France Terminale S2TMD (theatre, music and dance) — Terminale specialties
Chapters: 6
1. Dance culture and science (dance)
Terminale dance perspectives · History of dance · Watching, analysing, arguing · Music culture for dancers · Body science for dancers
- 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.
- Performance Analysis – To analyse a performance (dance or theatre), watch closely, describe what you see and hear without opinion, interpret what it might mean, and judge with reasons taken from the show. Look at five elements: body, space, light, sound and costume or set. Notice the creative process, the choreographer's or director's signature, the relation between stage and audience, and compare productions to become a critical spectator.
- Music History: From Chant to Pop – Music is older than writing. Every culture grew its own music, often passed on by ear, like Indian raga, African drumming and gamelan. In the Western tradition the main eras are Medieval (chant, about 500–1400), Renaissance (polyphony, 1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1910) and the 20th century to today (jazz, recording, film, pop, electronic). Each era changed the texture (how many lines sound together), the size of the group and music's place in society.
- Locomotion and Movement – Movement is a change in position of a body part; locomotion is moving the whole body from place to place. Cells move in three ways: amoeboid, ciliary and flagellar. Humans use muscular movement. Muscles are skeletal, visceral or cardiac. A skeletal muscle is made of fibres, each packed with myofibrils made of repeating sarcomeres of actin and myosin. A nerve signal releases Ca2+, myosin heads pull actin using ATP, and the sarcomere shortens (sliding filament theory). The skeleton has 206 bones. Joints can be fibrous, cartilaginous or synovial (ball and socket, hinge, pivot, gliding, saddle). Disorders include myasthenia gravis, tetany, muscular dystrophy, arthritis, osteoporosis and gout.
2. Dance practice (dance)
Technique in the main style · Technique in a second style · Improvisation and composition workshops
- 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.
3. Music culture and science (music)
Terminale music perspectives · History of music and the arts · Music cultures, analysis and listening · Digital music and instruments · Acoustics · Sociology of music practice and distribution
- Music Appreciation: How to Listen and Understand Music – Music appreciation means listening with attention, noticing what is happening in the music, and being able to talk about it. Every piece is built from a few elements: pitch and melody, rhythm and tempo, dynamics (loud and soft), timbre (tone colour), texture (how many layers) and form (the plan of the piece). Knowing these words helps you compare music from any culture, from a symphony to a raga to a film song, and explain why you like it.
- Music History: From Chant to Pop – Music is older than writing. Every culture grew its own music, often passed on by ear, like Indian raga, African drumming and gamelan. In the Western tradition the main eras are Medieval (chant, about 500–1400), Renaissance (polyphony, 1400–1600), Baroque (1600–1750), Classical (1750–1820), Romantic (1820–1910) and the 20th century to today (jazz, recording, film, pop, electronic). Each era changed the texture (how many lines sound together), the size of the group and music's place in society.
- Musical Instruments – Every musical instrument makes something vibrate: a string, a column of air, a stretched skin, a solid body or an electronic circuit and speaker. We group instruments by what vibrates: strings (chordophones), wind (aerophones), drums with skins (membranophones), solid percussion (idiophones) and electronic (electrophones). Smaller, shorter or tighter vibrating parts give higher notes. Each instrument has its own timbre (tone colour) because it adds its own mix of harmonics. In an orchestra or band, instruments are combined to make rich colours.
- Sound – Sound is made by vibrating objects. It travels through a medium (air, water, solids) as a longitudinal wave: particles move back and forth, making crowded parts (compressions) and spread-out parts (rarefactions). Frequency (Hz) sets the pitch, amplitude sets the loudness, and speed v = f × λ. Sound cannot travel in vacuum. Humans hear 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz; below is infrasound, above is ultrasound. Reflected sound gives echoes, used and controlled in buildings.
- Sociology of Culture: Who Likes What, and Why – In sociology, culture means ways of living and shared practices: what people read, watch, play and listen to. These practices are not only personal choice. Studies find patterns by age, class and schooling, gender and place, because family, school, friends and money shape taste. Digital streaming gives wider access, yet gaps in devices, data and know-how remain, and many people now mix tastes (omnivores). Cultures also mix through travel and media. To judge such claims we read audience statistics carefully. In music, we ask who plays and who listens, how music reaches people (live, radio, recordings, streaming) and what an album, a festival or an advert tell us about the business.
4. Music practice (music)
Sustained practice in a main area · Ensemble practice · Creating and inventing · Group singing · Body and voice awareness, gesture, posture
- Music Performance: Playing Solo and in an Ensemble – Performing music means playing or singing a piece for listeners. A good performance is accurate (right notes, right rhythm), keeps a steady tempo, uses dynamics and phrasing to show feeling, and fits the style of the music. In an ensemble, players also listen to each other, balance their volume and follow cues. Good preparation is slow, careful practice in small chunks, then speeding up and performing for others.
- Music Composition: How to Build a Piece from a Tiny Idea – Composing means building music from small ideas. Start with a motif (a few notes). Develop it by repetition, sequence (the same shape higher or lower), and variation (change rhythm, turn it upside down). Put harmony under it: chords like I, IV, V, I, ending with a cadence. Choose a texture (tune alone, tune with chords, or many tunes together). Shape the whole piece with a form like A B A or verse-chorus. Improvising is composing on the spot. A brief tells you the purpose, length and instruments; you plan, draft, test and refine.
5. Theatre culture and science (theatre)
Terminale theatre perspectives · History of theatre · Theatre and the other arts · Contemporary live-performance aesthetics · Analysing shows
- Theatre Studies: How We Read a Live Performance – Theatre is live art made for an audience. To study it we look through three lenses: society (venue, spectators, politics), language (text, verse, genre, stagecraft) and aesthetics (styles of acting and directing). Stage shape, history and the mixing of arts all change what a show means.
- Performance Analysis – To analyse a performance (dance or theatre), watch closely, describe what you see and hear without opinion, interpret what it might mean, and judge with reasons taken from the show. Look at five elements: body, space, light, sound and costume or set. Notice the creative process, the choreographer's or director's signature, the relation between stage and audience, and compare productions to become a critical spectator.
6. Theatre practice (theatre)
Advanced acting training · Advanced interpretation · Techniques and practices · Designing and staging projects
- Acting: Bringing a Character to Life – Acting means showing a character truthfully to an audience. An actor first studies the given circumstances (who, where, when) and the character's objective (what they want). Then the actor uses the body (posture, gesture, levels, status) and the voice (volume, pace, pitch, pause) to show it. On stage, acting is action and reaction: you listen and answer your partner. Timing, pauses and tension shape a scene, and theatre can also explore real social issues.
- 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.