School-based Assessment: Performance, Choreography and Written Tasks
What is assessed
School-based assessment in Units 3 and 4 Dance combines solo and group performance, composition and choreography, and written analysis. Each task has a rubric tied to the study design: technical accuracy, artistry and expression, phrasing and musicality, spatial awareness and group cohesion for performance; and for composition, the development of a movement vocabulary, use of form and structure, manipulation of the elements, and realisation of an intention.
Concepts to master
Know the difference between safe dance practice (alignment, warm-up and cool-down, hydration, appropriate flooring and footwear, injury prevention) and technical competence (line, extension, control, balance, coordination, elevation). Understand compositional devices such as repetition, inversion, retrograde, canon, unison, contrast, motif development and transitions. Be able to articulate your choreographic intention and explain how movement and production choices serve it.
Common traps
- Treating the written component as separate from the practical: your analysis should reference your own process and decisions.
- Describing what you did without evaluating why it worked or what you would change.
- Neglecting safe dance practice in both planning and reflection.
- Overlooking the audience and performance space when justifying spatial choices.
- Confusing a motif (a short movement idea) with a phrase (a longer sequence) or a section (a structural unit).
Worked example
If asked to reflect on a group work, structure the answer: intention, process (how the motif was developed using canon and level change), performance outcome (how unison and spatial patterning created cohesion), then evaluation (what succeeded and one specific refinement). This mirrors the rubric and demonstrates both practical and analytical understanding.
Rule of thumb
For every practical decision, answer three questions: what did I do, why did I do it, and how well did it work? Keep a process journal with dated entries, rehearsal notes and video reflections to supply evidence.