Sue Cheesman MA works as a senior lecturer in dance education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand within teacher education. She has been for many years a choreographer, teacher and researcher both in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Her research has centred on choreographic practice particularly in relation to site-specific work, dance education, and dance and disability. She has a long association with Touch Compass Dance Company who have provided a base for some of her research interests. Her recent publications are to be found in Research in Dance Education, The Arts in Society and Dance Research Aotearoa.
Sue Cheesman
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Articles
Interject: a choreographer’s struggles in one specific site
Interject (a site-specific dance work) was performed on a ledge inside the Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand in November 2012. This paper reframes a complex picture of web-like connections and challenges around the relocation and re-envisioning of several site-specific choreographies into one specific site. How do you re-negotiate the dance content in a different site? What are the ramifications of an additional dancer? How do you interact/negotiate with the everyday use of the site? Is it a new work or not? These questions are discussed along with the unpacking and interrogation of my journey and a review of the end product as the choreographer in this process. This reframing will make reference to the past and how it has enriched and informed the expanding field of international site-specific dance (Brown 2010, Kloetzel & Pavlik 2009, Hunter 2005) and this particular project.
Sustaining dance education in New Zealand
This paper explores challenges facing dance educators working with pre-service primary teachers in the New Zealand context. An analysis and comparison of two national curriculum documents raises the question—how should a pre-service teacher education program for primary teachers respond to the demands of recent curriculum reforms? This paper discusses changes in teacher education that have had an impact on dance educators’ responses to curriculum demands. It details this impact using one particular teacher education institution (the University of Waikato) and discusses show how a cohort of students in 2008 views the current dance education provision. In conclusion, it offers an outline of some ways forward for dance educators.