Dance Education: Key Concepts

Key Terms and Concepts

  • standards
  • benchmarks
  • arts processes
  • arts literacy
  • dance literacy
  • dance pedagogy
  • media literacy
  • dance education
  • dance form
  • dance genre
  • dance learning experiences
  • strand

Envisioning Dance Education

  • Understand dance from multiple perspectives to gain new insights
  • Recognize what a dance educator does in schools and community settings
  • Relate to dance standards
  • Distinguish between dancer and dance educator
  • Use a model of teaching and learning in dance; components include experiences that activate learning

Defining Dance and Dance Education

  • Dance and dance education are interlinked; dance supports education as artistic and educational medium
  • Dance education defined as educating through dancing, making, and appreciation
  • The definition is simple but contains complexity
  • Dance means different things across cultures; difficult to separate dancer from dance
  • Defining dance provides a basis for understanding dance education

Defining Dance

  • Simple definition: the human body rhythmically moving through space and time with energy or effort
  • Engages physical, mental, and spiritual attributes when performing as art, ritual, recreation, health and wellness, or expression
  • A dance form initiates from movement, rhythm, content, style, aesthetics, traditions, and meanings that may be artistic, creative, social, cultural, or religious

Dance Forms and Genres

  • Designated into categories/genres: creative movement and creative dance; recreational dance (folk, cultural, social); concert dance forms; and other forms

Teaching and Learning Model in Dance

  • A model of teaching and learning in dance exists to frame the process
  • Components include the types of experiences that activate dance teaching and learning