This article aims to reveal the challenges of working mothers in dance academia in respect to balancing of teaching, service, administration, and research demands and parenting of young teens. Through a conversation, the authors aim to find solidarity in our similar situations in different geographic locations by exchanging ideas regrading…

Arts education advocates sometimes point to extrinsic benefits of arts learning, including Social Emotional Learning (SEL). This study considers if and how the National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) in dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual art may align with SEL standards adopted by the state of Illinois, upon which other SEL standards have…

This article examines assessment of "intangible" concepts in dance education such as creativity, risk, originality, or artistic thinking. Through the development of assessment workshops for arts educators, conducted from 2009 through 2011 across the state of Illinois and supported by the Illinois Arts Council, the authors developed a…

Drawing on more than two decades of experience refining this teaching process, as well as insights from two consecutive research studies of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago's education work, this article presents best practice strategies for teaching choreography to elementary students in schools. The article outlines the rationale behind the Prepare,…

Writing about the teaching artist practice should mean writing about art making. As both teacher and artist, the authors are required to be cognizant of their own art-making processes, both how it works and why it is important to them, in order to make this process visible to their students. They also need the same skills to write about how and…

The Afterschool Alliance and MetLife Foundation are proud to celebrate a fifth round of the MetLife Foundation Afterschool Innovator Awards. For the past five years, we have collaborated to highlight the work of quality afterschool programs that support children, families and communities across the nation. This compendium is a compilation of four…

There are many talented and creative dance professionals working in academia today, and it can be stifling to an artist to feel that one must give students traditional class assignments to evaluate their progress. Dance is a creative endeavor, and all aspects of the curricula, even non-movement-based classwork, can and should reflect this fact. In…

For nearly 25 years, the author has driven the highways and back roads of Illinois, teaching dance to school children, leading family programs, performing lecture/demonstrations, and choreographing technically simple, conceptually complex pieces with and for young dancers. The author's home base is Champaign/Urbana (C/U), twin cities with a…

This collection of essays explores various arts education-specific evaluation tools, as well as considers Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and the inclusion of people with disabilities in the design of evaluation instruments and strategies. Prominent evaluators Donna M. Mertens, Robert Horowitz, Dennie Palmer Wolf, and Gail Burnaford are…