DANCE IN PUBLIC SCHOOL CURRICULA
Dancing is a form of art that allows many children to express themselves through body motion while developing many skills. Children throughout the world have been dancing since the day they began walking. When a child to take their first steps and puts together the simplest combination of movements, that would be considered as dancing. Music also plays a major role in the development of children understanding dance, because it is can be used as an accompaniment, and can help children get a better feel for the rhythm in dances. Over the past century educators have come to the conclusion that dance serves as a form of art, and should be taught in public schools and colleges to help the growth in children of all ages both physically, mentally, and academically.
The development in dance in education, during the 19th century in the United States, was linked to the sudden increase of elementary schools, secondary programs, colleges, as well as the establishment of private dance academies throughout the nation. Dance had always been thought as being just a form of socializing and not as a form of art. Private academies introduced dance as an art form before public schools. The private academies felt that through dance children would benefit greater academically, and physically, than those children who did not have the luxury of taking dance. Enrollment increased in private academies, while throughout the United States the enrollment in public schools steadily decreased. This was when educators decided to begin including dance in public school curricula.
Kraus (1969) found that " a major influence in helping to bring dance into public schools and colleges was the work of the French dramatic teacher, Francois Delsante " (p.127). By the beginning of the 20th century, dance had become accepted by public schools throughout the United States and was now a required class. The only negative part about dance being taught in public schools, was that not all teachers who taught the dance classes were certified because there main objectives were to teach core classes. Throughout the United States, dance classes provided a form of exercise for children, but the dance were so basic it was not until public schools adopted the concept of modern dan...
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...dance education is to continue growing throughout public schools and colleges in the United States, students, parents, and the rest of the community will need to stand behind their dance educators. Dance has always served a form of great exercise that allows people to express themselves through movement, and will continue to do so into the future. Dance education in the elementary level is a place that may need some help in child development, and the way to solve this problem is by getting classroom teachers who are skilled in dance and creative movement instruction. Dance education in the secondary level also needs to get highly skilled teachers who are also certified in dance themselves. It would also help attract more students if dance was presented in a different department other than physical education. Dance education in the college level is taught by certified dance instructors, therefore dancers in this level are able to explore movements, while being critiqued by someone who knows what is happening. Dance education has played a major role in the development of children of all ages, and will continue to do so, as long as dance educators and dancers have the proper support.
Ballet has been an art form since the late fifteenth century, but society did not truly see the impact of ballet until the nineteenth century. Modern day thinkers possess the idea that ballet began with tutus and pointe shoes, but it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that this opinion was observed. Ballet has come a long way. It has survived the turmoil of many wars and has changed itself by accepting new ideas and impressing the audience with its unique stylistic views.
The freedom of the American life and culture of the 1970’s overflowed to make a major impact on music and dance during this period. American culture flourished. The events of the times were reflected in and became the inspiration for much of the music, literature, entertainment, and even fashion of the decade. Choreographers wanted to motivate the dancers to leap into the unknown and experience the contact of dance in their own way.
Dance is the universal language of the soul. Dance speaks of the truest inner feelings and life experiences of a dancer. Every dancer and/or choreographer will grow up to have a very distinctive style and set of unique techniques, dance values, and teaching methods to be followed. The dancer whom we will be analyzing in this paper is a pioneer of modern dance, Lester Horton. He was born on January 23rd, 1906 in Indianapolis, Indiana (Segal, 1998). He had moved to California to create dances and had developed a fresh and unique style of technique and choreography (Warren, 1977). He established the first permanent theater in America devoted to dance, and organized one of the first integrated modern dance companies (Yeoh, 2012).
New Dance is described as a developing art form; this dance was articulated in the early 20th century. According to Chapter 8 in History of Dance book, “the new dance emerged as a response to the ballet that populated the variety shows and music halls, which had a rigid formula of steps and poses” (Kassing). The New Dance was a product of several strands that interlaced together dancers’ studies and backgrounds; these strands and others were woven together in a historical, political, and societal framework. For instance, one strand of New Dance consisted of the concepts, techniques, costumes, and stage settings from around the world. These strands influenced major dancers and choreographers, such as, Isadora Duncan, Loie Fuller, Ruth St. Denis, and Ted Shawn.
Learning about Dance: Dance as an Art Form and Entertainment provides visions into the many features of dance and inspires scholars to keep an open mind and think critically about the stimulating, bold, ever-changing and active world of dance. Learning about Dance is particularly useful for those who do not have a wide and diverse dance contextual, such as students in a preliminary level or survey dance course. This book consists of twelve chapters. Chapter one dance as an art form focuses on the basic structures of dance. Dance is displayed through the human body, it has the control to communicate and induce reactions. Dance can be found in many different places, it enables the participants and seekers to touch and knowledge the joy of movement. Dance is discovered as being one of the oldest art forms worldwide. Dance existed in early cultures was recognized in a sequence of rock paintings portrayed dance. Since this discovery of rock paintings, several other forms of art have been found that depict dance. People used rituals in order to worship the gods and believed that the rituals held magical and spiritual powers. During the ancient period civilizations sentient decisions began to be made with regard to dance. Other periods that had an impact on dance were the medieval period, the renaissance period, and the contemporary period. Chapter two the choreographer, the choreographer is a person who comes up with the movements created into a dance routine. The choreographer expresses themselves through choreography because this is their way of communicating with the audience. In order to be a choreographer you must have a passion for dance. Each choreographer has their own approaches and ways of making up a routine. Choreographers ...
Miami Dade College’s very own dance majors, who were challenged by the artistry of guest choreographers as well as themselves, performed The Art of Dance. Watching this performance truthfully made me question if the dancers in this program were being trained properly to be professional dancers
Dance is a type of sport that usually involves movement of the body, often carried out to different types of music depending on the style. Dance is practiced in many cultures as a form of expression or social relations in a spiritual or performance setting, and is even used to express certain beliefs and ideas. Dance does not have traceable roots and it is not possible to say when exactly dance became a part of culture, but historical evidence shows that dance has been an important aspect of rituals, services, revels, and entertainment since the ancient developments. Since dance was discovered, it has become prevalent. Many different forms and styles of dance are used all around the world today including ballet, swing, hip-hop, and even the tango and salsa.
Ballroom dancing in New York gives underprivileged children the opportunity to be exposed to the arts, which is usually a program that is cut from low-income schools. This program is a part of a fine arts curriculum with a focus on movement/dancing. A fine art curriculum approach integrates the different aspect of the arts to enhance the learning experiences of the students (Agrelo, 2005; “Dancing Classrooms- Mission”, 2015; Gorski
Dance is more than time, Space, and energy. People have this perceived connotation that dance is just visual art depicted from movements in the body. This is true that dance is a form of visual entertainment, but when looking at the sociocultural lens, dance has far more reasoning. Whether these reasons were to free oneself from oppression, or creating a community where one felt safe, social dance was a way for people to express emotion and create identity. As social dance evolved, these different cultural identities were exposed to one another.
By that I do not mean a conservatoire style training, but the type of dance that grew in American universities often developing from Physical Education programmes and often based on the pioneering work of Margaret H ‘Doubler at the University of Wisconsin. This was a form of education that developed the whole person and saw that technical ability was not an end in itself but was at the service of creativity.’ (Jackson,
If you think back to when you were in school, was there always a person picked last while picking teams for a game of kickball? The problem with using sports as a way to exercise is that they're competitive, create arguments, can make a person feel down by not being picked first for a team, and can often make a person injured. Dance isn't competitive and yet it's still a wonderful way to stay fit. It may be even better than sports at helping kids be healthy. In fact, the article written by Rebecca Lake called The Benefit of Dance For Kids, says that "The repetitive movements involved in dance can improve muscle tone, correct poor posture, increase balance and coordination and improve overall cardiovascular health.
As discussed during class, dance has always played a large part in society and political affairs. However, what we covered was largely before the nineteenth century. These more than one hundred years that separate what we covered and the Ballets Russes was a time of great artistic innovation. The commodification of ballet was also very interesting to me. Previously, ballet and dance were used in social gatherings, however at the turn of the twentieth century it morphed into something that could be bought, sold, and traded. Garafola notes that, choreographers like Fokine could receive top dollar for their efforts (Garafola 196). I found it very remarkable just how much Diaghilev’s success relied on outside sources and his ability to integrate the Ballets Russes into the era’s operatic marketplace. When looking at the interaction between society and dance from the other direction it is interesting to note that during the twentieth century, dance became much more cosmopolitan in terms of artistic styling. Dance arrived at the forefront of the careful balance between social and artistic behaviors within the academic culture of France, in which a majority of these undertakings were purely of commercial
There are already enough courses for the goal of college or a career after high school that are offered as a part of the curriculum and dance courses would be seen as unnecessary and a distraction to academic classes. However, there are students who want to train to become a professional dancer, go to college and major in dance like myself, or want to take an active class other than physical education. Where would these students be properly trained and why is physical education the only option for a course that incorporates being active? I trained at a dance studio far away from my high school and it was difficult to afford the training, and the physical education classes became a course where students just played team sports, which was not every students strength. The dance classes would be more than beneficial to students, offering convenient training and another option instead of physical education. Rather than the dance classes being a distraction, they would posses ways to enhance being focus in academic classes like relieving
Dancing has been around for centuries. It all started with ritualistic, symbolic dances in the early tribal societies. Early tribes used these dancers to tell stories, old folks tales, and were used to worship or communicate to their gods. An example of these types of dances is called a rain dance to worship a certain. “ The dance designed to excite the emotions, such as the war dance; the dance purporting to communicate with the gods, such as the rain dance.” (Fegurson1). Many would gather to worship and dance to their rain god, believing this would bring water and prosperity to their land. These types of dancing later evolve into dancing in the renaissance era in the 17th and century and modern day era. Ballet, another form of dance, was originally created in Italy and France in the 15th centuries. Dance during this time was used for celebration. Therefore early Italian ballet choreographers combined many dif...
To many, dance is only an art. In reality, dance is much more. It 's an art, a sport, a way to express one’s self, a way to exercise, a way to get feelings out. Since the beginning of time, humans have used different types of dance to express themselves. There are many advantages to dancing, however there are also some disadvantages. Dance is one of the most physically and cognitively demanding sports.