Test Guide

Creating

1.1 Movement for Artistic Expression

1. The artistic criteria for a phrase of dance include starting in an open shape and ending in a closed shape. To effectively meet the criterion of being open and then closed, a dancer would primarily manipulate which of the following elements?

1. the range of body actions
2. levels of movement
3. dynamics of energy
4. the use of body supports

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: A. In movement that uses an open shape, a dancer is likely to extend body parts in a wide range to present an expansive feeling, straightening the torso and legs and opening the arms. For movement in a closed shape, a dancer is most likely to bring body parts close together in a smaller range to present a closed-in appearance. To create open and closed shapes, the dancer would explore and manipulate large and smaller ranges of movement for the body parts involved.

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1.1 Movement for Artistic Expression

2. Dancers exploring techniques for artistic expression in performing the waltz, hustle, or rumba in a ballroom-dance setting could most effectively begin the process by considering the:

1. strengths and limitations of their own and their partner's technical abilities and dance experience.
2. points of movement initiation involved in creating various qualities of body shaping and energy.
3. cultural perspectives and artistic experiences of members of the intended audience.
4. movement vocabularies and stylistic qualities appropriate to the specific style of dance.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: D. Ballroom dancers develop personal styles of movement and performance but do so within the context of the specific stylistic qualities of movement and expression that characterize the form of dance they are performing. With different cultural origins and histories of development, each form of ballroom dance uses specific steps, patterns, and qualities of movement that reflect the cultural origins, attitudes, and purposes for which it developed, such as exaggerated, swung hip actions in rumba and smooth, floating travelling movement in waltz.

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1.2 Dance Elements, Structures, and Choreography

3. In collaborating with a group of modern dancers to develop a new work, a professional choreographer uses guided improvisation. As the dancers respond to a suggested stimulus or cue, differences among dancers' movements in the shape, space, energy, and timing used most likely reflect the:

1. dancers' varied levels of technical skill development.
2. personal voices of the individual dancers.
3. strength and flexibility inherent in each dancer's body.
4. methods used in the dancers' stylistic training.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: B. Every dancer brings a unique background of knowledge and dance experience to performance, which, along with personal perspectives, contributes to each dancer's development of a personal movement voice. In responding to an idea or imagery presented as a cue for improvising movement, each dancer will create movement influenced by that personal voice and personal understanding of the cue. Such an activity can generate a range of expressive vocabulary to reflect the ideas and emotions suggested by the improvisation prompt.

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1.3 Feedback, Revision, and Documentation

4. Use the excerpt below from an artistic statement to answer the question that follows.

I look for the humor in life. With the many challenges that life presents to us, I think it is important to remember that we can laugh, that we can find joy in little things. As a ballet choreographer, I am inspired by human experience, the emotions that make us human, and the ways we interact with each other and the world around us. In my work, my instincts are to explore the comedic side of human nature through the gestures, patterns, and qualities of human movement.

Which of the following choreographic strategies is most likely to contribute to achieving the comedic effect described by the choreographer in the artistic statement?

1. developing repetitive unison movements that reinforce planned themes
2. creating phrases that use exaggerated movements
3. using strong and forceful movement that clearly connects with accompaniment
4. abstracting movement to a minimalist suggestion of intent

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: B. Exaggerating movement tends to emphasize the qualities or emotions it suggests. An exaggerated movement can appear surprising, absurd, or overdramatic. Performed in the context of setting, lighting, and costuming that support the intention of creating humor, choreography that uses exaggerated movements can effectively draw attention to the humorous intent of the performance by emphasizing expressive qualities of shape, energy, and timing.

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Performing

2.1 Movement in Space and Time

5. Which of the following actions best illustrates the use of proximal initiation of a movement?

1. A ballet dancer rotates and the dancer's arm extends from the torso.
2. A modern dancer creates hand circles that travel up the arm to include the shoulder.
3. A hip-hop popping action is created by lifting and freezing an elbow joint.
4. A dancer begins a waltz by turning the head in the direction of intended movement.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: A. The terms proximal and distal refer to the relationship of a body part to the body's core, with proximal indicating the point of attachment closer to the core and distal farther from the core. The initiation of movement is described as proximal or distal, depending on whether the energy for movement flows from the core and radiates outwards or begins or occurs in isolation at an extremity of a body part. A torso rotation that extends into the opening of an arm is using a proximal initiation of energy to open the arm.

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2.2 Mind-Body Connection

6. A dancer practicing jumps begins by slowly executing pliés into relevés. This activity is most likely to help the dancer develop which of the following technical skills important to jumping?

1. the ballistic attack and follow-through into flight
2. leg shape, initiation of power, and ballon
3. alignment, foot articulation, and eccentric use of leg muscles
4. use of the ball of the foot to push the floor away to sustain power

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: C. To perform a relevé, a dancer begins in a demi-plié, rises to demi-pointe or en pointe, which requires strength and articulation of joints in the feet. Most important to correct execution is the vertical alignment of body parts to ensure the ability to move with minimal effort and retain balance through the movement. As the dancer pushes against the floor to rise upward with concentric contraction of foot and quadriceps muscles, the hamstrings lengthen in eccentric contraction.

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2.3 Performance Designs, Etiquette, and Practices

7. Use the photograph¹ below to answer the question that follows.

In a photograph showing a moment in a dance performance, the stage is covered with a layer of fine white powder. A female dancer wearing a white leotard has just dropped forward to balance on her hands. Her torso is arched so her hips are nearly over her head. Her legs form a split in the air with her left leg extended horizontally behind her and her right leg bent in an arched shape over her head. Her head is lifted and her focus is forward. A spray of powder arches up over her body mirroring the shape created by her legs, apparently lifted off the stage surface by her feet and dispersed by the trajectory of her movement into the pose.

Based on the image shown, the choreographer of this dance work most likely chose to spread the stage with a light powder for which of the following purposes?

1. to enhance the shapes and energies of the dancer's movements
2. to provide an element of unity in combination with the dancer's costume
3. to enable the dancer to create sliding actions across the floor
4. to abstract the lines of the dancer's body away from human form

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: A. In the performance from which this picture is taken, the powder spread on the floor functions as a stage property. As the dancer contacts and moves off the floor, her movement picks up powder and disperses it in shapes that complement and extend the form and shape of her movement. In this way, the choreographer uses the powder to enhance the dancer's movements.

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Responding

3.1 Analyzing, Interpreting, and Evaluating Dance Works

8. A dance work that features six dancers begins with a section of unison movement. In the second section, three dancers continue moving in the original pattern of unison movement, while the other three, in unison, perform a second and contrasting pattern of movement. In the third section, all six dancers transition to execution of the second movement pattern. The variation in the use of unison movement during the second section was most likely planned to:

1. focus attention on the introduction of a new motif.
2. suggest a sense of confusion or uncertainty.
3. provide an impression of continuity and stability.
4. establish fluid transitions between the sections.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: A. As the six dancers move in unison, they clarify the initial movement pattern, suggesting its significance as a motif in the dance. The introduction of contrasting movements by half the dancers in the second section draws attention to the new pattern, or motif, suggesting a change is occurring. This provides a transition and link to the third section when the second pattern is performed in unison by all six dancers as a second motif in the choreography.

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Connecting

4.1 Cultural Contexts and Personal Perspectives

9. As a pioneer of modern dance, Ruth St. Denis was most influenced by which of the following dance traditions?

1. polyrhythms of West African traditional community dances
2. group movement patterns of folk dances of the Caribbean region
3. the naturalistic expressive style of Soviet-era Russian ballet
4. thematic movement ideas of traditional East and South Asian dances

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: D. As a young artist, Ruth St. Denis became interested in cultures and expressive qualities of traditional dances of Eastern and South Asia as well as Egypt. She designed and performed dances that featured Asian-influenced movement styles, costuming, and storylines. Her work stimulated new ideas for creative experimentation and expression in early modern dance.

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Multiple-Domain Passages

Watch the video² below to answer the three questions that follow. The video shows a segment of a young man dancing outside. To play this video, click the Play icon (). You may also use the Pause (), Stop (), and Replay () features. You may watch the video as many times as you wish.

This video shows ten seconds of dance movement. Performing outside on a paved space, a teenage boy, wearing street clothes, performs a series of six turns using his hands as the base of support. From a wide stance, he places one hand on the ground and, with legs open and extended slightly bent, rotates around his axis, changing the hand underneath him as he turns and balancing over the supporting hand. He repeats this action eight times, pressing a foot to the ground between each to initiate the next rotation. Each turn is a single rotation, except the third and fifth turns in which he rotates twice. All are performed with relatively even timing except the fifth turn, during which he accelerates his rotation, bending his legs closer to his body, as he turns.

2.1 Movement in Space and Time

10. Which of the following sets of terms would be most useful for describing the dance movement shown in the video?

1. growing, focused, punching
2. asymmetrical, balanced, rotating
3. stretching, diagonal, pressing
4. symmetrical, supported, rising

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: B. Throughout this segment of movement, the dancer's body is rotating around his axis in a series of turns. The frequent use of one hand or, at times, a press into one foot as the base of support creates movement in asymmetrical shapes. During the rotations, the dancer balances his body over the single base of support.

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3.1 Analyzing, Interpreting, and Evaluating Dance Works

11. The movement executed at the moment 00:08, according to the time stamp on the video, is likely to attract a viewer's attention primarily because the movement:

1. uses a change in body shape.
2. involves a higher-level action.
3. changes the base of support.
4. increases the tempo of rotation.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: D. The dancer creates a series of six turns that involve one or two rotations as he moves from a balance on one hand to the other at a relatively even tempo. At the end of each turn, he presses a foot to the ground to initiate the next rotation. As he executes the fifth turn in this video segment, he increases his tempo of rotation and performs a double spin at a faster tempo. The increased tempo draws attention to that moment.

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4.1 Cultural Contexts and Personal Perspectives

12. This video best illustrates elements of which of the following styles of hip-hop dance?

1. locking
2. tutting
3. breaking
4. popping

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: C. Breakdancing, also known as b-boying/b-girling is characterized by primarily four types of movements: toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. Power moves are acrobatic, using momentum, speed, strength, and flexibility. In a power move, the dance is generally supported on the hands or head and creates circular momentum, spinning the upside-down body over that base of support.

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Use the photograph³ below to answer the two questions that follow.

Two dancers perform outdoors on a block-paved surface in front of an elaborate door and wall of a stucco building. Both dancers are in a wide stance, weight evenly distributed with the right toe lifted as though stepping onto that foot. Both have the left arm lifted, bent at a 45-degree angle with open hand, and both are smiling. The dancers wear sleeveless tops and shorts, the dancer on the left in a textured fabric of yellow and gold, the dancer on the right in fabric with stripes of multiple bright colors and the image of a half sun on the top. Both dancers carry small multi-colored umbrellas in front of their torsos that replicate the bright primary colors in their clothes.

The photograph shows dancers during a performance of frevo, a traditional Carnival dance of northern Brazil.

3.1 Analyzing, Interpreting, and Evaluating Dance Works

13. The colors and styles of the dancers' umbrella props and costumes suggest that artistic expression in this dance form most likely includes:

1. conveying feelings of joy and cheerfulness.
2. enacting narratives of local legends and stories.
3. celebrating the multicultural qualities of Brazilian society.
4. re-creating traditional dances performed to encourage rain.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: A. The bright primary colors of the umbrellas and costumes, including the use of a yellow sun in the design of one costume, are cheerful and contribute a sense of happiness and joy to the dancers' appearance. The toy-sized umbrellas enhance that feeling with a sense of playfulness.

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4.1 Cultural Contexts and Personal Perspectives

14. In studying a performance of frevo, a dancer could best understand the function and importance of the umbrellas that are used as props by:

1. analyzing videos of frevo performances during Carnival parades.
2. researching the origins and historical development of the dance form.
3. exploring the use of an umbrella while improvising movement to frevo music.
4. evaluating the expressive intentions served by umbrella props in other dances.

AnswerEnter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded

Correct Response: B. Miniature umbrellas are an essential element in the contemporary performance of frevo, a traditional Carnival dance in Brazil. The dance originated in competitions between military bands that paraded during Carnival and were preceded by capoeira dancers who cleared the way for the bands to march as they competed. Today, the umbrellas function as substitutes for knives that were carried by the early dancers. As with any dance, knowing its origins and development can provide insight into the functions of its elements.

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