NZ Scholarship Dance study guide
NZ Scholarship Dance · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
New Zealand Scholarship Dance is an award recognising top secondary school students, assessed by NZQA for candidates who want to be stretched beyond Level 3 study in the subject. It is not a qualification in the NCEA sense: it is a competitive award, and the number of Scholarships in a subject is limited to around 3% of the students who achieve 14 or more credits in that subject at NCEA Level 3. You do not have to be working towards NCEA to enter, but you must be enrolled in a consented New Zealand secondary school, and not all schools enter students for Scholarship, so speak to your teacher early. Assessment is by either a written or spoken examination or by the submission of a portfolio or report of work produced throughout the year, with between 3 and 5 parts, each scored 0 to 8. Because the award is designed to be challenging for the most able students, preparation should go well beyond rehearsal: build a body of critical writing and analysis about dance works, choreographic processes and performance, and be ready to apply that understanding to complex, unfamiliar situations with accuracy, coherence and perceptiveness. Topics on this exam: Dance. The NZ Scholarship Dance study guide has 1 section and about 388 words.
01Dance
Scholarship Dance asks you to analyse dance as an art form with the precision of a practitioner and the judgement of a critic. The domain tests how well you observe movement, explain choreographic choices, and connect works to the contexts that shaped them. It is not a recall test: you must build an argument from specific movement evidence rather than plot summary or biography. Dance elements: body, space, time, energy and relationships.
388 words, about 2 minMore study resources for NZ Scholarship Dance
- Practice questionsIn a dance review, a writer notes that the choreographer used 'retrograde' movement in a phrase.
- FlashcardsChoreographic intent. The stated or inferred purpose of a dance work - what the choreographer wants an audience to feel, think or question.
- Cheat sheetNZ Scholarship Dance is a portfolio-based scholarship: candidates submit a written analytical portfolio plus a practical/choreographic component; the written work must demonstrate critical analysis, not description, and integrate ideas from live and recorded dance works.
- Key termschoreography. The art of selecting, arranging, and structuring movement into a dance work; also names the finished sequence of steps and the person who creates it.
- Study planMap the full Dance domain into four working clusters: choreographic process, performance and interpretation, dance analysis and vocabulary, and context (cultural, historical, contemporary).
- Common mistakesCandidates come from performance or appreciation backgrounds where 'interpretation' is rewarded, and they have not internalised that Scholarship Dance rewards analytical vocabulary applied to concrete movement evidence rather than thematic summary.
- Exam-day guideNZ Scholarship Dance is assessed through a performance/portfolio submission and, where relevant, an external assessment session.