Education & training

Enhancing learning in dance technique through online-mediated reflective practice

‘Practice makes perfect’ expresses the common misconception that repetitive practice without appropriate feed-back will deliver improvement in tasks being practised. This paper explores the implementation of a student-driven feedback mechanism and shows how functional and aesthetic understanding can be progressively enhanced through reflective practice. More efficient practice of clearly understood tasks will enhance dance training outcomes. We were looking for ways to improve teaching efficiency, effectiveness of the students’ practice in the studio and application of safe dance practices. We devised a web-based on-line format, ‘Performing Reflective Practice’, designed to augment and refine studio practice. Only perfect practice makes perfect!

Starting from here: dance in higher education from the inside out

Starting from here explores the realm of interconnected experiences that exist in the study of dance as a site of emergent learning, embedded in the practice of ‘becoming’ and framed by the expanding field of everyday aesthetics. The paper explores a collection of ideas which frame the disciplinary condition, made evident through current practice in the UK. The paper explores some of the ongoing translations of dance as a discipline of study, and articulates potential future disciplinary intersections in the context of ongoing social, economic and political turbulence.