Performance Skills — Open Awards Vocationally-Related Qualification Dance & Performing Arts Revision
This element develops foundational performance skills for entry-level learners, covering the understanding of basic performance techniques, active particip
Topic Synopsis
This element develops foundational performance skills for entry-level learners, covering the understanding of basic performance techniques, active participation in rehearsal and preparation, and the ability to deliver a short performance in front of an audience. Practical application focuses on building confidence, teamwork, and simple vocal and physical control in a supported setting, ensuring learners can transfer these skills to small-scale presentations or community arts activities.
Key Concepts & Core Principles
- Stimulus: A starting point for creating dance or drama, such as a piece of music, a poem, a picture, or a theme. Students learn to interpret stimuli to generate movement ideas.
- Choreographic devices: Tools used to develop and structure dance, including repetition, canon, unison, contrast, and formation changes. Understanding these helps create interesting and coherent performances.
- Performance skills: The techniques needed to engage an audience, such as projection, facial expression, body language, spatial awareness, and timing. These are practiced and refined throughout the course.
- Health and safety: Essential practices like warming up to prepare the body, cooling down to prevent injury, and being aware of personal space and safe lifting techniques when working with others.
- Evaluation and reflection: The process of reviewing your own work and that of others, identifying strengths and areas for improvement. This is often done through verbal feedback or simple written logs.
Exam Tips & Revision Strategies
- Attend all rehearsals and actively participate, as consistent effort and willingness to take direction are often assessed through ongoing observation rather than just the final show.
- Before performing, do a short physical and vocal warm-up to relax your body and prepare your voice, helping to reduce nervous tension and improve projection.
- During the performance, if you forget a line or movement, stay in character and improvise a simple action or pause; assessors value recovery more than a perfect recital at this level.
- Familiarise yourself with the performance space layout and audience position in advance, so you feel confident about where to stand and look.
- Consistent attendance and positive contribution in rehearsals are heavily weighted; assessors value a willing attitude as much as technical polish at this level.
- During the performance, if you forget a line or movement, do not freeze – a simple recovery, like repeating the last action or staying in character, shows resilience and earns marks.
- Present evidence of your preparation journey, such as a diary or photographs, to clearly demonstrate your role in the creative process and understanding of performance skills.
Common Misconceptions & Mistakes to Avoid
- Mumbling or speaking too quietly due to nerves, resulting in the audience being unable to hear lines or cues.
- Turning their back to the audience or hiding behind other performers, breaking the connection and visibility required for effective communication.
- Breaking character by laughing, looking at the assessor/peers off-stage, or fidgeting, which disrupts the performance’s believability.
- Rushing through movements or dialogue without regard for timing or cues, causing other performers to be out of sync.
- Learners often confuse rehearsal with performance, failing to maintain focus or treating practice runs as informal play rather than structured preparation.
- Many turn their back to the audience or speak too quietly due to nerves, forgetting the key skill of projecting voice and body outwards.
Examiner Marking Points
- Award credit for clearly identifying at least two performance skills (e.g., voice projection, facial expression, body language) through simple written or oral explanation.
- Recognise active and consistent engagement in rehearsal tasks, such as learning basic lines or movements, following simple blocking instructions, and cooperating with peers.
- Expect the learner to stay in role with appropriate focus and attempt to project voice and movements outwardly to the audience during the final performance.
- Look for evidence of responding to basic direction or feedback during the preparation phase, e.g., adjusting volume or positioning when prompted.
- Award credit for correctly identifying at least two performance skills (e.g., clear voice, facing the audience, staying in character) through simple verbal or visual evidence.
- Award credit for demonstrating active participation in preparation tasks such as learning a short script, attending rehearsals, or helping to create a basic prop or costume piece.
- Award credit for completing a live performance for an audience, showing awareness of personal space and basic performance conventions like entering and exiting the stage appropriately.