Contact improvisation can serve as a way to access new understandings of Bartenieff Fundamentals. Inherent elements of contact improvisation such as thinking and feeling bodily in the moment, sensitivity to activated weight along with weight sharing and bearing, flow, whole-body organization, and immediacy of embodied presence provide fertile…

Dance faculty members come from a variety of backgrounds, which lead to varied knowledge bases and varied teaching practices. More information is needed about the current pedagogical practices of higher education dance faculty. This study sought to provide a description of four faculty members' pedagogical approaches to a dance technique class in…

This article examines assessment of "intangible" concepts in dance education such as creativity, risk, originality, or artistic thinking. Through the development of assessment workshops for arts educators, conducted from 2009 through 2011 across the state of Illinois and supported by the Illinois Arts Council, the authors developed a clear model…

In this article, two public school elementary dance educators share their experiences developing and implementing dance performance assessments. The assessments were developed for the State of Washington Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to assess student learning in dance education and bring dance assessment to an equal platform…

The field of dance education is not immune to conflicted discourses about race in the United States. This article investigates the subject of race, education, and dance, and problematizes current postracial discourses in postsecondary education. It examines the implications of race and ethnicity in a number of critical areas, such as faculty and…

Technique classes are often viewed as a purely physical part of dance training, one in which the student voice is silenced. This article demonstrates the principles, teaching strategies, and assessment tools that endeavor to change the power dynamic and allow students to own their learning in technique class and rehearsal. Assessment in this dance…

This article describes how using raw data and information from reliable assessments can inform teachers' decisions leading to improved instruction. The primary aim is to use a systems approach to provide evidence of what students know and how they demonstrate mastery. Such evidence can empower teachers to reach all students. The pedagogic…

Media and technological advances over the past decade have significantly influenced teaching--its design, delivery, and interactivity. At the same time, social media now dominates the ways in which most of the students encounter and engage the world. The implications of these developments present a number of critical questions about teaching…

For intermediate and advanced university students, technique class has traditionally been the place to study a particular teacher's style and to hone technical skills. This article suggests a pedagogy that broadens standard practice by focusing additionally on both performance principles and spontaneous problem solving in the technique classroom.…

Dance archives can bring students into contact with historical subjects through artifacts of the past. This article advocates the use of archival projects in undergraduate dance history courses, arguing that such hands-on learning activities give students dynamic and interactive experiences of history. The author describes a creative project she…

In this article, the collaborating authors, a researcher and dance artist, confront assumptions surrounding dance's experiential nature and assessment in schools. Presenting findings from a qualitative case study assessment of a three-week, whole-school dance artist-in-residence at a diverse and inclusive metropolitan K-5 school, the authors focus…

The author identifies higher order thinking as an essential component of dance training for students of all ages and abilities. Weaving together insights from interviews with experts in the field of dance education with practical pedagogical applications within an Improvisation and Composition class for talented and gifted youth, this article…

The Pilates method as Joseph Hubertus Pilates originally defined it in the early 1920s, was called "Contrology," or the art of control, based on the ideal of attaining a complete coordination of body, mind, and spirit. Joseph Pilates's early writings emphasized the value of controlling the body rather than attending to the process of body…

In teaching young dancers ballet, the utilization of effective assessments in partnership with supportive and creative teaching strategies can transform not only the learning experience, but the dancer as well. In this article, the author shares a "growth grade rubric" that specifically addresses three areas in ballet training: (1) skills and…

Since the 1970s, somatics have increasingly become a part of the dance training landscape. Although the psychophysical benefits seem sufficient in themselves to warrant inclusion in dance, this article explores another possible outcome of embracing somatic pedagogical principles, a change that affects not "what" is taught in a dance class, but…