So, a local High School has implemented a dance program as an option for students, in the same category as drama, music, art, etc. I'm in Montreal and High Schoool dance programs/teams are not the norm. I would say only about 10% of High Schools have a dance program.
It was started this year on a trial basis, with a gym teacher teaching most of the classes. I have been offered the position for next year and have been asked to submit a proposed curriculum for grades 7-11 ( ages 12-17. I have no idea how to go about this and am really looking for help. I know that American schools have dance programs more commonly then we do here.
If anyone has a high school curriculum that they can share or has any other tips, ideas, suggestions, advice or comments, I would really appreciate the help!
Thanks!

During my years in high school i was involved with my dance team. I'm not sure what the "set" curriculum but i can tell you what i did. There were usually two levels the seniors and juniors. The beginning of the year you would have a little audition to see what level you were at and than for classes everyone would do warm up together and than break off into two group.
As part of our mark the seniors would have to teach the juniors a class (warm up, across the floors, and a combo) and they had to plan it out and hand a plan to the teacher. As a junior you would evaluate the teacher and hand in feedback as your mark.
both teams also do a competition piece that they would perform at local high school competitions, and mark was based on participation, improvement etc.
The third project was a group choreography piece. the students would for groups of 2 to 4 and create their own piece of work where they would have to do their own music costuming etc which all adds up to part of their mark.
Finaly there is a portfolio. the portfolio consists of any "scrap booking" memories from competitions etc as well as pictures, feedback sheets, costume ideas. Pretty much a summary of their year.

I hope that gives you some ideas!!!

I have a question. Are you looking for information on a dance curriculum for a high school dance class or are you trying to find information about establishing a dance team? If you are looking for a curriculum for teaching dance class, then I can send you a link.

I also think you can touch upon different styles of dance ad their origins. (Ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop etc...) and even within those the different variations i.e-ballet has Cechetti, Vaganova, Royal Academy etc...Good luck!

Thanks everyone for your suggestions thus far!

Kiwanis- yes I am looking for information on starting a class, not a team. Please send me the link!:)

My high school had a fantastic dance program but it took many years to get it going. We had many different levels and auditions were required if new dancers wished to be considered for anything other than beginning. Those who had had a year or more of dance were placed in their levels at the end of the school year. We had different choreographers/instructors in each day of the week (so Monday was ballet, Tuesday was tap, Wednesday was jazz, etc) and choreographers had the option to structure class however they wished. Grading was based on coming to class dressed out and working hard the whole time. We had to attend a dance performance of some sort and write a short paper about it, and then our only big assignment was to self-choreograph a number for our final. Grading was based on successfully incorporating skills learned in the class (and our teacher included a list of skills that we should know how to do) as well as costuming, level and formation changes, and successfully editing music if applicable. All of the instructors would come to watch us perform the finals and choose the best one from each class period to perform in our annual recital.

So that was the longest paragraph of all time, but I hope that helps give you some ideas and I can give you more details if you like, I actually went back to teach after I graduated so I got to see both sides of the program. Good luck!

Im finally getting to reading August issue of Dance Teacher magazine - and there is a great article in there about building a k-12 dance program from the ground up!!

The link is:
mde.k12.ms.us . . .

I hope this helps you

Kiwanis- Thank you so much, this is awesome!!!:)

Jojospins- Let me know if the article has anything spectacular, I'm in Canada and I can't buy Dance Teacher here!

pm me your address and i'll mail you my copy!!

I created a high school dance program with the Alberta Education board a couple years ago for our local high school.
I would teach a basic jazz class and include occasional vocabulary quizes (written) as well as 1 written essay on dance history for beginner levels and on dancers or dance companies for more advanced levels.
Final marks would be to perform MY choreography for beginner levels, their own group choreography for intermediate levels and solos for advanced.

If you visit the following link it might give you some curriculum ideas. it is the Florida department of education, but it helps with the highschool portion and how to break it down into 4 years.

data.fldoe.org . . .