Inspired by Harney and Moten's (2013) description of study in the undercommons, I bring the perspective of a dance teacher to a conversation about educational equity. Dance is an important method of study and a form of knowledge. It shows up in the undercommons (Harney & Moten, 2013) and in students' at-home educations (Shujaa, 1993).…

One of my principle aims as a dance educator is to cultivate somatic-based learning environments so that students develop, integrate, and hone a holistic, embodied sense of self. In order to achieve this objective, I strive to help students connect their movement to their ongoing thoughts, sensations, and perceptions. In this article, I describe…

High school dance students are at an age where they can process challenging technical concepts with an anatomical lens. One of these concepts is turnout, an essential joint action used in a variety of dance contexts and disciplines. As this joint action is not always well explained or well understood, many students try it without adequate guidance…

Ensemble Thinking (ET) is a toolkit of movement scores developed by dance-maker Nina Martin in the 1980s in New York City. The scores of ET arose out of a confluence of Martin's choreographic and improvisational performance practices. The impetus for developing ET was to develop a technical language for creating and discussing improvised dance.…

The aim of this paper is to suggest perspectives on movement capability and movement skill learning that take into account the intrinsic, meaningful value of moving in terms of the experience of the mover as a learner and a knower. Two perspectives on movement capability and movement skill learning will be presented and discussed here:…

In this student reading, I use examples from dance technique classes to bring attention to the choices that students make when learning new movement via observation and repetition. Based on these examples, I frame learning in technique class not as a process of imitation but a process of translation. In doing so I hope to advocate for the…

There are calls for developing ways to teach language that can inspire and motivate students to study additional languages. While previous research has pointed toward benefits of arts-based activities in language learning, combining language and dance has mainly been studied with younger language learners. Contextualized within the course…

This article adheres to UN guidelines concerning the Decade of Healthy Ageing (2021-2030) which aim to improve the lives of the older population. The objective of this study is to show how social dance with artistic-scenic purposes for a socially vulnerable group of older adults (third and fourth age) contributes to active ageing from social and…

In this article, we explore how inclusion and diversity in mindful dance and movement practices can be supported by a practice of self-reflexivity in regards to our embodied identities as teachers. We understand identities as created through processes of stratification, which tend to assign dualistic, fixed and often mutually excluding categories…

This article builds on an arts-based pedagogical development project where a kindergarten educator and a somatic dance teacher have created and conducted dance-workshops for kindergarten teachers, aiming at developing bodily professional knowledge through dance. The research is carried out from a post-human perspective (Barad, Karen, "Meeting…

Dance is an essential cultural product often overlooked in curriculum and lesson design in favor of sports, literature, visual arts, music, and other products from the target language culture. Given the similarities between the national standards for dance and for learning languages, movement and dance activities merit a greater role in world…

The "West Australian" of June 1919 contains a detailed account of a 'novel educational method'. It was the first public demonstration of the Eurhythmics of Jaques-Dalcroze in Australia. It was held in Government House Ballroom, under the patronage of His Excellency, the Governor of Western Australia, and Lady Ellison-MacCartney. It was…

This research explores the question: How do students describe their own sensemaking practices in the postsecondary modern dance classroom? Based on semi-structured interviews with three postsecondary dance students at the first author's institution, this article presents individual accounts that capture students' perceptions of making sense of new…

This qualitative descriptive study explored how undergraduate dance students describe somatic experiences in dance technique classes and their influence on their critical thinking, feelings of empowerment, and dance technique at a private southwest university. The theoretical foundation for the study was critical pedagogy. Using critical pedagogy,…

Laban Movement Analysis is a common resource used in dance education curricula in the United States. When used to analyze dance forms that are created outside the Eurocentric lineage, the application of this system must be contextualized as a perspective stemming from beyond the mores of the cultural creators of that dance form. This article…