Educational scholars agree that the relationship between curriculum development and practice is mitigated by complex political and cultural agendas (Goodson 1984; Vertinsky 2007). As a performing art form and physical activity, dance does not easily fit within the context of a typical school subject and is a site for ontological and…

This article reflects on the best teaching practices explored and developed by members of a teachers' community and action research project in Arizona. The project is an ongoing collaborative inquiry and curriculum development endeavor that involves seven dance educators who are currently teaching or have previously taught in secondary dance…

Dance programs in higher education offering both professional degrees (BFA) and liberal arts degrees (BA, BS) often focus most of their energy, attention, and resources to ever-increasing BFA programs. At the same time, liberal arts programs in dance often provide the real bread and butter of program headcounts, credit hours generated, and degrees…

This article provides an example of a collaborative effort between a dance specialist and four third-grade classroom teachers at an arts magnet school. They developed a dance and geometry integration project including implementation strategies, assessment tools, and reflections completed by both the classroom teacher and the third-grade students.…

Dance studio spaces are often tucked away in the physical plant, separated from other classrooms and the primary activities of the school. During team meetings and curriculum planning, where does the dance educator ft in? With whom does the dance educator partner or team? The dance educator should be routinely partnered with a department or team…

Re-Education classrooms are self-contained and tightly organized, to meet the unpredictable challenges of daily school life. It is typical to observe children hitting, kicking, spitting, crying or shutting down completely while lessons are being taught. Teachers, in turn, are required to physically restrain a child if he might cause injury to…

This article describes the Dancing across Disciplines (DAD) project (1998-2002), which the author conceived in the idealism of the potential of dance and music as the great levelers, in the promise of the celebration of difference through rhythm and song, funded by a $225,000, three-year grant from the US Department of Education's Fund for the…

The concept of the "hidden curriculum" can reveal complex issues of gender in dance education, ones which often reinforce gender stereotypes in the larger culture. The hidden curriculum, referring to everything students are learning besides what teachers are explicitly teaching, is generated through the taken for granted structures and practices…

In recent years the number of children, ages 3 to 5, in early childhood programs has rapidly grown. As a result, an emphasis has been placed on developing curriculum guidelines that specifically address the needs of young children. One of these guidelines recommends that children be provided with an opportunity to participate in regular movement…

Explores applications of somatics to school and university curricula, addressing somatic knowledge as content and methodology in dance education, proposing strategies for bringing the body back into dance and dance curricula, exploring cultural diversity issues within dance and somatic education, and concluding that somatic knowledge and practice…