Dance has an important place in multicultural education and the development of culturally responsive pedagogy. Through dance, children can explore and express their own and others' cultures and share their stories in ways other than the spoken and written word. This paper presents a case study concerning a professional development programme in…

This article presents a historical, ethnographic and practice-based study of dance education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The concepts of dance learning, hegemony and counter-hegemony are analysed in the context of cross-cultural interventions in politically marginalized communities, and the theoretical concept of anti-hegemony is…

This article introduces a phenomenological understanding of embodiment and discusses it in relation to a somatic approach to teaching dance. The nature of bodily knowledge is scrutinized especially through Maurice Merleau-Ponty's conceptions of perception, subjectivity, and intersubjectivity. The article offers insight into the relationship…

In recent years there has been a remarkable proliferation of ballet competitions. This prompts a number of questions, in particular how much are they affecting current training and performance practice and, more fundamentally, whether the notion of competition may be antithetical to dance as art. Underlying these questions is the issue of…

There is a lack of research examining practitioners' beliefs, understanding and attitudes towards the teaching of dance in England. In order to address this gap in the evidence, this paper reports on a recent survey of dance practitioners (n = 198) living and working in Yorkshire, the largest county in England, on what they consider to be the most…

The post-apartheid Dance Studies curriculum in South Africa is attempting to offer school learners both an education and training in dance as an art form. The outcomes-based syllabi are intended to ensure that learners come to respect the diversity of South African society, and therefore a range of dance styles and genres are offered in order to…

As artists seek new ways to reflect an increasingly digital and global culture, theatrical dance in the UK and Europe has seen a growing collaboration and cross-fertilisation between forms of dance, theatre, visual art, film and technology. As the boundaries between artistic disciplines continue to blur, it seems clear that dance audiences need to…

This article reports on the second UNESCO World Conference on Arts and Education held on May 25-28, 2010 in Seoul, Korea, which brought together approximately 650 arts educators from 95 UNESCO member states (countries) for a four-day summit of international diplomacy, cross-arts networking, global and regional strategic planning and professional…

This paper examines the relationship between narrative and spectacle in the Hollywood musical, with reference to the work of Busby Berkeley and Gene Kelly. It discusses Busby Berkeley's "backstage" musicals in terms of his "aggregate" approach to dealing with the narrative/spectacle relationship, and considers the effect of the backstage musical's…

The aim of this study is to present Rallou Manou's work, as well as to demonstrate her contribution to the development and emergence of modern dance in Greece. The data used were mostly collected from Rallou Manou's personal "Archive," but also from published reviews, interviews from her students and the personal experience of the…

The article examines the experience of participating in Contact Improvisation by male prisoners. It specifically focuses on issues of touch for this participant group and how inmates can learn different ways of acting from acquiring Contact skills, contributing to their rehabilitation. The paper looks at the culture in prisons that propagates a…

This paper examines two improvisational processes, Authentic Movement (AM) and automatic drawing (AD), the possibility of their presentation to the viewer and the meanings such presentation may bring to the work presented. Improvisation has traditionally been used in the process of creating a finished work of art rather than in the finished art…

This study is the second phase of a large project examining young people's experiences in dance education. It draws on multi-modal data from over 700 young people, diverse both demographically and in terms of degree and kind of dance experience. This phase focuses on data reflecting engagement and disengagement in dance, and illuminates them from…

Recent innovations in the field of early childhood education have prompted a re-thinking of teaching and learning. Traditional notions of child development have been undergoing some radical changes and, as such, have resulted in a reviewing and re-formulation of early years pedagogy. In Aotearoa New Zealand the field of early childhood education…

Talent identification and development processes are important components of many dance programmes, yet talent is notoriously difficult to define and its identification may rely on intuitive judgements. Taking a systematic approach to the study of dance talent could enable researchers and educators to better determine what talent actually "is," the…