This qualitative study investigated the impact of the mirror on a dancer's body image. Two groups of students enrolled in beginner ballet classes were taught the same classroom material; one group was taught with mirrors, the other, without. At the end of the semester four students from each class were randomly selected to participate in a…

This paper explores how young ballet dancers' bodies are constructed and narrated through their desire to become performing ballet dancers. The schooling of the balletic body engages the young dancer in embodying the discipline of ballet and in developing a particular belief in a performing body. The embodied set of acquired dispositions that are…

This case study focuses on a group of teachers' and students' opinions regarding the recent reforms in the dance department of Tainan University of Technology (TUT) in Taiwan. The author uses Pierre Bourdieu's theory of forms of capital and symbolic violence to probe for the motivation, process and consequences of the changes brought about by…

This paper considers student perspectives on the learning of dance history in a British University. The investigation focuses on the student experience. Recent researches into student learning and the idea of history provide a context for the study. A pedagogic research project in a British University sought, captured and analysed the views of…

The comparative study examined dance students' views of their dance education and training in tertiary education (further and higher) and their perceptions about the opportunities offered in the their courses available in England (higher education) and in Greece (further education). The aim was to explore similarities and differences between…

The purpose of this study was to assess the physiological and psychological impact of contemporary dance classes on adolescent females. Fifty-five females, aged 14 were recruited from secondary schools in the UK. The intervention constituted a program of contemporary dance classes with an emphasis on building muscular strength. Full ethics…

Teachers' narratives, when viewed as a form of critical inquiry, can allow teachers to tell and retell stories from their evolving points of view and contextual positions, with the goal of better understanding the complexity and depth of the experiences that have informed their teaching. This narrative, which weaves the voices of the author and…

This essay reflects a pedagogical qualitative action research study conducted in my university contemporary technique courses that explored constructivist, emancipatory, and transformative learning perspectives. The study offered me the opportunity to critically reflect upon my teaching practices and values in light of student perceptions of…

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of a cross-curricular programme for the teaching of traditional dances on the attitudes and perceptions of Greek pupils in the First Year of Secondary School. At the outset we anticipated that the programme would have positive results in terms of: (a) the pupils' enjoyment of the activity;…

The technique class can be an amalgam of frustration and joy, cautious imitation and mindless replication, being right and being wrong. Competing requisites, such as a desire for expressive freedom in relation to the demand that a movement be precisely structured, can unwittingly create a tension between teachers and students. The reasons for such…

The aim of the study was to find out how dance students experienced learning in an international distance education program delivered in an e-learning format using a virtual learning environment platform. In order to organize the students' experiences with the various learning assignments, we focused on three broad categories of learning tasks:…

With few exceptions, dance, and traditional dance in particular, has received little attention regarding the development of technological tools that can support teaching. The WebDANCE project was a pilot study with a European scope that aimed to experiment with the development of a web-based learning environment for traditional dances. The final…

This paper aims to address two related themes. The first theme is the current provision for practical skill development for disabled dance students within Higher Education in the UK, and the extent to which inclusive pedagogical approaches challenge conceptions of the disabled body, both within and beyond dance. The second theme draws on the first…

This study is the second phase of a large project examining young people's experiences in dance education. It draws on multi-modal data from over 700 young people, diverse both demographically and in terms of degree and kind of dance experience. This phase focuses on data reflecting engagement and disengagement in dance, and illuminates them from…