Explains that an important aspect of dance history is lost by not recording dance rehearsals. Argues that recording rehearsals can reveal the creative process and illuminate the environment that engendered this art form. Concludes that a transformed dance history will influence curriculum development. (GG)

Presents and illustrates dances of several American Indian tribes as performed by the American Indian Dance Theater. (MDH)

Unfortunately, many students with limited dance experience are afraid to venture into exploration for fear they will "do it wrong." Others fear negative criticism. For these, and a myriad of other reasons, many dancers (not to mention physical education students) avoid improvisation and choreography when, in fact, they should embrace such…

As a Certified Laban Movement Analyst and a classically trained ballet dancer, I consistently weave the Laban Movement Analysis/Bartenieff Fundamentals (LMA/BF) theories and philosophies into the ballet class. This integration assists in: (1) Identifying the qualitative movement elements both in the art of ballet and in the students' dancing…

To resist and transform gendered and hypersexualized assumptions and attitudes that cloud interpretations and devalue readings of black and brown bodies, dance educators cannot only facilitate agency for their students, but also help demonstrate an overarching concern for social justice and equality. Dance has the power to transform and redirect…

The "Critical Thinking Belief Appraisal" was administered to practicing dance teachers (n = 52) in the USA to investigate their beliefs (and use of) critical-thinking activities with high-advantage and low-advantage learners. Results point to an "advantage effect" in dance teachers' beliefs about critical thinking: the higher…

The purpose of this research is to instigate a debate about the way in which professional ballet dancers are trained and the content of that training. The literature on the teaching of ballet has always focused on two areas: ballet vocabulary and training. The former is treated as both a fixed and autonomous form, and, for the latter, methods of…

Parental agency is examined in the creation of a dance performance by a group of Mexican immigrant mothers that combined a mixture of genres into an educational message. The "folklorico" performance resulted from a process of cultural appropriation involving linguistic, cultural, and experiential "translations." This process was concerned with…

This 21st Century Skills Map is the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has issued this map for the core subject of the Arts.

"Wish To Live: The Hip-hop Feminism Pedagogy Reader" moves beyond the traditional understanding of the four elements of hip-hop culture--rapping, breakdancing, graffiti art, and deejaying--to articulate how hip-hop feminist scholarship can inform educational practices and spark, transform, encourage, and sustain local and global youth…

These short essays address the political nature of teaching dance in higher education from various perspectives. Issues of identity, authority, power, expectation, and assumption are addressed within the context of the teacher-student paradigm. From personal perspectives, each author examines the ways in which who they are affects what and how…

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…

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…

This article describes the three fundamental strategic principles--to be curricular, developmental, and democratic--that have been designed and implemented in the Mamaroneck High School's integrated arts program, a four-year, sequential, elective program that includes dance, theater, and music. An explanation of the ways in which the dance…

Integrating principles from the Alexander Technique into a dance technique class can provide tools for facilitating a more coordinated use of the self. While the methodologies of Alexander Technique and dance technique may present differences, there are ways of applying the principles of Alexander within the context of a dance technique class that…