Teaching dance
Articles
‘Dance, young people and change’ summit program
Dance, Young People and Change brought together young people, parents, educators and others from around the world to share and consider the role of dance in young people’s lives. It provided critical evaluation and reflection on approaches to dance learning, teaching and curriculum for young people and offered opportunities to critique the relevance of dance for young people within education and community contexts.
Work health & safety for the dance industry
Some general advice for studio teachers and/or managers about meeting OH&S requirements for maintaining a safe dance environment and for caring for the participants in a dance class.
Caring for the dancer’s body
Traditionally, teaching and training concentrate on technique, alignment, flexibility and aesthetics. With advances in sports medicine and dance science research, there are easy-to-apply techniques to evaluate strengths and weaknesses.
Galvanising community (pt 2) Margaret Barr at Dartington Hall 1930 – 1934
Dance historian and scholar, Garry Lester continues his discussion of Margaret Barr's achievements at Dartington Hall in Devon during the 1930s.
Undisciplined subjects, unregulated practices: dancing in the academy
This is a working paper in process. It is concerned with the changing status of disciplinary knowledges, in dance and performance, in Australian universities. Although I have been working as an academic within the fields of dance and performance studies for some twenty years, it is only relatively recently that I have begun to reflect critically upon the disciplinary identity of dance studies and dance research, and with some more concrete sense of how these endeavours might be engaged differently.
Producing a dance performance
This information is intended as a guide for teachers or arts workers in an educational context who are presenting a dance or theatre production for the first time.
The arts: essential learning for all teachers
The NAAE affirms that learning in and through the arts is crucial in any learning environment designed to develop a culture of innovation.
The arts in the early years learning framework
Early childhood professional have long recognised that the arts offer very young children significant ways of knowing about themselves, others and the world.
The role of dance studies in a transdisciplinary university research environment
Boundary crossing is the first step towards transdisciplinarity. In this paper, Alison discusses the act of academic boundary crossing, of ‘dancing’ across or between the disciplines. She explores the potential role of dance within the relatively new and evolving research paradigm of transdisciplinarity (TD).
Copyright for the dance industry
What a dance teacher should know about copyright and some basic information about licenses specifically tailored for people teaching dance and for groups performing dance to music.
Code of ethics for dance teachers
We devised this code with leading representatives of Australia's studio teachers. It will help teachers understand the ethical standards expected of dance teachers by the dance profession.
Safe Dance report II
The second Safe Dance report presents research into adolescent health issues during intensive dance training.
Artists—the new elite
Professor Susan Street presented the eighth Dame Peggy Van Praagh Memorial Address alongside David McAllister, Artistic Director of The Australian Ballet. She explores some of the major challenges faced by the dance sector and reflects on some of the achievements.
Teaching and learning dance in a culturally inclusive classroom
Dance is the fastest growing curriculum subject in New Zealand secondary schools. While this is to be celebrated, responding to the diverse needs and interests of students in the classroom is a constant challenge for teachers. In the light of current educational research concerned with student diversity and cultural identity, this paper discusses strategies implemented by one particular teacher to enhance student participation and engagement in her dance class. The focus is on a professional development process and the changes the teacher made in her practice to develop a culturally responsive teaching and learning environment for her students.
The integration of somatics as an essential component of aesthetic dance education
This study looks at how incorporating a somatic approach into dance training can provide an aesthetic experience that engages the whole person and establishes the concepts of feeling and artistry as integrated components of dance education. The research advocates for somatic education to be a feature of dance pedagogy by assisting dancers to differentiate between the tone and texture of feelings on a phenomenological level.
Re-thinking the way we teach dance
These papers focus on the changing nature of dance pedagogy; exploring questions of identity and tradition, embodied learning to teach theory in the classroom, the act of dancing as a research strategy, cultural inclusivity as the heart of curriculum development and effective applications of digital technologies.
Transcultural perspectives on digital practices and the arts in higher education
Dance artists and educators from the Asia-Pacific region, America, and Europe discuss how emerging digital technologies affect the role of dance in higher education. Topics include: the creation of long-distance choreographic exchanges, digital curation projects with artists exploring relationships between mediatised performance and site-responsive work, and the impact of distance learning on re-imagining the locations and characteristics of dance audiences. Discussion revolves around possibilities for the digital world’s affect on how, and what we teach; its capacity to transform the message, medium, and reception of dance; and its contribution to the development of higher education programs and artistic futures.
The problematics of tradition and talent in Indian classical dance—an artist’s view
Tradition should be viewed objectively and re-evaluated. This paper explores contemporaneity of the creative arts from the point of view of a teacher-performer interested in the various functions of ‘dance’. It examines the system of classical dance training as it used to be and as it is now. Since tradition and the degree of talent are social constructs and are highly subjective, a re-examination of dance criticism becomes important. The economics, which underplay tradition and talent comes under scrutiny. This paper questions the various changes that plague the scene of classical dances in India in its global context.
National qualifications for the dance industry
For the first time in Australia there are national qualifications for the dance industry. Innovation & Business Skills Australia (IBSA), in consultation with experts in the dance industry, have created a new training package for the dance sector. It is called the Live Performance Training Package (CUA11).
Dancing with information and communication technologies
Felicity Mandile (Virtual Schooling Service, Education Queensland) talks about the World Dance unit embedded within the VSS Dance Course and in particular, an innovative project that utilised videoconferencing technology to create a collaborative choreographic environment between two indigenous groups of students.