Scottish Ballet is directing teachers to simply “pointe and click” for a new set of online education resources, built around Ashley Page’s trilogy of fairytale ballets, The Nutcracker, Cinderella and its Christmas production, Sleeping Beauty.
Featuring film footage, music clips and interviews with the dancers and creative teams, the resources also offer expressive arts workshops and teaching ideas.
They are targeted at P6-7 (or the second level of the expressive arts outcomes in A Curriculum for Excellence), but much of the information could be used by teachers of older students. Each online package embraces the principles behind ACfE.
There is a particular focus on the following outcomes:
- Work on your own or with others to develop movements;
- Generate ideas to create and present dance;
- Learn parts from the ballet and develop them through choreographic tasks that increase in complexity;
- Evaluate your own and others’ work;
- Begin to appreciate and comment on the aesthetics of the ballet;
- Encourage exploration of “the layers” of the ballet to discover the themes;
- Appreciate the musical score; be able to identify the instruments and the characters they correspond to;
- Be able to articulate how the music sets a scene for the ballet and the characters;
- Create a voice sound score and be able to recognise and vary pitch, rhythm and speed.
Further resources are being developed in the coming year to offer S1-6 curricular support in dance, PE, art and design, music and English.
www.scottishballet.co.uknewscurrent-newseducation-resources.htm.
