This article addresses the notion of touch and its constitutive role in the participatory sense-making process (de Jaegher and Paolo 2007) of play and dance improvisation. It is argued that touch is always relational, as it continuously changes the contours of self, other(ness), and world(ing). It is therefore surprising that touch traditionally…

In embracing lingocentric educational methods, dance has reinforced dichotomous thinking and traditional dualities of mind/body and language/movement. Formal structures of critical responses to choreography have left out reflective methods that are generative, embodied, and participatory and those that challenge lingocentric methods of feedback.…

This article investigates sustaining dance education in light of the Syrian Civil War, exploring questions such as: How might dance education continue when one is in exile? What happens when exile, dance, and education intersect? This article seeks to untangle these broad queries in relation to the experiences of three dancers from Syria--Sara,…

There is a paucity of research focused on understanding the qualities which underpin dance artists' practice in working with talented young dancers with disabilities. This study investigated what informs how dance artists work in inclusive dance talent development contexts. Four dance class observations were conducted to provide evidence of dance…

It is my belief that a prevailing colonial mentality in higher education dance spaces, as it relates to jazz dance, is responsible for the lack of serious engagement and appropriate regard. This article makes the argument for the decolonization of higher education spaces, advocating for fuller engagement with the jazz genre and positioning it to…

Scottish Highland Dance (Highland Dance), known for its accompaniment of bagpipe music and traditional wearing of the kilt, has captured the interest of many dancers and spectators worldwide. It requires strength, stamina, coordination, and very controlled movements. Such intricate technique and movements can be difficult to master, especially for…

Chinese postgraduate dance students can be surprised by epistemological expectations when commencing research degrees outside China. This can result from translations into Mandarin of very dated dance scholarship from Europe. Specifically, Curt Sachs' 1933 book "World History of the Dance" continues as a pervasive representation of…

In an attempt to respond to the calls for dance educators to explore alternatives to harmful authoritarian teaching practices, we propose that one such route forward is an Activist Approach to teaching, which was originally developed in physical education contexts as a student-centered, inquiry-based approach that attends to issues of embodiment…

Choreography classes rooted only in modern/post-modern/contemporary dance (hereafter referred to as contemporary dance ), fail to provide racial equity to today's college students. Dancers with backgrounds in forms other than contemporary dance such as hip-hop, salsa, kathak, etc., must learn a new set of movement principles and aesthetic values…

I argue that personal style in improvisational dance is, amongst other factors, a matter of the dancers' attunement to sets of affordances. We can use the language and theory of affordances and enactive embodied cognition as a teaching tool to improve our students' improvisational practice. Often when a student's improvisational skill has…

This article follows a university dance educator's journey through shifting pedagogy to create a more equitable learning environment, turning traditional didactic dance education models inside out. Inside-Out Prison Exchange Pedagogy, designed to facilitate dialogue across differences, was utilized for a movement-based course of university…

Teaching dance technique in academic environments can be problematic in that many Western practices are rooted in traditions that contradict contemporary educational theory. This can create a disconnect between maintaining time-honored traditions and developing more student-centered class structures. This article questions the importance of…

Learning through dance technique has the potential to transform students, both in terms of their bodily capabilities and their sense of self in the world. By exploring the "how" of dance pedagogy, this research study investigates dance technique learning through the accounts of undergraduate students and teacher-researcher reflexivity at…

Drawing from social science, educational, and legal scholarship, this article examines color-blind and color-conscious ideologies and their impact on dance education. It demonstrates that color-blind racial ideology produces numerous deleterious effects among teachers, students, and the general population, and it illustrates how these adversely…

This practice-based article illustrates how dance education pedagogies can help refugee youth adjust to new settings. To support refugee youth in narrating aspects of belonging in their everyday lives, this article offers pedagogies for creative movement that unfold through multiple stages. As developed in the first author's dissertation study and…