"Ijust put my feet in the air and move them around".
Fred Astaire, American dancer (1899—1987)
Objectives:
• to practise reading for gist and then for more intensive understanding
• to check the use of Conditional I and Time Clauses
• to practise students' listening and speaking skills
Warm up
A) What kinds of music and dances do you know? Add the list of the
following words;
Music: house, techno, jazz, rap, reggae, rock'n'roll Dances: disco,
flamenco, jig, jive, samba
B) Listen to different music extracts. How good do you think they are for
dancing? Use the scale.
• Brilliant! Great for dancing all night!
• Good fun for parties.
• Not my kind of music!
Introducing the Topic
Vocabulary
Break dance — a style of popular dancing with sudden movements and
twists.
The Charleston — a style of lively ballroom dancing. Ballet — a type of
dancing to tell the story. Flamenco — a style of fast lively Spanish dancing.
Irish jig — a kind of quick lively Irish dance. Rock'n'roll — a style of loud
popular music and dance. The twist — a style of popular dancing that includes
moving and turning your body round.
Waltz — a kind of ballroom dance to a particular kind of slow music.
Reading
Pre-reading task
A) Listen to the music extracts and identify the dances.
B) Read the text very quickly. Where is it from?
A newspaper, a traditional encyclopedia, a Sunday magazine, a CD-ROM
encyclopedia.
Reading strategies: Gapped sentences in texts
• Read the whole text to get the general idea.
• Look at the missing sentences and read the paragraphs with gaps in details.
• Choose the missing sentence. Make sure the topic of the paragraph.
• Make sure that the sentence fits in with the sentences below and after
it.
Put the sentences below in the correct gap in the text.
a) In the mid-1980s breakdancing became popular.
b) They are easy to learn and are usually danced in couples.
c) Other kinds of folk dances are Maypole abd sward danding.
d) In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americam
dancerlsa-dora Duncan experimented with traditional ballet.
e) In the 1960s, people danced without touching their partner, in dances
like twist.
Ballet
Ballet began in Italy and France during the Renaissance and it is still
an important foem in Western ulture ...(1)... in Europe, dancers like the
Hungarian dancer Gudolf von Laban, also tried different ballet forms.
Folk Dances
Folk dance is usually traditional and performed by members of a community
or nation, for example, he Balkan Kolo, English morris dance, and North
American square dance. ...(2)... Folk dances are usually group dances that are
taught by one generation to another. Today well-known folk dances are often
performed for audiences, for example, the Irish Riverdance.
Popular dance
Popular dances or social dances often came from folk dances, although
they are usually popular for s short time. ...(3)...
Until the 18th century, social dances were only held in palaces or the
homes of aristocrats. However, in the late 19th century social dancing became
more popular. Ballroom dancing became popular in Europe and North America. In
the USA the mixing of immigrant cultures produced new forms of dance, such as
square dancing, and tap dancing. Before the First World War, new ballroom
dances came to Europe and America, for example, Fox Trot, Tango, Rumba, Cha-Cha.
From the start of the 20th century, African-American rhythm and movements
also became part of popular social dance: in 1920s the Charleston; in 1930s and
1940s the jitterbug, and then the rock'n'roll dances of the 1950s.... (4)...
Dancing in couples returned in the 1970s and 1980s with "disco"
music. ...(5)... This acrobatic foam of solo dancing began in the poorest parts
of large American cities.
Answers: 1 d, 2 c, 3 b, 4 e, 5 a.
Answer the questions.
1. Name two dancers who started modern dances.
2. What is the main difference between folk and modern dances?
3. Name two ballroom dances that came from folk dances.
4. Why sis a lot of new dances come from the United States?
5. What type of solo dancing became popular in the mid- 1980s?
Grammar
Mini test
A) Listen and match the five speakers with what they talk about.
1. "The situation is serious. If it continues, the population of
these parts of Africa will simply die".
2. "I know it's great, but what will I wear? It's fine if it's just
a disco or something, but what if it's formal?"
3. "And as you know, if you mix oil with water, they separate — so
in the same way..."
4. "I'll go to one of these water centers. It will be brilliant.
I'll surf and swim all daylong".
5. "First of all, I'll buy my family a new house by the sea. Then
I'll buy lots of fantastic new dresses, and perhaps I'll take everyone away
somewhere".
Speaker talks about
1. _(e) a) what she will do if
she wins a lot of money?
2. _(d) b) what happens when you
mix oil and water
3 _(b) c) the holiday he'd like
to have
4 _(c) d) the clothes she'll
wear if it's a formal party
5 _(a) e) the situation in
Africa
B) Match the two parts to make complete sentences.
1. If I pass my exam,
2. If people smoke a lot,
3. If you don't drink anything,
4. If it's a nice day tomorrow,
a) you will die.
b) we'll go to a beach.
c) they will get cancer.
d) I'll be very pleased.
Speaking
Questionnaire
Read the questionnaire and think about your answers. Then, in pairs,
tell your partner about yourself.
DO YOU WANNA TO DANCE?
1. Do you like dancing?
a) Yes, I love it.
b) It's OK.
c) Not really
2. How often do you go dancing?
a) Every week.
b) Only at parties.
3. Who do you dance with?
a) My boyfriend / girlfriend.
b) My friends.
4. Where do you go dancing?
a) Discotheques.
b) Friends' houses.
c) Other? Say where.
5. What kind of music do you like dancing to?
6. How well can you dance?
a) Very well.
b) Quite well.
c) Not very well.
7. What special dances can you do?
a) Waltz.
b) Rock'n'roll.
c) Other? Say which.
8. What dance would you like to learn?
Tell the class something about your partner.
Listening
Listen to the description of folk dances in the British Isles. Match the
dances with the places.
Dances: jig, morris dance, line dance, sword dance Places: Scotland,
Ireland, England
1. There are various folk dances in the British Isles. One folk dance
that is still very popular is the Irish jig. In this dance, the dancers move
with extremely fast steps. It is great fin to do but difficult to learn.
2. One of the strangest kinds of dance is morris dance from England.
People dress up in white clothes covered in flowers and ribbons. They have
belts on their legs which make a noise when they move and sometimes they carry
sticks.
3. In Scotland there are lots of different folk dances. There are reels
or line dances. Dancers hold hands and move around the dance floor very fast.
It's not very difficult to leam and is great exercise.
4. Another Scottish dance is sword dancing. Dancers put two swords on
the ground and then dance between them with small steps.
Answers: jig — Ireland, morris dance — England, line dance — Scotland,
sword dance — Scotland.
What traditions do you have in your country? | 
