.
2. Students will create a visual portfolio scrapbook that includes artwork,
photographs, dance history details, impressions of the music, dance related
articles.
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CE 2.0: Students apply artistic processes and skills, using a variety of media to communicate
meaning and intent in original works of art.
3. Students will talk with your art teacher and explore the work of selected artists
whose artwork or photography represent the dance forms learned.
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HCC 3.0: Students analyze the role and development of the visual arts in past and present
cultures throughout the world, noting human diversity as it relates to the visual arts and artists.
4. Students will create a movement “palette” inspired by a painters palette.
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CE 2.3: Communication and Expression Through Original Works of Art. Students create
an expressive abstract composition based on real objects.
WELLNESS, CHARACTER, & TEAMWORK
1. Students will create a dance journal reflecting the effects of dancing on selfconfidence and teamwork.
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1.9.N: Explain how good health is influenced by healthy eating and being physically active.
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1.10.N: Describe how physical activity, rest, and sleep are related.
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1.11.N: Identify physical, academic, mental, and social benefits of regular physical activity.
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ELA WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the
students' awareness of the audience and purpose.
2. Students will keep a reflective journal on how their body feels after each dance.
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1.11.N: Identify physical, academic, mental, and social benefits of regular physical activity.
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ELA WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the
students' awareness of the audience and purpose.
3. Students will write a reflection connecting dance and nutrition.
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1.9.N
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1.10.N Describe how physical activity, rest, and sleep are related.
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1.11.N Identify physical, academic, mental, and social benefits of regular physical activity.
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ELA WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the
students' awareness of the audience and purpose.
Explain how good health is influenced by healthy eating and being physically active.
4. Students will conduct an experiment exploring how good nutrition on dance days
affect dance performance ability.
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1.9.N
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1.10.N Describe how physical activity, rest, and sleep are related.
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1.11.N Identify physical, academic, mental, and social benefits of regular physical activity.
Explain how good health is influenced by healthy eating and being physically active.
5. Students will work in teams to explore, compare and contrast the meaning of
teamwork in a favorite sport and ballroom dance.
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4.2.G
Use healthy and respectful ways to express friendship, attraction, and affection.
6. Students will reflect on the feelings you have after each dance and what you
have learned in class about dance and social skills.
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4.2.G
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ELA WS 1.0: Students write clear, coherent, and focused essays. The writing exhibits the
students' awareness of the audience and purpose.
Use healthy and respectful ways to express friendship, attraction, and affection.