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Case Studies and Review:

It's time to see what you remembered! Read the sample cases below and then try to answer the questions that follow. You can check your answers at the bottom of the screen!

Case Study #1

Julie is an emerging choreography who is starting her first rehearsal for her new piece. She knows that her choreography involves a lot of floor work so she decides to wear pants to rehearsal.  Not wanting to waste time, she begins rehearsal by showing her choreography and telling her dancers to "follow along." After letting her dancers imitate her for what she feels is a sufficient amount of time, she steps back and asks, "can I see what you have without me?" She watches her dancers go through the choreography she taught them and is suprised to see that the majority of the group is missing some details that are important from the phrasework.  Although they were very attentive while Julie was demonstrating, a few dancers are even struggling to remember the sequence of the movement.

Questions:

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  1. What strategies from the "Teach" portion of S.T.E.P. did Julie use during her rehearsal?

  2. Although her dancers were definitely paying attention to Julie as she was demonstrating, why do you think they struggled to remember details from her choreography?

  3. What else could Julie have done while she was teaching to help her dancers remember the choreography?

Case Study #2

Meridith is a choreographer who is about to begin her third rehearsal for a new dance. "Let's start by going over the choreography you've already learned in small groups." After watching each group show her the choreography, Meridith notices that some of her dancers are having trouble coordinating their arms and legs during a specific section. She decides to have the group practice this section by standing still and rehearsing the upper body movements only. When they seem to have mastered this movement she tells her dancers to try to put the upper body and the lower body together. Meridith is pleased to see that her dancers can now execute the choreography much more accurately than before. 

Questions:

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  1. ​What S.T.E.P. strategies did Meridith use at the beginning of her rehearsal?

  2. How did Meridith choose to "chunk" the material she was rehearsing? Could she have chunked it differently?

  3. Do you think Meridith's dancers are ready to learn more choreography after they've reviewed?

Case Study #3

Jordan is an emerging choreographer that is beginning to teach his dancers a new phrase. He begins by telling his dancers to pay attention to his arm positions specifically while he demonstrates. He then shows his choreography fully and verbally counts while he dances. Every once and a while he exchanges counting with using dance terms that match his movement, including saying "leap," as he leaps. Halfway through teaching his new choreography, however, Jordan becomes tired. Although he still counts and uses dance vocabluary while teaching, he stops fully demonstrating some of the larger movements. He then asks his dancers to show him the choreography in groups. While watching his dancers, Jordan notices that they are dancing the first half of the choreography much more accurately than the second half. Even though his dancers have accurate timing throughout the entire combination, the arm positions for the larger movements in the second half are not correct. 

Questions:

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  1. What S.T.E.P. strategy did Jordan use while he was teaching his dancers new choreography?

  2. Why do you think Jordan's dancers struggled to accurately dance the second half of the dance combination he taught them?

  3. What are some suggestions you would give Jordan to help him from losing stamina so quickly while teaching?

Answers:

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Case study #1

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  1. Julie models her dresscode and dresses appropriately for her dance style. She also tells her dancers to learn by imitating her movements. 

  2. They most likely struggled because Julie failed to cue her dancers' selective attention before showing them the choreography. They therefore did not know what details were important to look for and remember. 

  3. She could have implemented the dual coding theory by counting or using words as she demonstrated. This may have helped her dancers remember the sequence of the steps more easliy.

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Case study #2

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  1. Meridith uses maintenance rehearsal to begin. She also breaks her students into smaller groups, allowing them to watch and imitate their peers.  After, she uses chunking to help her dancers better understand the material.

  2. She chose to chunk  her choreography spatially (upper and lower body) to rehearse it. She could have decided to chronologically chunk her choreography into smaller sections and rehearse the material a small piece at a time. Categorically chunking the choreography would not have helped much in this situation because Meridith's dancers were having issues with coordination of body parts within one specific movement.  

  3. Yes, because Meridith's dancers reviewed and mastered the choreography taught them.

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Caste study #3

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  1. Jordan cued his dancers' selective attention and used the dual coding theory while teaching.

  2. The dancers most likely struggled with the second half of the choreography because Jordan stopped demonstrating his choreography clearly and accurately. It became difficult to see what Jordan's choreography was supposed to look like.

  3. Instead of trying to count constantly while teaching his choreography, Jordan could clap or snap to keep a meter. He could also try using music while he dances which would keep a steady meter for him.

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