Notes · DanceUK · A-Levels

Course overview, genres and terminology

This foundational topic maps the whole A-level: the practical non-exam assessment (Component 1: Performance and choreography) and the written examination (Component 2: Critical engagement), and how the marks divide evenly between them. It introduces the three genres from which the course is built - modern (contemporary), ballet and jazz - the four assessment objectives that run across the components, and the shared analytical language of dance (the movement components, the choreographic devices and structures, and the constituent features of a work) onto which every later topic is built.

5 sections~22 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

T·0111 / 15

Exam profile

AO3 · Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of dance and its contexts, using appropriate subject terminologyAO4 · Understand how the components, genres and assessment objectives fit together across the A-level

Operators:identifydescribeexplainoutlinedistinguish

basic level

AS-Level Dance (7236) covers a written paper and practical performance and choreography; it expects a clear grasp of the components, the genres and what each assessment asks for.

higher level

The full A-level (7237) demands secure command of both components, the four assessment objectives, the three genres and the shared vocabulary of dance, and the ability to move fluently between performing, choreographing and analysing.

Depth

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Contents · 5 sections

Course overview, genres and terminology

What A-level Dance is#

FoundationAQA 7237 (subject overview)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

The two components of the A-level

Fig. 1The A-level is one practical non-exam assessment and one written exam, weighted equally - half performing and choreographing, half critical engagement.

A-level Dance is the study of dance as a living, practical and expressive art - an art that exists fully only in performance, made with the body and communicated to an audience. Unlike a subject studied only on the page, dance asks you to think and work in three connected ways: as a performer who realises movement with skill and expression, as a choreographer who creates and structures original movement to communicate an idea, and as an informed critic who can analyse, interpret and evaluate the dances of others. This triple character - performing, creating and appreciating - runs through the whole course and shapes everything the qualification assesses.

The A-level is delivered here through the AQA Dance specification (code 7237), and AQA is the sole awarding body that offers A-level Dance in England. It is built against the Ofqual subject-level requirements for GCE Dance. It is a linear qualification - all the assessment counts at the end of the two-year course - and it is graded A* to E. It is made of just two components that between them carry the whole subject: a practical non-exam assessment (Component 1: Performance and choreography) and a written examination (Component 2: Critical engagement). Crucially, the two are weighted equally, so exactly half the qualification is your practical dancing and choreographing and half is your written analysis and critical appreciation.

The single most important idea to fix at the outset is that dance is studied through a shared language that connects performing, choreographing and analysing. That language has three linked parts: the movement components (action, space, dynamics and relationships) that describe the content of any movement; the choreographic devices and structures (motif, repetition, contrast, canon, binary, rondo, narrative and so on) that shape movement into a dance; and the constituent features of a professional work (movement, dancers, aural setting, physical setting and structure) through which any dance can be read. Learn this vocabulary early and everything else in the course becomes easier to describe, create and judge.

Because these notes cannot put you in a studio or play a performance, they concentrate on the knowledge, vocabulary and method the components reward: how the body works and moves safely, how physical, technical and expressive skills communicate meaning, how a dance is created and structured from an idea, and how to analyse and evaluate professional works - the compulsory set work Rooster, the compulsory Area of Study Rambert Dance Company, and your chosen optional area of study. The practical skills of dancing and choreographing are developed in your studio work; what follows here is the thinking that underpins and is assessed alongside that practical work. The remaining sections of this topic introduce the two components, the three genres and the four assessment objectives.

Worked example

Placing a task in the right component

You are asked to create an original dance for five performers with its own music and write a note explaining its intention. Which component is this, and which assessment objective does it mainly reward?

Identify the activity
Creating an original group dance with its own aural setting is the group-choreography task of Component 1, Performance and choreography - the practical, created half of the A-level.
Identify the objective
Creating and structuring original movement to communicate an idea is assessed by AO2 (choreograph dance, applying processes and structuring devices to communicate choreographic intent).
Rule out the alternatives
It is not Component 2 (written analysis of set works), and it is not primarily AO1 (performing) or AO3/AO4 (written knowledge and analysis), though the programme note draws lightly on your ability to explain intent.
State the outcome
So the task belongs to Component 1 and is assessed chiefly under AO2 - showing why knowing the component and objective structure lets you understand what any activity is being marked for.

Result: The task is correctly placed as a Component 1 group choreography assessed under AO2, demonstrating how the two-component, four-objective map lets you classify any dance activity.

Typical mistakes

Treating dance as only a practical subject and neglecting the written half, which is worth exactly the same 50%.
Thinking the vocabulary of dance is optional decoration rather than the shared language that every mark - practical and written - depends on.

Active revision

Without looking, write out the two components of the A-level, what each involves and its weighting; then list the three parts of dance's shared language (movement components, choreographic devices/structures, constituent features).

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Component 1: Performance and choreography#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 1 (Performance and choreography)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

The three tasks of Component 1

Fig. 2Component 1 has three practical tasks: two performing tasks (solo and quartet, AO1) and one choreographing task (group dance with its aural setting, AO2).

Component 1, Performance and choreography, is the practical non-exam assessment and carries 50% of the A-level. It is marked by a visiting AQA examiner against published criteria, and it is where your practical dancing and choreographing earn their marks. It is made of three linked tasks, each of which asks something distinct of you: a solo performance in the style of a specified practitioner, a performance within a quartet, and an original group choreography with its own aural setting. Together these tasks assess you both as a performer (AO1) and as a choreographer (AO2), and each is supported by an accompanying programme note that explains your intention and approach.

The first two tasks assess you as a PERFORMER (AO1: perform dance demonstrating technical, physical, expressive and mental skills). In the solo you learn or set a short solo in the style of a practitioner specified by AQA within an area of study, capturing that practitioner's movement style, technique and choreographic approach; the challenge is to reproduce a particular way of moving convincingly, not just to dance well in general. In the quartet you perform in a group of four, where the demands widen to include spatial awareness (formations, pathways, levels) and sensitivity to the other three dancers (timing, unison, contact and communication) on top of your individual skill.

The third task assesses you as a CHOREOGRAPHER (AO2: choreograph dance, applying choreographic processes and structuring devices to communicate choreographic intent). You create an original group dance from a stimulus, structure it using choreographic devices and a chosen form, and set it to an aural setting - the music, sound or silence that accompanies it. Here the marks reward your control of the craft of making a dance: generating and developing movement material, using the group, giving the dance a clear structure, and matching movement to accompaniment so that a defined choreographic intent is communicated to an audience.

Across all three tasks the accompanying programme note is important: a short written statement of the dance's intention, style and your approach that helps the examiner read your practical work as you meant it. Because Component 1 is practical and continuously assessed rather than sat as a timed paper, your marks are built over the course through rehearsal, refinement and realisation. Later topics develop each task in detail - safe practice and the performance-skills framework for the performing tasks, and the choreographic processes and devices for the choreography task; this section fixes the shape and demands of the practical component as a whole.

Worked example

Reading which objective a task rewards

A candidate says: 'For my practical work I danced with three others, keeping in time and making clear formations.' Which task and objective is this, and what must the candidate show?

Identify the task
Dancing with three others (a group of four) is the quartet performance task of Component 1.
Identify the objective
Performing within a group is assessed by AO1 - technical, physical, expressive and mental skills - so the marks are for the quality of the dancing itself.
Add the ensemble demand
The quartet additionally requires spatial awareness (formations, pathways, levels) and sensitivity to others (timing, unison, contact), which the candidate names as keeping in time and making clear formations.
State what must be shown
So the candidate must show accurate, controlled, expressive dancing AND precise ensemble awareness with the other three - both the individual and the group dimension of AO1.

Result: The description is the quartet task under AO1, and a strong response must combine individual performance skill with precise spatial and interpersonal awareness - the defining demand of ensemble performance.

Typical mistakes

Confusing the three tasks - for example thinking the solo is choreographed by the student (it is performed in a specified practitioner's style) or that the group dance is only performed (it is choreographed by the student).
Neglecting the programme note, which frames how the examiner interprets the practical work.

Active revision

List the three tasks of Component 1 and, for each, write one sentence stating what it asks you to do and whether it assesses performing (AO1) or choreographing (AO2).

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

Component 2: Critical engagement#

StandardAQA 7237 Component 2 (Critical engagement)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

The structure of Component 2

Fig. 3The written paper has two sections: Section A on the compulsory set work and area of study, and Section B on one chosen optional area of study.

Component 2, Critical engagement, is the written examination and carries the other 50% of the A-level. It is a single terminal paper of 2 hours 30 minutes that tests your knowledge, understanding and critical appreciation of prescribed dance works and their contexts. Its most distinctive feature is that the examined material is NAMED in the specification and does not rotate - so you can and should learn the set work and areas of study accurately, by name, in advance. The paper assesses your ability to analyse, interpret and evaluate dance in writing, using appropriate terminology, rather than to dance or choreograph.

The paper is built on prescribed material in two parts. Section A covers the COMPULSORY set work Rooster (Christopher Bruce, 1991) and the COMPULSORY Area of Study, Rambert Dance Company 1966-2002; it uses short-answer questions and an extended essay to test your knowledge of the set work's character, subject, form, constituent features, choreographic approach and context, and of Rambert's development and named practitioners. Section B covers ONE optional Area of Study, chosen from four - the Romantic ballet period, the origins of American modern dance, American jazz dance, or independent contemporary dance in Britain - and asks two extended essays on the practitioners, works, style and context of that area.

The command the paper makes on you is to analyse and evaluate, not merely to describe. Two assessment objectives are tested: AO3 (demonstrate knowledge and understanding of dance and its contexts, using appropriate terminology) and AO4 (analyse, interpret, evaluate and critically appreciate dance, making links between the constituent features of dances and the contexts within which they are created and performed). The best answers use precise dance terminology, refer to specific moments and features of the works, and connect what happens on stage to the context that shaped it - the mark of AO4 is the link between feature and meaning, not the retelling of the action.

Because the material is prescribed, your revision is deep and specific: you learn Rooster, Rambert and your optional area of study thoroughly - their works, practitioners, styles, constituent features and contexts - so that in the exam you can select relevant detail to answer any question precisely. Later topics build this knowledge work by work; this section fixes the shape and demands of the written paper. Note the honesty of the subject here: because the examined works are named in the specification, these notes teach them accurately, but always through the analytical framework (character, subject, form, constituent features, approach, context) rather than through invented specifics.

Worked example

Turning description into analysis

A student writes: 'In Rooster the men strut across the stage with their chests out.' Why does this score poorly for AO4, and how should it be developed?

Identify the objective
The written paper rewards AO4 - analysis, interpretation and evaluation - so a plain description of the action cannot reach the higher marks.
Diagnose the answer
The sentence only describes the movement (strutting, chest out); it does not interpret what the movement communicates or link it to context.
Add interpretation
Explain the meaning: the strutting, chest-forward walk evokes a cockerel and the swaggering male display of 1960s courtship, communicating the work's playful theme of relationships between men and women.
Add a feature-to-context link
Connect feature to context: the gesture draws on the social attitudes and popular culture of the decade the music evokes, showing how Bruce uses movement and its accompaniment to place the audience in the 1960s.

Result: Reading the AO4 demand turns a descriptive sentence into an analytical, interpretive one that links a movement feature to its meaning and context - the move that lifts written-exam marks.

Typical mistakes

Describing the action of a work instead of analysing and evaluating its features and their effect (losing AO4 marks).
Assuming the examined works change each year - they are named and fixed in the specification, so they can and should be learned in advance.

Active revision

For each section of Component 2, write one sentence stating what it covers and which assessment objectives (AO3 and AO4) it rewards; then note the difference between describing and analysing a dance.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

The three genres of dance#

StandardAQA 7237 (genres and styles)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

Ballet, modern and jazz - defining features

Fig. 4The three genres each have their own technique and aesthetic, but much of the course's most important work sits at their overlaps (fusion).

The course is built across three broad genres of theatre dance - modern (contemporary), ballet and jazz - and it is worth fixing clearly what distinguishes each, because the set work and areas of study fall within them. A GENRE is a large family of dance defined by its history, technique and aesthetic; within each genre are many STYLES (the particular manner of a period, a school or a choreographer). Recognising the genre of a work is the first step in analysing it, because genre tells you what technique, vocabulary and conventions to expect.

BALLET is the classical European tradition, with a codified technique built on turnout, pointe work (for women), the five positions, elevation and line, and an aesthetic of grace, verticality and lightness. Within it, the Romantic ballet of the 1830s-40s (Giselle, La Sylphide) prized the ethereal and the supernatural; later classical and contemporary ballet developed the vocabulary further. MODERN or CONTEMPORARY dance grew in the early twentieth century as a deliberate reaction against ballet's constraints, seeking a freer, more expressive and grounded movement: it uses the floor, the breath, contraction and release (Graham), fall and recovery (Humphrey) and weight, and it often carries psychological or thematic content. JAZZ dance grew from African-American vernacular and social dance and became a theatrical form marked by isolations, syncopation, rhythmic drive and a relationship to jazz and popular music.

The three genres are not sealed off from one another; much of the most important twentieth-century dance sits at their meeting points, and A-level Dance deliberately studies that crossover. Christopher Bruce's Rooster fuses ballet and contemporary technique with the gestures of 1960s social dance; the Rambert Dance Company built its identity by bringing American modern dance into a former ballet company; and independent British choreographers such as Akram Khan fuse contemporary dance with classical Indian kathak. Knowing the genres lets you name what a choreographer is drawing on and blending.

For the exam you should be able to identify a work's genre and style from its movement vocabulary, technique and aesthetic, and to describe the defining features of each genre in precise terms. For your own practical work the genres matter too: the specified practitioner for your solo will sit within a genre and style you must capture, and your own choreography will draw on the movement languages you have trained in. Genre is therefore both an analytical tool (for Component 2) and a practical resource (for Component 1).

Worked example

Identifying genre from movement vocabulary

A dance uses turned-out legs, pointe work, high elevation and an ethereal, vertical line, with women in long white skirts as spirits. Which genre and style is it, and how do you know?

Read the technique
Turnout, pointe work and elevation are the codified technique of ballet, not modern or jazz - the vocabulary is the primary clue to genre.
Read the aesthetic
Verticality, lightness and an ethereal quality point to the classical-Romantic aesthetic rather than the grounded, weighted quality of modern dance.
Read the subject and costume
Female spirits in long white skirts (a ballet blanc) are a hallmark of the Romantic ballet period of the 1830s-40s.
Name genre and style
So the work is ballet, in the Romantic style - exactly the tradition of Giselle, one of the optional areas of study.

Result: By reading technique, aesthetic and subject together, the work is identified as Romantic-period ballet - showing how genre and style are diagnosed from a work's movement vocabulary and conventions.

Typical mistakes

Using 'ballet', 'modern' and 'jazz' loosely as synonyms for 'old', 'serious' and 'showy' rather than as technically defined traditions.
Failing to notice genre fusion - describing a fused work as if it belonged wholly to one genre.

Active revision

Make a three-column table of ballet, modern/contemporary and jazz; for each, note two defining technical features and one work or practitioner from the course that belongs to (or draws on) that genre.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

The language of dance and the assessment objectives#

AdvancedAQA 7237 (assessment objectives; subject terminology)Ofqual GCE Dance subject content

The four assessment objectives

Fig. 5AO1 performing and AO2 choreographing sit in the practical component; AO3 knowing and AO4 analysing sit in the written component.

Four assessment objectives (AOs) define what the A-level rewards, and every mark you earn is awarded against one of them, so it pays to know them well. AO1 is to perform dance demonstrating technical, physical, expressive and mental skills. AO2 is to choreograph dance, demonstrating the application of choreographic processes and structuring devices to communicate choreographic intent. AO3 is to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of dance and its contexts, using appropriate terminology. AO4 is to analyse, interpret, evaluate and critically appreciate dance, making links between the constituent features of dances and the contexts within which they are created and performed. In brief: AO1 is performing, AO2 is choreographing, AO3 is knowing and understanding, and AO4 is analysing and evaluating.

The objectives divide cleanly between the two components. The practical component (Component 1) carries AO1 and AO2 - performing in the solo and quartet, and choreographing the group dance. The written component (Component 2) carries AO3 and AO4 - your knowledge of the set work and areas of study, and your analysis, interpretation and evaluation of them. Knowing which AO a task assesses tells you what a strong response must actually do: an AO4 task demands analysis and judgement, not description; an AO2 task demands controlled, communicative choreography, not just interesting movement; an AO1 task demands skilled, expressive performance.

Underpinning the objectives is the shared LANGUAGE of dance - the terminology AO3 explicitly rewards and that AO4 depends on. This language has three connected layers. The movement components describe the content of any movement: ACTION (what the body does - travel, turn, jump, gesture, stillness, transference of weight), SPACE (where it moves - levels, directions, pathways, size, formations), DYNAMICS (how it moves - the quality, speed, force and flow of the movement) and RELATIONSHIPS (how dancers connect - unison, canon, contact, lead and follow). The choreographic devices and structures shape movement into a dance (motif, development, repetition, contrast, canon, binary, rondo, narrative). And the constituent features let you read a whole professional work (movement, dancers, aural setting, physical setting, structure).

Succeeding across the A-level therefore means developing four connected capacities and using one precise vocabulary throughout. You need the practical skill to perform convincingly (AO1) and to choreograph with control and intent (AO2), the informed knowledge of dance's works, practitioners and contexts (AO3), and the critical intelligence to analyse and evaluate dance with precision and judgement (AO4) - and in every one of these you use the same shared language. The rest of these notes builds this knowledge, these skills and this vocabulary topic by topic; keeping the four objectives and the shared language in mind ensures that what you learn is always pointed at what the qualification actually assesses.

Worked example

Diagnosing a task through its assessment objective

An essay question asks: 'Evaluate how effectively the choreographer of your chosen area of study used the aural setting to communicate meaning.' What must a strong answer do, and what would lose marks?

Identify the objective
The command word 'evaluate' and the phrase 'how effectively' fix this as an AO4 task - analysis, interpretation and evaluation - supported by AO3 knowledge.
Select the relevant feature
The question is about one constituent feature, the aural setting, so the answer must focus on the music/sound and its relationship to the movement, not retell the whole work.
Analyse and link to context
Analyse specific moments where the accompaniment shapes meaning (tempo, rhythm, mood, with or against the movement) and link them to the work's intent and context.
Reach a judgement
Because it says 'evaluate... how effectively', the answer must judge - argue how successfully the aural setting communicated meaning, with reasons - not simply describe the music.

Result: Reading the AO4 command shapes the whole answer: focus on one feature (the aural setting), analyse specific moments, link to context, and reach an evidenced judgement of effectiveness - description alone would lose the AO4 marks.

Typical mistakes

Writing about dance in everyday words ('nice moves', 'good bit') instead of the precise terminology AO3 rewards and AO4 needs.
Not matching effort to the objective - describing where AO4 wants analysis and evaluation, or producing striking movement with no clear intent where AO2 wants communicated intent.

Active revision

Write the four assessment objectives from memory in your own words and label each component with the AOs it assesses; then define the four movement components (action, space, dynamics, relationships) in one line each.

Active recall

Recall the key points — then reveal.

Sources: AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification (AQA)

References & sources

Sources

AQA

AQA AS and A-level Dance (7236 / 7237) specification

Course overview, genres and terminology

5 sections~22 min reading time2 competenciesLevel Foundation 1 · Standard 3 · Advanced 1

Course overview, genres and terminology

Key points

Placing a task in the right component

Key points

Reading which objective a task rewards

Key points

Turning description into analysis

Key points

Identifying genre from movement vocabulary

Key points

Diagnosing a task through its assessment objective

Sources

Course overview, genres and terminology

Key points

Placing a task in the right component

Key points

Reading which objective a task rewards

Key points

Turning description into analysis

Key points

Identifying genre from movement vocabulary

Key points

Diagnosing a task through its assessment objective

Sources