High school dance students are at an age where they can process challenging technical concepts with an anatomical lens. One of these concepts is turnout, an essential joint action used in a variety of dance contexts and disciplines. As this joint action is not always well explained or well understood, many students try it without adequate guidance…

In this article the authors present practical approaches to alignment cueing using the Functional Awareness® approach to embodied anatomy. The pedagogical philosophy is beneficial for all levels of dance skill. We describe specific instructional practices to enhance understanding of the body, and the cueing can be incorporated in any dance class.…

Heatwaves, extinct species, and broadly polluted areas worldwide are apparent signs of the human-caused ecological crises. Scholars agree that a collective ecological change is needed to save the Earth. Thus, we must critically reflect how we, as dance educators, are dependent on how dance is defined, and how its educational aims and practices are…

The first year of design education is essential for students as it is their initial interaction with the design process. Awareness of the body through dance has the potential to reveal bodily experience in space. Abstraction of embodied experience contributes to realising the significance of the body and its analytical dimension for spatial and…

In this student reading, I use examples from dance technique classes to bring attention to the choices that students make when learning new movement via observation and repetition. Based on these examples, I frame learning in technique class not as a process of imitation but a process of translation. In doing so I hope to advocate for the…

This article serves as an in-practice guide to help teachers facilitate the creation of a dance piece using the five-paragraph essay format to explore themes through motif and manipulation. It is an outline of the process that begins with the selection of a theme and the development of a motif to represent that theme. It compares the development…

The following study is a phenomenological qualitative analysis of collegiate dancers' experiences with and perceptions of body awareness and somatic movement. Participants (n = 8) were trained dancers, although not dance majors. Semi-structured interviews explored what kinds of experiences dancers have had in the realm of body awareness, what…

The whole person is a valued part of their dance community, and a healthy community plays an important role in the individual dancer's self-identity and social, psychological, and overall health. As a dance community, we need to do everything we can to help increase body positivity through empathetic and empowering methods that bring everyBODY…

Flow states have been linked to positive emotions, optimal focus, productivity, and a stronger sense of self through learning. Past research has confirmed that dancers experience flow, that flow in dance is related to spirituality and community connectedness, and that environmental factors can inhibit or facilitate dancing flow. This exploratory…

This article presents a study on three somatic movement dance educators' perspectives on developing creativity in dance students. A post-positivist, inductive qualitative study was undertaken to gather practitioners Katye Coe's, Sara Reed's, and Rebecca Weber's phenomenological reflections on teaching somatically informed dance and how somatic…

This dissertation examines a century of Chinese dancers' bodily citizenship from the 1920s to the 2020s with emphasis on accounts of dance instruction and artistic exchange at the Beijing Dance Academy through a review of historical dance photo and newspaper archives, data collection of lived experiences in artistic practice, and oral history…

In many dance competitions in North America, performances of sexualized choreography have become normalized. One result is that bodies of girl dancers are increasingly constructed as sexual objects. Sexual objectification is highly problematic for the development of girls' self-identities, body image, psychological health, and overall wellbeing.…

This article adheres to UN guidelines concerning the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) which aim to improve the lives of the older population. The objective of this study is to show how social dance with artistic-scenic purposes for a socially vulnerable group of older adults (third and fourth age) contributes to active ageing from social and…

This article calls educators to continue using accessible language to support dancers with disabilities and promote disability esthetic in dance. I will draw from my experience working in "inclusive dance," a term that will be discussed and problematized. The article also challenges the idea of the "ideal" body in dance. It…

This article critically reflects on the pedagogical practices I explored, reimagined, and employed while shifting dance improvisation education from face-to-face lessons in a dance studio setting to existing online platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Through self-study research as a method of inquiry I analyse my experiences…