QCAA Dance flashcards
QCAA Dance · Build recall with a focused review session.
32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.
- Choreographic intent
- The purpose or message the choreographer wants the work to communicate, such as an idea, mood, story or social comment. It justifies movement and production choices.
- Stimulus
- The starting point that inspires a dance work, such as an image, poem, piece of music, personal experience or social issue. It seeds improvisation and movement generation.
- Motif
- A short, memorable movement phrase that carries the work's core idea. It is repeated and manipulated throughout the dance to create unity and recognition.
- Motif development
- The process of altering a motif through devices such as repetition, inversion, retrograde, fragmentation, embellishment, canon or changes in space, time and dynamics.
- Retrograde
- A choreographic device in which a movement phrase is performed backwards, reversing the order of the actions while keeping their original spatial pathways and qualities.
- Canon
- A device where dancers perform the same movement phrase but start at staggered times, creating overlapping layers. It builds density and visual interest.
- Unison
- Two or more dancers performing identical movement at the same time. It creates impact, clarity and group unity, and often marks key structural moments.
- Binary form
- An AB structure with two contrasting sections. The contrast may occur in dynamics, tempo, spatial pattern, group size or accompaniment rather than in the movement vocabulary.
- Ternary form
- An ABA structure where an opening section returns after a contrasting middle. The return is usually varied, so the audience recognises the material while seeing development.
- Rondo form
- A structure built on a recurring main section alternating with contrasting episodes, following ABACA or similar. The repeated A section anchors the work.
- Dynamics
- The quality of energy in movement, described through force, flow, weight and attack. Examples include sharp, sustained, percussive, swinging, suspended and collapsing.
- Spatial elements
- The use of level, direction, pathway, shape, formation, focus and proximity. These choices shape how the audience reads relationships and meaning.
- Safe dance practice
- Strategies protecting dancer health, including warm-up, cool-down, correct alignment, suitable flooring, hydration, conditioning and risk assessment of lifts and contact work.
- Performance quality
- The expressive and technical standard of a dancer, judged on projection, focus, accuracy of style, musicality, spatial awareness and clarity of intent.
- Projection
- The dancer's use of focus, eyeline and energy to communicate outward to the audience, ensuring the intent reads clearly from a distance.
- Musicality
- The dancer's responsiveness to the accompaniment, including timing, accent, phrasing and use of stillness against rhythm. It links movement to sound.
- Production elements
- The non-movement components of a dance work: lighting, sound, costume, set, props and staging. Each should be chosen to reinforce the choreographic intent.
- Lighting cue
- A timed change in lighting state, such as colour, intensity or focus, cued to movement or music. It can isolate dancers, shift mood or mark structure.
- Costume function
- Costume supports intent by signalling character, era or mood, and by allowing safe movement. It can also unify or distinguish dancers on stage.
- Improvisation
- Unplanned movement generated in the moment, often from a stimulus or constraint. Choreographers mine improvisation for material to select and refine.
- Abstraction
- A device that removes literal narrative or gesture, distilling movement to essence so audiences read mood and idea rather than story events.
- Literal description
- The first layer of analysis: stating what is objectively seen, such as group size, level, direction and action, using precise dance vocabulary rather than opinion.
- Structural analysis
- The second layer of response: explaining how movement, spatial, dynamic and production choices combine to create specific effects on the audience.
- Interpretation
- A reading of what a dance work means, grounded in cited evidence from the movement and production elements rather than personal preference alone.
- Evaluation
- A judgement of how effectively a work achieves its intent, made against stated criteria such as coherence, originality, compositional clarity and performer execution.
- Choreographer's intent
- The meaning the maker intended to communicate. Responders distinguish this from their own reading and may analyse any gap between the two.
- Cultural context
- The origin, tradition, social function and stylistic conventions surrounding a work. It shapes meaning and guards against misreading unfamiliar dance forms.
- Claim-evidence-comment
- A response structure stating an interpretation, citing a specific moment from the work, then explaining how that moment supports the reading.
- Dance vocabulary
- The precise terminology used in responding, covering actions, space, time, dynamics and relationships, replacing vague words like 'nice' or 'flowy'.
- Comparative analysis
- Judging two or more works against the same held criteria, such as use of space or motif development, before drawing conclusions about their relative success.
- Reflective practice
- Analysing one's own choreography or performance by identifying a decision, describing its effect and judging whether it served the intended purpose.
- Audience reading
- The meaning viewers construct from a work, which may differ from the choreographer's intent because of personal, cultural and contextual frames.