Ontario Grade 8 The Arts (Grade 8)
Chapters: 4
1. A. Dance
A1 Creating and Presenting · A2 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing · A3 Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts
- Dance: Elements, Choreography and Forms – Dance is movement of the body, in space and time, with energy, used to express feelings, tell stories or celebrate. Every dance can be described with four elements: Body (what moves), Space (where: levels, directions, pathways), Time (when: tempo, rhythm, pause) and Energy (how: sharp or smooth, strong or light). Choreography is the art of arranging movement using devices such as motif, repetition, canon, unison, contrast and formations. Good performers train technique, safety and expression, and good audiences describe, analyse, interpret and judge what they see. Dance forms, from classical and folk to ballet and hip-hop, grow out of their culture and history.
2. B. Drama
B1 Creating and Presenting · B2 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing · B3 Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts
- Drama: Elements, Stagecraft and Performance – Drama is a story told by actors who become characters and act it out in front of an audience. Every drama has characters who want something, a conflict when those wants clash, a plot that builds tension to a climax and then resolves, dialogue, a setting and a theme. On stage, actors use voice and body, and the production adds lighting, set, costume and sound.
3. C. Music
C1 Creating and Performing · C2 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing · C3 Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts
- Music Theory Basics: The Language of Music – Music theory explains how music is built. Pitch is how high or low a note is; the seven note names repeat every octave, where the frequency doubles. Rhythm is how sounds are placed in time over a steady beat, counted in note values and grouped into bars by a time signature. Scales follow step patterns (major: T T S T T T S), and chords stack notes such as the 1st, 3rd and 5th. Dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture and form complete the elements of music.
4. D. Visual Arts
D1 Creating and Presenting · D2 Reflecting, Responding, and Analysing · D3 Exploring Forms and Cultural Contexts
- Elements of Art and Principles of Design – The elements of art are the building blocks an artist uses: line, shape, form, colour, value, texture and space (many teachers also add the point). The principles of design are the rules for arranging those blocks: balance, contrast, emphasis, movement, rhythm and pattern, proportion and scale, and unity with variety. Knowing both helps you make art on purpose and talk about any artwork clearly.