This paper describes the "Virtual Borders" project developed in response to the dramatic changes in dance teaching and learning globally, arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from action research, "Virtual Borders" presents an innovative adoption of Peirce's sign theory to tertiary dance choreographic pedagogy, that…

The "West Australian" of June 1919 contains a detailed account of a 'novel educational method'. It was the first public demonstration of the Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze in Australia. It was held in Government House Ballroom, under the patronage of His Excellency, the Governor of Western Australia, and Lady Ellison-MacCartney. It was…

From the rallying call of the USA's Black Lives Matter movement, three Australian university teacher educators present perspectives on First Nations dance in the school curriculum. The Australian education system has emerged from the devastating impact of European colonisation upon the continent's First Nations peoples resulting in trauma,…

Work produced during a course of study in the creative arts may differ from assessment in other disciplines in the following ways: (1) it is non-text-based: work may consist of a performance, video recording, digital or interactive work, music composition, audio recording, or physical artefact; and (2) it is creative: works demonstrate individual…

Cultural hegemony permeates society and is spread through social institutions. These institutions socialize people into the norms, values and beliefs of the dominant social groups. Moreover, cultural hegemony is spread and perpetuated through education in the form of compulsory education, a national curriculum, national assessments, as well as the…

As school education systems worldwide adopt standardized performance measures, teacher effectiveness frameworks have become more influential. This article draws on Australian mixed methods research that aimed to understand the processes behind quality arts pedagogy. Following an in-depth quantitative study, nine high-performing case study arts…

The London School of Dalcroze Eurhythmics (LSDE) was established in 1913, and a significant figure in its history was the remarkable Cecilia John, one of seven Australians to complete the three-year course between 1917 and 1927. Apart from two short visits to Australia, John lived and taught in England for the remainder of her life. Following the…

The arts are an integral and important component of our everyday lives. As such, they need to be a vital part of our children's education. However, this has rarely been the case in Australian state primary schools over the past two hundred years. This article explores the history of the arts in Australian state primary schools since the…

This paper describes a teaching model, "The Teaching Artist", developed to address the pedagogical and cultural divide between the traditional dance teacher and the dance artist who teaches: traditionally, one teaching about dance and the other, teaching through dance. The "Teaching Artist" model was developed through the…

Community workers are often described as unsung heroes who work for, with and alongside others in order to make qualitative differences to the communities they serve. This paper reports on the story of a community-based arts educator, Morgan Jai-Morincome, winner of the ACT Adult Learners Week Award for an outstanding program in 2007. This…

Why would boys want to dance? Why would anyone want to dance? The argument prosecuted in this paper is that dance educators have tended to see dance as a self-evidently good thing with self-evident benefits for children who learn to dance. In other words, dance educators tend to concern themselves with why students should dance rather than why…

This paper examines the meaning of ability in the context of dance education, in part, via the lens of aesthetic education, a reasonably well-developed body of ideas, and asks what it means to be "aesthetically able". While aesthetic education tends to focus on aesthetic appreciation, it does also deal with a person's capacity to respond…

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…

A college course in Queensland (Australia) brings Indigenous women into the class to teach their music and dance. Performative pedagogy involves students as audience and participants, providing opportunities to critically engage with the social, political, and ethical dimensions of power and knowledge in the university setting. Student comments…

A White Australian professor of a class on Indigenous women's dance has her Aboriginal sister-in-law conduct workshops on Indigenous dance. The classroom dynamics resulting from the complex power relationships (teacher as White woman, Aboriginal family member, and students) disturbs Western paradigms. The responsibility of "safely…