Student safety is an important goal when teaching physically active skills, and school safety standards should be considered as important as the dance content standards for students. More than being complementary, safety standards and content standards are functionally related, because "consistently enforcing safe practices within the…

A history of the outstanding K-12 dance program in Vancouver, Washington, is provided, including various strategies used to promote its growth from a few pilot elementary schools through middle schools to an arts magnet high school. Numerous changes have been weathered by the professional dance staff, including certification challenges instigated…

This article evaluates strengths and limitations of some studio training. It focuses on values that private studio students bring to the public school setting. One teacher uses this as an opportunity to reflect on and claim her own values and desire to develop students as artists.

This article explores the ways in which gay male presence and contribution to dance education in the US is minimised in order to legitimate male participation and to gain wider social acceptance of dance. Current muted discourses regarding homosexuality in dance pedagogy are not only shortsighted, but also unwittingly reproduce narrow stereotypes…

Dance Education can be considered an aspect of everyday living when using the correct definition of dance education. Rather than referring to the rarified form of movement that we encounter on the concert stage, dance education is the education of our moving selves with the goal as self expression. This can be initiated as an aspect of the initial…

This critical analysis focuses on the movement vocabulary and interaction of dancers in selected sections of the filmed version of "White Man Sleeps" (1988) by Siobhan Davies. The choreography is divided into five distinct parts, in accordance with divisions in the musical accompaniment from which the piece takes its name, a suite of…

For female students and professional dancers, dance imposes a low body-weight image. Despite high energy needs, many female dancers consume fewer nutrients than recommended when they perceive themselves as overweight. These abnormal behaviors can lead to malnutrition, dehydration, and vitamin deficiencies, or even to medical problems such as…

The premise that effects of maturational timing are mediated by social context is explored by comparing adolescent girls in dance and nondance schools. The findings are discussed in terms of a goodness of fit between the requirements of a social context and a person's physical and behavioral characteristics. (Author/LMO)

Suggestions for teaching improvisational dance in a nonthreatening way are offered. (DF)

Five articles discuss the use of computers in dance and dance education. They describe: (1) a computerized behavioral profile of a dance teacher; (2) computer-based dance notation; (3) elementary school computer-assisted dance instruction; (4) quantified analysis of dance criticism; and (5) computerized simulation of human body movements in a…

Describes an innovative approach to using information and communication technologies in teaching choreography. A group of dance students ages 9-18 in three countries created an original piece of choreography through an Internet collaboration process, sharing their choreographic ideas via movies and text. The asynchronous communication method…

Analyzed the amount of activity, intensity of activity, and attitudes of participants in Czech high school physical education classes taught using different teaching styles and dance forms. Measurements of heart rate and dance intensity and student surveys indicated that teaching style and dance form significantly impacted the intensity and volume…

Five articles on dance dynamics and dance science focus on incorporating dance science into techniques class and performance training, the role of body therapies in dance training, psychological and nutritional concerns in dance, and training dancers and preventing injuries. (JD)

Questions who decides what a culturally literate person needs to know and its social implications. Comments on the lack of dance references in E. D. Hirsch's book, "Cultural Literacy." Discusses what a person needs to know about dance. Analyzes dance as art in the context of cultural literacy's requirements. (KM)

This feature examines the diverse nature of imagery, how images work, and the use of imagery--in creative dance for children, to enhance alignment, and as a therapeutic device. Also explored are creative visualization and research tools for observing and categorizing the use of images by dance teachers. (IAH)