The National Honor Society for Dance Arts (NHSDA) has existed since 2005, and more than 35,000 students have been inducted to celebrate their artistic merit, leadership, and academic achievement in dance. A recent addition to NHSDA programming, specifically geared toward highlighting the contributions of our collegiate chapter members, is a new…

High school dance students are at an age where they can process challenging technical concepts with an anatomical lens. One of these concepts is turnout, an essential joint action used in a variety of dance contexts and disciplines. As this joint action is not always well explained or well understood, many students try it without adequate guidance…

The purpose of this study was to explore the potential of capture systems in improving high school students' dancing skills through the use of experimental design. The major findings were as follows: First, using a MoCap system and high-speed camera to document dancers' movements can provide reference materials for students to improve their skills…

This "In Practice Article" provides recommendations on how to utilize "Journal of Dance Education (JoDE)" articles with secondary education students (typically ages 10-18), featuring examples of all four types of "JoDE" articles (Feature Articles, In-Practice Articles, Student Readings, and Book Reviews). These…

This article serves as an in-practice guide to help teachers facilitate the creation of a dance piece using the five-paragraph essay format to explore themes through motif and manipulation. It is an outline of the process that begins with the selection of a theme and the development of a motif to represent that theme. It compares the development…

Returning to studios after COVID-19, student-teacher tensions seem to be higher than ever. Teenagers who spent the beginnings of their young adulthood in isolation clash with instructors who might mistake their stress and insecurity for apathy and laziness. In this article, I examine my personal experience with teaching teenagers and offer…

The dance team season, unlike any other high school or collegiate sport, runs year-round. Typically, tryouts are held in the late spring, teams attend camp in early to mid-summer, and the first performance takes place at the first home football game at the end of the summer. This schedule means dance team coaches are eager to schedule efficient…

Many job postings in postsecondary and PK--12 dance education will ask applicants for a statement of teaching philosophy. This is most commonly a one- to two-page written statement that summarizes your beliefs about teaching and learning that underpin the way you go about structuring learning activities, curriculum, student engagement, and…

This article examines teaching strategies to empower metacognition through dance writing and collaborative dance making based on a project for middle school dance students at a Title I middle school during the Fall of 2020. This project draws on theoretical frameworks of critical pedagogy, intersectionality, and educational constructivism. Based…

Climate change is a contemporary global crisis that necessitates pedagogical innovation for the middle school dance classroom. This article describes an integrated design for a dance and science unit. Building on students' kinesthetic abilities, teachers are able to create a unit comprising a series of lessons on bird migrations effected by…

The primary aims of this qualitative interpretive inquiry were to gain better understanding of dance teaching artists' preparation and preparedness, workplace challenges, and the role and impact of policy and regulations in P-12 schools. A secondary aim focused upon identifying school environments that support effective and purposeful dance…

This study compares two methods of teaching a dance technique class to determine which yields a greater increase in high school students' technical skills. The historic, widely accepted method of teaching a dance technique class is through direct, teacher-centered instruction. However, current research, largely on undergraduate college students,…

In this article, two pedagogical approaches intended to foster social inclusion in school-based dance programs are described: inquiry and reverse chronology. The inclusion of inquiry and reverse chronology as featured pedagogies in Queensland, Australia's statewide General Senior Dance Syllabus is discussed, including the combined use of these…

Fresh Moves Dance Festival is an independent local initiative held in the Bay of Plenty region of New Zealand. In 2021 Fresh Moves reached a 20-year milestone. Part of a larger research inquiry which chronicles the festival's journey through the years and seeks to understand how such an initiative has been sustained over time, this article…

Authorizing student voice to examine what facilitates motivation, interests, and learning has shown potential for supporting students in taking ownership of their educational contexts. This study was conducted as participatory action research to co-construct an after-school middle school dance club in a southwest border town. The purpose of this…