Dance Pathway

The mission of Mountain House High School is to prepare our diverse student population to succeed in college and careers and to become positively engaged members of their local and global community.

Welcome to the dance pathway! In these dance classes, students explore the fine art of dance. The curriculum is focused on various dance styles ranging from jazz, contemporary, hip-hop, multicultural, as well as other dance styles. Dance is a part of the Career and Technical Education department at Mountain House High School thus centering curriculum around CTE based standards such as collaboration, technology, professionalism and safety. This pathway explores various career paths related to dance and the fine arts as a way to help prepare all students for whatever career path they choose after high school (whether it be in dance or another career). Students in this pathway learn different genres of dance, produce their own dance numbers and can participate in the dance productions. In addition, the students in the intermediate and advanced dance courses participate in the CTE dance production in January of each school year.

Students in this pathway can choose from among the following courses, and are awarded a pathway cord and recognition upon graduation and completion of all three dance courses offered:

BEGINNING DANCE (9th or 10th grade)
This course is designed to allow students to meet a portion of the general High School Fine Arts requirement. In this course of beginning dance, students will begin to explore the basic art forms of dance. They will focus on jazz, contemporary, modern, lyrical, hip-hop as well as various multi-cultural dances (Latin dance, Bollywood, etc.) at the beginning level by demonstrating learned skills as well as their own beginning dance choreography. Students begin to develop skills to not only learn dances in various dance styles, but they also begin to create their own choreography. Students do not need any previous dance experience to take this course.

INTERMEDIATE DANCE (10th or 11th grade)

This course is designed to allow students to meet a portion of the general High School Fine Arts requirement. In this course of intermediate dance, students will continue to explore various art forms of dance. They will focus on jazz, contemporary, modern, lyrical, hip-hop as well as various multi-cultural dances (Latin dance, Bollywood, etc.) at the Intermediate level by demonstrating learned skills as well as their own intermediate dance choreography. Students in this course are required to participate in the CTE dance production, creating their own choreography in the genre of their choice.

Prerequisite: Beginning Dance or teacher approval. Fulfills UC/CSU “f “ requirement.

ADVANCED DANCE (11th or 12th grade)
This course is designed to give students an intense technical and performance experience. This course is for the advanced dancer with an emphasis on technical development at the professional level. A wide variety of performance opportunities will be explored including performing in the CTE dance production.

This course is designed to allow students to meet a portion of the general High School Fine Arts requirement. In this course of Advanced Dance, students will continue to explore various art forms of dance. They will focus on jazz, contemporary, modern, lyrical, hip-hop as well as various multi-cultural dances (Latin dance, Bollywood, etc.) at the advanced level by demonstrating learned skills as well as their own advanced dance choreography. The students in this course will also plan a production while collaborating with their fellow classmates to create choreography for dancers to learn and follow. This will all be done at a more advanced level all while helping to build confidence while performing in small groups in front of a live audience.

Prerequisite: Beginning and Intermediate class completion (or equivalent to both).

For more information about the Dance Pathway, contact the lead teacher, Michael Campos, for more information at [email protected]