Empowering Creativity: IB Aesthetic Performances in Dance & Gymnastics

The IB enables our students to develop their own creativity and demonstrate the learner profile of being a Risk Taker in performing their group creations.  

The girls have been busy creating dance and gymnastic performances in their aesthetics units. Each student set a SMART goal of an action that they would like to develop or learn and created a training plan to achieve that goal. The M1 and M3 girls focused on gymnastics and created small group pieces demonstrating their chosen action. Each group chose their own music and choreographed their performances to complement the musicality of each pieceadding a variety of levels, formations and group balances. 

The M2 girls dance theme was inspired by their Kinesphere, “the sphere around the body whose periphery can be reached by easily extended limbs without stepping away from that place which is the point of support when standing on one foot” Rudolf Laban.  

The students created two different motifs, one from improvisation, using a tennis ball to direct their focus. The 2nd motif was developed from 5 actions (jump, turn, stillness, gesture and travel). The actions were contemporary based originally, but students were encouraged to adapt these to their preferred dance style. Choreographic devices were added to increase complexity such as canon, unison, counterpoint, formations, levels and dynamics. Finally the girls completed a contact workshop to add lifts to their pieces. 

In M4 students are given the choice of which aesthetic they would like to pursue, this ranges from dance, gymnastics, kickboxing, basketball dance, yoga and fitness routines. The students then draw on their previous experience to create their own performance piece, choosing their own music and dance style.