Dai courtship dances

This lesson plan is adapted from Access Asia: Secondary Teaching and Learning Units, Curriculum Corporation, 1996, pp 28-31.

Learning areas
This lesson plan can make a major contribution to the 'Dance' strand of The Arts - a Curriculum Profile for Australian Schools.
It can also make a contribution to the 'Music' strand.

Level
Years 7-8

Outline
Students learn about traditional courtship rituals among the Dai people of south-west China and are introduced to a Dai courtship dance.

Studies of Asia emphases
Major emphasis: Understanding contributions made by the peoples of Asia to the world

Curriculum context
These activities could complement other performance-based learning sequences concerned with courtship. They could also form one aspect of studies of art forms among China's minority 'nationalities'.

Duration
Three or four hours

Materials required

• Students will require copies of Student sheet 1 and Student sheet 2.
• A suitable dance space.
• Suitable music, such as Full of Joy, 'Folk instrumental' (Side A, Track 1), available from China Books, Melbourne. Other music in 3/4 time would also work.
  

Procedure

Discussing courtship

1. As a class, discuss courtship rituals that students are familiar with. Consider the following:
   • Taking the initiative (boys or girls).
   • Traditional and changing values in relationships.
   • Tradition and change in marriage.
2. Have students read Student sheet 1: 'Courtship and marriage'. Discuss similarities and differences between Dai courtship and courtship in their own cultures.

Role playing courtship
Have students role play the courtship described in Student sheet 1. Focus on body language and hand and eye movements.

Learning the Dai courtship dance
Provide students with Student sheet 2: Dai courtship dance. Teachers could then demonstrate the dance and ask students to interpret its meaning, as follows:

1. Introduce movement of the dance by teaching students the change step.
2. Demonstrate the 'slapping' component of the dance with a students who has mastered the change step.
3. Have students practise this movement in pairs and then reverse roles.
4. Introduce the hand and eye movements. Describe the similarities between hand movements from this area and those from other parts of Asia such as Thailand and Indonesia.
5. Have students practise the 'slapping' step with hand and eye movements and then reverse roles.

Adapting Beijing-Jinghong
(Beijing-Jinghong is an adaptation of 'Port, Starboard, Bow and Stern'.)

1. Each wall of the room is given a place name.
   
   Northern wall: Beijing
   Southern wall: Jinghong
   Western wall: Tibet
   Eastern wall: Hong Kong
2. Students stand in the middle of the room and have to run to a particular wall when the teacher calls out the corresponding place. Teacher and students can also make up other commands such as 'flirting', 'holding hands', 'shy glances'. The teacher can then call these out and students do the appropriate action.

Developing a dance

1. Using some of the steps in the Dai courtship dance, and popular music, have students create a dance about an everyday event from their own culture. Examples include shopping, going to a school dance and going to school for the first time.
2. Students create a dance based on one of the stories about Dai courtship on Student sheet 1.
3. Present some of these dances to an audience outside the class.

Related resources
Chunyang, An & Bohua, L (eds) 1985, Where the Dai People Live, China's Nationalities Series, Foreign Languages Press, Beijing.
Mackerras, C 1995, China's Minority Culture, Longman, Singapore.