Grade by Grade
A. Dance / C. Music · Music and Dance

Dance: How Dances Change When People Move and Meet

A3.1 A2.1About 45 minutes
Learning goals
  • I can describe how dance changes when people respond to external factors such as migration, a new environment or contact with other cultures.
  • I can trace the history of a dance form, such as Métis jigging, Cape Breton step dancing, tap, breaking or bhangra.
  • I can explain the difference between sharing and blending traditions respectfully and copying without credit.
  • I can construct my own interpretation of how a dance's history shows up in how it is danced today.

Words to know

evolution (of dance)
How a dance form changes and develops over time.
external factor
Something outside the dance that causes it to change, like moving to a new place.
migration
People moving from one place to live in another.
cultural contact
When different groups of people meet, share and influence each other.
fusion
A new style made by blending two or more traditions.
diaspora
A community of people living far from the homeland of their family or ancestors.

Remember from Grade 6

In Grade 6 you learned how dances of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities express cultural identity in the past and today, and how communities kept their dances alive when laws tried to stop them.

This year you'll look at how dances change when people respond to external factors: moving to a new place (migration), living in a new environment, and contact with other groups and cultures.

Three big external factors

  • Migration: people bring their dances with them when they move. Far from home, a dance can become a way to remember and stay connected.
  • A new environment: a new climate, new kinds of spaces, new music or new laws can change how and where a dance is done.
  • Contact with other groups: when people meet, they watch, share and borrow. Steps, rhythms and music blend into something new.

Dances are living. They keep the past alive and keep changing.

First Nationsdance and musicScottish, Irish and French-Canadian step dancingand fiddle musicMétis jigging(for example, theRed River Jig)
Métis jigging grew out of contact between two traditions: First Nations dance and music, and the Scottish, Irish and French-Canadian step dancing and fiddle music of fur-trade workers.
DanceWhat happenedHow you can see the history today
Métis jigging (for example, the Red River Jig)The Métis Nation grew out of the fur trade, from families of First Nations women and European (mostly French-Canadian and Scottish) fur traders. Their dance and fiddle music blended both traditions.Fast, intricate footwork to fiddle music. The Red River Jig is a source of Métis pride at gatherings and competitions today.
Cape Breton step dancingScottish Gaelic-speaking settlers brought their step dancing and fiddle music to Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, in the late 1700s and 1800s.Dancers keep their steps close to the floor, with quick, quiet footwork, to fiddle tunes. It is still danced at community gatherings.
Tap danceDeveloped in the United States in the 1800s, as African American dancers and Irish immigrant dancers shared and blended their percussive footwork.Shoes with metal taps make the feet a drum. Tap later grew alongside jazz music.
Breaking (breakdancing)Created in the 1970s in the Bronx, New York, by African American and Puerto Rican young people, as part of hip hop culture. It spread around the world, including to Canada.Footwork, spins and freezes in "battles". Breaking was an Olympic sport at Paris 2024, where Canadian Philip Kim (B-Boy Phil Wizard) won the gold medal.
BhangraA folk dance from the Punjab region (in today's India and Pakistan), linked to the harvest. Punjabi communities who moved to Britain, Canada and other countries brought it with them, and young dancers blended it with hip hop and pop music.Energetic jumps, shoulder movements and arm lifts to the dhol drum. Bhangra teams and competitions are popular in Canadian cities.
Powwow todayPowwows bring together dancers, singers and drum groups from many different First Nations. Dance styles have travelled between nations and regions, and new styles have developed over time.Many powwows include intertribal dances, when dancers from different nations dance together, and visitors may be invited to join.
Six dances that changed as people moved, adapted and met others. Each one has a much longer history than fits in a table.

Sharing and blending with respect

  • When traditions blend, credit where they came from.
  • Learning a dance from people of a culture, with their welcome, is different from copying it as a joke or a costume.
  • Some dances are sacred or have protocols (rules about who may perform them and when). Respect them, even if a dance looks easy to copy.
  • Talk about First Nations, Métis and Inuit dances in the present tense: these are living traditions.
Worked example

Example: Let's trace how a dance evolved

Let's trace the evolution of Métis jigging using the three external factors.

  1. Contact: in the fur trade, First Nations and European (French-Canadian and Scottish) people met, worked together and formed families.
  2. Blending: First Nations dance and the step dances and fiddle music of the fur-trade workers came together. A new Métis culture, with its own music and dance, grew from these families.
  3. New environment and migration: Métis communities lived and travelled across the prairies and the Great Lakes region, including Ontario, and the jig went with them.
  4. Today: jigging is danced at Métis gatherings, festivals and competitions, often taught from one generation to the next, and is a strong part of Métis identity.

Métis jigging is an example of cultural contact creating something new, which is now a proud tradition in its own right.

Worked example

Example: Let's interpret a dance's history in its movement

A bhangra team in Ontario performs to a mix of a dhol drum rhythm and a hip hop beat. Some moves are traditional jumps and shoulder bounces; others are hip hop footwork. Let's interpret what this shows.

  1. Describe: traditional bhangra movements and music mixed with hip hop moves and beats.
  2. Connect to factors: migration (Punjabi families moving to Canada) and contact (growing up with hip hop in Canadian cities).
  3. Interpret: I think the performance shows that the dancers are proud of their Punjabi roots and also of growing up in Canada.
  4. Evidence: The dhol rhythm and traditional moves stay at the centre, while hip hop moves are added, not replacing them.

The mix of styles tells a story of identity: keeping a tradition and making it new in a new home.

Roots: Punjabi bhangradhol drum, jumps, shoulder bouncesToday: a bhangra team in Ontariodhol + hip hop beat, both kinds of movesMigration: Punjabifamilies move to CanadaContact: growing up withhip hop in Canadian cities
A dance “family tree” for the bhangra example. The traditional roots stay at the centre, while migration and contact add new music and moves on the way to today’s performance.
Just for fun

Fun fact: tap dance has its own day! In the United States, National Tap Dance Day is May 25, the birthday of tap star Bill “Bojangles” Robinson. 👞 It is probably the noisiest way anyone has ever said “happy birthday.”

Hands-on activity

Dance family tree

You need: paper, a pencil, and a grown-up to help you search online or at the library.

  1. Choose a dance from your own family, community, or a culture you are curious about.
  2. Find out: Where did it start? Did people migrate with it? Did it meet other styles? Look for sources made by people from that culture.
  3. Draw a family tree for the dance: its roots at the bottom, what it blended with in the middle, and how it is danced today at the top.
  4. If you can, ask a family member or community member who knows the dance about it, or watch a performance by dancers from that community.
  5. Share your tree with someone and explain one external factor that changed the dance.

Your turn

1

Name the three external factors in this lesson that can change a dance.

2

Which two groups of traditions blended to form Métis jigging?

3

Where and when did breaking begin?

4

Who brought step dancing to Cape Breton Island?

5

What is fusion?

6

Give one way to share or blend dance traditions respectfully.

More practice: warm-up

1

What does migration mean?

2

Which drum is central to bhangra?

3

Which dance uses shoes with metal taps?

4

Which Canadian won Olympic gold in breaking at Paris 2024?

5

True or false: dances stop changing once they become traditions.

More practice: on your own

1

Explain how migration can help a dance survive and also change it.

2

How did contact between two groups shape tap dance?

3

Why might a dance community today want people to credit where a viral move came from?

4

How do intertribal dances at powwows show contact between nations?

5

Describe one change a new environment could cause in a dance.

Challenge

1

Compare how two dances in this lesson were shaped by contact. What do they have in common? How are they different?

2

Some people say a blended dance "isn't the real thing." Construct your own response, with evidence.

3

Your family's tradition is a dance you do at weddings. Predict how it might change if your cousins grow up in a different country.

Check your understanding

Quiz

1.

People moving from one country to another is called ___.

2.

Métis jigging grew from contact between ___.

3.

Breaking began in ___.

4.

Which is an example of respectful sharing?

5.

A new style made by blending traditions is called ___.

6.

Bhangra comes from ___.

For parents and teachers

Big idea: Students describe the evolution of dance and performance as different groups of people have responded to external factors such as migration, a new environment, and/or contact with other groups or cultures (A3.1), and construct personal interpretations (A2.1).

About accuracy: each history here is short and simplified. Dance histories are often told in more than one way, and communities are the best sources for their own stories. If your family has a dance tradition, your child's own family history is an excellent research topic.

How to help at home:

  • Share any dances from your family or community, and how they may have changed over generations or after a move.
  • Watch performances together by dancers from the culture being learned about.

Common difficulties:

  • Thinking traditional means unchanging. All dances change; traditions are living.
  • Talking about First Nations, Métis and Inuit dance in the past tense. Use the present tense.
  • Confusing respectful sharing with copying. Ask, "Who taught it? Was it credited? Is it a dance with protocols?"