The Binational Dance Conference was organized into three focal themes--verities, values, and visions in dance--to emphasize the known and accepted worth and value of dance, and to stimulate through knowledge and idea exchange, imaginative directions for dance in the future of both the United States and Canada. This thematic structure is also the…

Suggestions for teaching improvisational dance in a nonthreatening way are offered. (DF)

This document outlines the performance standards for dance in North Dakota public schools, grades K-12. Four levels of performance are provided for each benchmark by North Dakota educators for K-4, 5-8, and 9-12 grade levels. Level 4 describes advanced proficiency; Level 3, proficiency; Level 2, partial proficiency; and Level 1, novice. Each grade…

Dance should be seen as an authentic avenue for allowing students to learn kinesthetically by using movement that is essential to brain development. Ideally students would be exposed to dance forms and patterns in other art forms like music and drama as well as units within physical education classes. These North Dakota standards may be taught…

Five articles discuss the use of computers in dance and dance education. They describe: (1) a computerized behavioral profile of a dance teacher; (2) computer-based dance notation; (3) elementary school computer-assisted dance instruction; (4) quantified analysis of dance criticism; and (5) computerized simulation of human body movements in a…

Questions who decides what a culturally literate person needs to know and its social implications. Comments on the lack of dance references in E. D. Hirsch's book, "Cultural Literacy." Discusses what a person needs to know about dance. Analyzes dance as art in the context of cultural literacy's requirements. (KM)

Physical education teachers enjoy the special privilege of guiding children to discover unique ways for expressing and communicating ideas, attitudes, thoughts, and emotions through movement. Creative dance lets children explore movement possibilities limited only by one's imagination. Individually and collectively, creative dance encourages…

This essay discusses issues of cultural difference in dance studies and presents specific pedagogical strategies for engaging the students' embodied knowledge as a research tool in both historical and cross-cultural investigations. (Contains 2 notes.)

UK Higher Education Institutions are being required to reflect on the balance between academic and vocational aspects of their course provision and to identify more clearly how they are preparing their students for employment. This is not a simple matter. The UK arts and cultural sector is highly complex, with the characteristic features of a…

This paper examines two very different approaches to dance training, ballet technique and the somatic discipline of Topf technique ("TT"). It explores and evaluates the application of TT to ballet training. Initially, what is meant by the term "mind/body connection" is discussed, and then the paper examines, in a theoretical and a practical sense,…

"The performing Arts are reflections of ourselves!" This document was initiated in 2004 and completed by 2005 as part of a research paper with the help of the students and some members of staff from the St. Maarten Academy. There is a need for programs such as this within the Caribbean schools. Unfortunately the arts continue to lack the…

Music improves spatial reasoning, which is vital to strengthening the mental circuits used for mathematics. Dance develops critical thinking skills along with persistence and perseverance. Drama becomes a partner in the development of abstract thought and speaking skills. And the larger process of creating musical theater encourages cooperation,…

The aim of the study was to identify the features of the pedagogical context in choreography and dance technique classes which could be viewed as the basis for developing a suitable web-based ICT application to support teaching and learning in practical dance classes. The sample consisted of teachers from four dance academies in the Netherlands.…

This autoethnographic study addresses the newly appointed counselling trainer's question "How did I get here?" The procedure is described, and findings are presented as partial narratives of the Wounded Dancer, poems and prose written from different voices. Themes are revealed of love, healing, risk taking, unconventionality, physicality and…

The aim of the study was to find out how dance students experienced learning in an international distance education program delivered in an e-learning format using a virtual learning environment platform. In order to organize the students' experiences with the various learning assignments, we focused on three broad categories of learning tasks:…