Integrating somatic practices into the dance technique class by bringing awareness to the bodily processes of breathing, sensing, connecting, and initiating can help students reconnect the mind with the body within the context of the classroom environment. Dance educators do not always have the resources to implement separate somatics courses…

Site-specific dance, which is often defined as dance that occurs outside of the conventional theater space, challenges choreographers to look at, listen to, feel, and think about the space in which the dance is performed. It also asks audiences to be active participants in the performance experience. The dances have to be informed by the space and…

This qualitative study describes the experience of professional contemporary dancers studying and applying the Alexander Technique to their dancing. This study was motivated by: 1. years of teaching both dance and somatics, 2. a strong desire to better understand how the Alexander Technique can be applied by dancers, and 3. a gap that the…

Good teaching, at its core, is an intuitive practice. It is an art and craft in which, through vision, objectives, and planning, a teacher prepares for the teaching moment. Experienced teachers know that lesson plans and pre-planning though, no matter how finely crafted, only point the teacher and the student in a direction. As artist-educators…

This paper represents an attempt to document some of the methods and processes involved in creating a new dance work. I observed, over a 5-week period, the making of a contemporary dance piece with a group of 19 3rd-year BA dance students at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts. The choreographer was Melbourne-based Dianne Reid, who…

Dance history is studied at all levels of the curriculum, whether as a named course or part of other domains of enquiry. Debates drawn from the philosophy of history and historiographic practice can impact on the teaching and learning of dance history in order to produce a more imaginative and personal engagement with the field. These debates are…

In the popular media, American cultural, educational, and political life is portrayed as ideologically split down the middle. The split is often framed in terms of opposites by using the ideas and labels addressed by the author in this paper--traditional versus nontraditional, experiment versus the status quo, diversity versus homogeneity, change…

Physical education majors often question the value of dance as part of their degree program. This article discusses attitudes toward dance and its place in the curriculum and gives suggestions for teaching dance. (MT)

To combat the trend of mandatory physical education courses only through the tenth grade, dance teachers must offer a quality program which will motivate students to elect dance courses. A dance program at Woodrow Wilson High in Long Beach, which has students on waiting lists, is described. (MT)

A questionnaire was designed to discover and describe the criteria and methods used in promoting and retaining dance faculty at colleges offering both graduate and undergraduate degrees in dance. Responses are discussed. (MT)

Dance educators, the authors argue, should assume some responsibility for providing alternative dance-related career opportunities to dance students. With proper career guidance and an interdisciplinary approach, many students could become researchers, writers, critics, physiologists, arts managers, dance production designers, technicians, or…

Suggestions to help music teachers adapt the following teaching methods are provided: the Dalcroze method for dance class; the Kodaly method for instrumentalists; the Orff method for string players; the Suzuki method for instrumentalists; and the Kodaly method for chorus. (RM)

Tested the mastery hypothesis as an explanation for the affective benefits of acute exercise. Undergraduate women from a self-selected aerobic dance class rated their exercise performance following class. Affect questionnaires were completed before and at 5 and 20 minutes after the class. Results showed an overall improvement in affect following…

Presents various instructional techniques and examples of dances teachers can use to accommodate and integrate students with ambulatory disabilities, reviewing basic inclusion principles as they relate to dance and providing a suggested progression for teaching dance when including children with ambulatory disabilities. The article illustrates…

One of the great puzzles within the Western concert dance world is why so many artists who create revolutionary works onstage conduct their classes and rehearsals as demagogues. Such teachers are engaged in teaching practices that replicate and reproduce in the dance studio the very power relationships they are often critiquing as unjust and…