Students should be challenged to develop their research and critical thinking skills on an ongoing basis. Students may demonstrate their understanding of the results of their research through such means as individual or group reports or presentations, dance presentations, verbal presentations, video, displays, other arts expressions, essays or expressive writing. When researching, students should maintain an awareness of potential bias or manipulation of the facts in the research material they are using. They should be encouraged to present a balanced, imaginative and insightful presentation of their findings and conclusions. Encourage students to use notation, both invented and traditional, when recording movements and dances.
Notation is a method for recording movements and dances.
As more people become literate in dance, more dances from the past are being reconstructed. Audiences are now able to see dances that were once only read about in books and magazines. Today, many major dance companies include dance notators on staff to help reconstruct dances and notate newly choreographed dances in order to save them for the future. At the Middle Level, students should be encouraged to become literate in dance by including notation, either invented or traditional, whenever they are recording movements or dance compositions. In addition to helping students remember their dance compositions, notation will clarify students' understanding of movements, as notation requires students to analyse movements before they are recorded.