The technical skills (alignment and posture, balance, control, coordination, mobility and flexibility, strength, stamina, extension, transfer of weight, gesture, technical accuracy) and performance skills (timing and musicality, dynamics, spatial awareness, projection and focus, communication of choreographic intention, sense of style) assessed in Higher Dance, and how each supports an accurate and expressive performance in contrasting styles.

What this dot point is asking

Higher Dance is mostly practical, but the SQA still expects you to know the technical and performance skills that make a dancer accurate and expressive, to apply them across two contrasting styles, and to write about them in the question paper. At Higher you combine skills, sustain them under fatigue, and adapt them to the demands of two styles. This dot point covers the technical skills (the physical controls that make movement correct and safe) and the performance skills (what turns correct movement into a communicated performance).

Technical skills: the controls of accurate movement

These skills make the body do the right thing correctly and safely. At Higher you must apply them in two contrasting styles, where the same skill is used differently.

• Alignment and posture. Correct stacking lets force travel cleanly through the body, so an extension reaches its line and a landing absorbs softly rather than jarring.
• Balance. Steady balance lets you hold an arabesque or a retire without wobbling or stepping out to save it.
• Control. Control makes a movement begin, travel and finish as intended, so a slow descent looks deliberate rather than dropped.
• Coordination. Matching the arms to the legwork, or the head spot to a turn, makes a movement flow rather than look disjointed.

• Mobility and flexibility. A wide range of motion lets the leg lift high and the spine curve fully, so shapes reach their size.
• Strength. Strong legs and core push high into jumps and control soft landings.
• Stamina. Good stamina keeps technique sharp through the final phrase, so the close is as clean as the opening.
• Extension. A fully extended limb reaches its full line, so the shape reads clearly rather than looking short.

• Transfer of weight. Smooth transfer arrives in balance and on the music, so a step into a lunge lands cleanly.
• Gesture. A reaching arm or a turn of the head adds meaning and line without taking weight.
• Technical accuracy. Hitting the precise position, level and direction at the right moment is the correctness the SQA rewards.

Performance skills: turning accuracy into communication

Accurate movement is not enough at Higher; the marks also come from how the dance is performed and communicated.

• Timing and musicality. Landing on the beat and phrasing to the music makes the dance feel connected to its sound, not counted out.
• Dynamics. Varying the quality gives texture and meaning, so a tense moment reads as sharp and a calm one as sustained.
• Spatial awareness. Filling the space, hitting marked positions and judging distance keeps travelling and group moments clean.

• Projection and focus. A committed gaze and outward energy push the performance past the front of the stage, so the audience feels the intention.
• Communication of intention. Performing the meaning, not just the steps, lets the audience read the idea the dance expresses.
• Sense of style. Matching the carriage, weight and quality of the genre makes a ballet read as ballet and a contemporary piece as contemporary.

Examples in context

Example 1. Extension in ballet. A dancer lifts the working leg to a high developpe a la seconde. Turnout, hip mobility and core strength let the leg reach full extension, so the line reads as a clean second rather than a dropping leg.

Example 2. Dynamics in contemporary. A dancer follows a slow, sustained spiral to the floor with a sudden, percussive rebound. The contrast in dynamics gives the phrase texture and shows a shift in mood.

Try this

Q1. Define transfer of weight and give one effect of controlling it well. [1 mark]

• Cue. Transfer of weight is moving the centre of gravity smoothly from one base of support to another; controlling it means a move arrives in balance and on the music.

Q2. Explain how sense of style helps a performance read correctly. [1 mark]

• Cue. Sense of style is performing in the manner the genre demands, so matching the carriage, weight and quality makes the dance read as the intended style rather than generic movement.