Cover lesson · Dance · Year 11 · Advanced
DCF: Producing → Evaluating and improving digital content
Name: Class: Date:
What this practises: GCSE Dance (Made for Wales, first teaching 2026), Unit 3: Dance Appreciation, which is a digital only examination that includes an unseen work. Content 3.1.1 (the physical setting, including staging such as “dance for camera” and “site specific”, and the aural setting), 3.1.2 (the purpose, context and implied meaning of unseen works) and 3.1.3 (evaluating choreographic devices and structures in unseen works). Questions 1 to 3 copy the examination’s answer styles: select one, short answer and extended answer, written on paper today. Marks are for practice only.
Print: this sheet, one per pupil, and the stimulus sheet “Gwythïen: the dance for camera dossier”, one between two. Nothing is watched: the film is invented and described in the dossier, so it works as an unseen work. Calculators help in Question 4.
Run: 8 min pupils read the dossier in pairs · 10 min Questions 1 and 2 · 7 min Question 3 planning grid · 18 min Question 3 extended answer, alone and in silence, like the examination · 12 min Question 4, re-editing the film. Total 55 minutes.
Collect: this sheet, for the class teacher to mark against the worked example.
In the Unit 3 examination you will analyse an unseen work on screen and type your answers. Today the unseen work is a dance for camera film, Gwythïen, described shot by shot. You will answer examination-style questions, write an extended evaluation, then use the critics, the viewer data and the comments to recommend changes to the edit.
Read all six sections. Underline every device from Appendix A of the specification that you find. Key words:
(a) At 02:10 the dancers perform the digging motif one after another down the line. Select one structural device. [1]
| ☐ unison | ☐ canon | ☐ mirroring | ☐ contact work |
(b) Select the two types of staging used in Gwythïen. [2]
| ☐ proscenium arch | ☐ thrust | ☐ dance for camera | ☐ site specific |
(c) Select one choreographic structure that describes the film. [1]
| ☐ binary | ☐ rondo | ☐ narrative / episodic | ☐ theme and variation |
(d) At 10:10 Emrys and Mali perform the actions of the digging motif in reverse order. Name this choreographic device. [1]
(a) Describe two ways the costume communicates meaning. [2]
(b) Identify one feature of the aural setting and explain its effect. [2]
(c) Explain two things the camera lets the audience see that a live audience in a proscenium arch theatre could not. Give a time for each. [4]
Evaluate how effectively Gwythïen uses dance for camera to communicate its implied meaning. [12]
Plan first (7 minutes). One strength and one weakness in each row, each with a time.
| Area | Strength (time and evidence) | Weakness or limit (time and evidence) |
|---|---|---|
| Movement and devices | ||
| Camera and editing | ||
| Physical setting: site, costume, lighting | ||
| Aural setting |
Write (18 minutes), 250 to 300 words, on your own. Start with what you think the implied meaning is. For each point: what we see, how the camera or setting presents it, what it suggests, and how effective it is. End with a clear overall judgement.
The company will re-edit Gwythïen for a film festival. It cannot film anything new.
(a) How many viewers were lost between minute 5 and minute 6? What percentage of all the viewers lost during the whole film is that? Give your answer to one decimal place.
(b) Recommend three specific changes to the edit. Each must answer a problem you have evidence for from the critics, the data or the comments.
| Problem and source | Change: time, shot, length | How it communicates the meaning better | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 |
(c) Critics 2 and 3 disagree about the drone shot. Which one would you listen to, and what would you do? Justify it in two or three sentences.