In this article, we explore the transformational power of holistic studio culture in dance education, drawing from our personal experiences growing up in dance studios that engaged in community events and dance competitions. Unlike traditional studios bound by a single technique, our formative environments embraced a rich tapestry of dance…

When thinking of wellness in dance, we often think about addressing mental or physical health-related challenges facing performers, although when looking at community dance, there are additional considerations to ensure the wellness of citizens and neighbors participating in dance programming. Gaps remain in dance education training to prepare…

This article explores the values that bridge democracy and community dance. Policymakers show an interest in promoting democracy, including the very values shared between community dance and democracy. Observing this, we propose that policy may benefit from examining the pedagogy and practices of community dance, and incorporate relevant aspects…

America's current sociocultural moment requires that we reexamine, reevaluate, and reimagine our dance education policy documents, curriculum, and classroom practice. This position paper raises questions about the assumptions underpinning our dance education archival discourse and infusing the language we use to articulate it. A return to…

The results of the 2016 British referendum on membership of the European Union and the presidential election in the United States of America initiated political changes that will arguably have resounding impacts, within and beyond the UK and the US for years to come. Much of the rhetoric accompanying these political victories appears to confront…

In this article I present a discussion about the purpose of education of, for and with black, working class, young women within an inner-London, twenty-first century college, and explore the complex and imperfect ways that educational purpose translates into educational practice. I discuss the respective value of two contrasting discourses of…

Contemporary discourse embraces notions of human movement in space as occurring in both set, singular locations and also through many locations and ever-changing fields. Mobile conceptions of location and spatiality particularly relate to patterns of everyday contemporary life and are embraced in some artistic and performance practices. Graphic…

What are the dominant images of the Child in contemporary Western societies? In order to challenge some dominant images of the Child, this essay explores the possibilities of analyzing an experimental dance practice with preschoolers aged 1-2 years with Claire Colebrook's theorizing on "the war on norms". Colebrook suggests a "Queer…

This paper reviews, analyzes, and reflects upon two important reports released in 2013, both discussing research evidence for the value of dance education or arts education more generally, among school-aged students. One report was created by a large dance education advocacy and support group in the USA, the National Dance Education Organization;…

This essay explores the numerous and diverse ways collaborative practices in dance research can unfold. Strengths and challenges within the collaborative process are discussed as emphasis is given to the multiple perspectives and types of relationships that evolve from and within the process. These core elements offer scholars a rich array of…

This paper seeks to examine how embodied methodological approaches might inform dance education practice and research. Through a series of examples, this paper explores how choreographic writing might function as an embodied writing methodology. Here, choreographic writing is envisioned as a form of visual word choreography in which words move,…

In this article, the author compares the practices, philosophy, and history of action research, also known as participatory action research, to the purposes and practices of dance education. The comparison yields connections in four categories, enhancing self-reflective teaching and curriculum design, taking responsibility for teaching outcomes,…

Curriculum theorists have provided a knowledge base concerning aesthetics, agency, creativity, lived experience, transcendence, learning through the body, and the power of the arts to engender visions of alternative possibilities in culture, politics, and the environment. However, these theoretical threads do not reveal the potential of K-12 dance…