What must you know about your chosen dance style, from its steps and characteristics to its origins and an influential choreographer?
Knowledge and understanding of a chosen dance style, including its style-specific steps, key characteristics, where and when it originated, how it has changed over time, and an influential choreographer of the style.
An SQA National 5 Dance answer on the knowledge of a chosen dance style required by the question paper: style-specific steps, key characteristics, origins, how the style has changed over time, and an influential choreographer, with worked exam answers.
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What this dot point is asking
The question paper asks you to show knowledge and understanding of a chosen dance style, the same style you perform in your solo. The SQA expects you to know its style-specific steps, its key characteristics, where and when it originated, how it has changed over time, and an influential choreographer. This dot point shows what to revise and how to write about it. The examples below use ballet, but the same headings apply to whichever style you study (contemporary, jazz, hip hop, tap or Highland).
Style-specific steps and key characteristics
These are the movements and features that define your style.
- For ballet, key characteristics include turnout, long extended lines, elevation and light jumps, grace and a lifted, weightless quality.
- For other styles the characteristics differ: contemporary uses parallel, floor work, contraction and release; hip hop uses grounded, rhythmic, isolated movement; tap uses rhythmic footwork making sound; Highland uses precise, elevated steps with set arm positions.
Origins and changes over time
These show your understanding of the style's history.
- Origins (ballet example). Ballet began in the Italian Renaissance courts of the fifteenth century and was formalised in the French court of Louis XIV in the seventeenth century, where its technique and French vocabulary were codified.
- Changes over time (ballet example). Classical ballet's set steps and story ballets were later joined by neoclassical ballet (freer, plotless, musically driven) and contemporary ballet (blending ballet with modern movement), broadening what the style could express.
An influential choreographer
You should be able to name and discuss a key figure in your style.
- Ballet example. George Balanchine developed the neoclassical style, co-founded New York City Ballet, and created fast, abstract, musically driven ballets that reshaped twentieth-century ballet.
- For your own style, prepare a comparable figure (for example a major contemporary, hip hop or tap choreographer) and what they changed.
Examples in context
Example 1. Style-specific steps in tap. A tap dancer uses shuffles, ball changes and time steps. These rhythmic, sound-making foot movements are style-specific steps that identify tap, because the feet act like a percussion instrument.
Example 2. Changes over time in hip hop. Hip hop grew from 1970s street and block-party culture in New York, developing styles such as breaking, popping and locking, then spreading worldwide and into commercial and theatre dance. This shows a clear development over time.
Try this
Q1. Name two key characteristics of ballet. [1 mark]
- Cue. Any two of: turnout, long extended lines, elevation and light jumps, grace and a lifted, weightless quality, pointe work.
Q2. Describe one way a dance style can change over time. [1 mark]
- Cue. It can develop new sub-styles, for example classical ballet leading to neoclassical and contemporary ballet, broadening what it can express.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of SQA exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
SQA N5 style4 marksDescribe two key characteristics of your chosen dance style and explain how they make it recognisable.Show worked answer →
A 4-mark answer needs two characteristics, each described and tied to how it identifies the style, with two marks each. This example uses ballet.
Turnout and lines. Ballet is danced with the legs turned out from the hip, creating long, extended lines through the arms and legs. This makes the style instantly recognisable, because the open, lifted shapes and pointed feet are unlike the grounded, parallel look of contemporary or hip hop.
Pointe and elevation. Ballet uses rises onto the toes (and pointe work for advanced dancers) and light, soaring jumps. This airborne, lifted quality identifies ballet, because it aims to look weightless and graceful rather than grounded and earthy.
So the turned-out lines and the light elevation together mark the movement as ballet. Markers reward each characteristic described with a clear link to recognising the style, up to four.
SQA N5 style6 marksDescribe where and when your chosen dance style originated, how it has changed over time, and name an influential choreographer of the style.Show worked answer →
A 6-mark answer needs the origin, the changes over time, and an influential choreographer, with marks spread across the three parts. This example uses ballet.
Origins. Ballet originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the fifteenth century and developed into a formal art form in the French court of the seventeenth century under Louis XIV, who founded an academy that codified its technique and vocabulary.
Changes over time. Ballet has changed greatly. The strict classical style of the nineteenth century, with its set steps and story ballets, was joined by neoclassical and then contemporary ballet, which freed up the lines, allowed more abstract work, and blended ballet with modern movement.
Influential choreographer. George Balanchine was hugely influential, developing the neoclassical style, founding New York City Ballet, and creating fast, musically driven, plotless ballets that reshaped twentieth-century ballet.
Markers reward the origin, the changes, and a relevant choreographer, each with clear detail, up to six.
Related dot points
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Sources & how we know this
- National 5 Dance Course Specification — SQA (2024)
- National 5 Dance - Course overview and resources — SQA (2024)