Dance Partners Making Meaningful Connections

A Dance-Movement Therapy experience with blind and visually impaired people. The paper contains a synthesis of observations taken from the Research Journal related to the dmt workshop experience.

Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, 2000

Made available courtesy of American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance: http://www.aahperd.org/ *** Note: Figures may be missing from this format of the document Article: There has been a growing trend within higher education to reach out from the halls of academe into the communities in which people live. From service-learning programs to community action initiatives, many universities are seeking new ways to provide educational programs to underprivileged citizens. In the process, university students are gaining a more global understanding and appreciation of the cultural and socioeconomic differences between various groups of people. This bodes well for dance educators seeking to move dance beyond studios and schools and into communities. With the rising cost of dance classes (the average fee is $7-10 per class) and the inaccessibility of many traditional dance styles and training techniques, many people find themselves isolated from artistic and creative forms of dance and movement education. Community-oriented programs can be an effective way to bring dance to such people.

The differently-abled dancing body has become more of a presence in dance culture over the past thirty years; however, professional training for these bodies is still minimal in scope (Charnley 2011; McGrath 2012; Benjamin 2002). Dance-based programs for individuals who are differently-abled often exist with primarily recreational and/or therapeutic goals. This paper will describe the development of a unique inclusive dance program over a four year period comprised of young dancers with disabilities (ages 6-11) with a professional training intent. The paper will address practice methods which have shown to be effective in the development and sustainability of our program. We offer these practical “field research” ideas as relevant suggestions for other dance educators interested in similar program implementation. Curricular development and classroom practices are addressed foremost, followed by several other key program elements, concluding with a reflexive consideration of limitations and on-going challenges to consider in launching inclusive dance programs.

Research in Dance Education, 2019

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the lived experiences of community college dance students. Previous research was examined to provide a more holistic picture of dancers during their college years and while in the workforce. The literature reviewed indicated that the emergence of dance as a field of study was controversial. Its beginnings were marked by debates concerning (a) the very definition of dance as a body of motion and a body of knowledge that includes a history and a philosophy as asserted by Dimondstein (1985), (b) its legitimate place within the academy (the perception that university dance programs were vocational in nature with little academic value) as noted by Stinson (1990); and, more recently (c) the possibility of some resolution to make dance not only a performing art but an academic discipline in its own right (Savrami, 2012). The theoretical framework of social cognitive career theory was used but was modified to include only the tenets most frequently cited in the literature that directly influenced the career identity of dancers particularly in relation to their motivation to academically persist and graduate. The phenomenological analysis, in the tradition of Moustakas (1994) and Wertz (2005), produced an early thematic matrix of 18 codes that were reduced to six major themes: aspirations, academic commitment, emotional identification, anticipated outcome or career expectation, vicarious learning, and challenges. One of the major recommendations included conducting a longitudinal study focusing on how students navigate an unpredictable job market, including the discussion of issues of workforce preparation in the academic curriculum and major. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank God for guiding me through my long educational journey. This dissertation was the result of hard work and valuable assistance from others. I am very grateful to my committee chair, Dr. Rosa Cintrón, for being so committed to my success. I would also like to acknowledge my parents, family and friends for their support during the difficult times of this process. In addition, I would like to thank the chair of the dance department for assisting me in finding participants for my study. I would also like to recognize my participants for giving their time to participate in my study. To my fellow doctoral cohort, thank you for your assistance and guidance. Finally, I would like to thank my dissertation committee members for their efforts in helping me produce the final product of this study. v TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .

Dance Education in Practice, 2017

International Journal of Instruction

The aim of this study was to investigate: a. the effect of an interdisciplinary program of Greek traditional dance by the means of the teamwork method of teaching social skills to students. b. whether this effect was similar for boys and girls. The sample of the study constituted of 206 elementary school pupils (4th, 5th, and 6th class). The intervention program lasted for two months. There were a total of sixteen lessons (2 per week) which concerned the acquisition of social skills through Greek traditional dance (the experimental group). The method in use was either the group divided work or teamwork. The Greek version (Masadis et al., 2016) of Matson Evaluation of Social Skills with Youngsters (MESSY-II) was applied to collect the research data. This in order to be analysed required the following statistical analysis: a. Descriptive statistics b. t-test for independent sample c. Reliability analysis (Cronbach's α) and d. Repeated Measures ANOVA. The findings and the evaluation of the study suggest that the teamwork method is the most appropriate to adopt in social skills learning for the last 3 grades of primary school and traditional dancing the best choice to make.

First Contact was an international collaborative research project in dance between two universities -one situated in Liverpool, UK the other in Philadelphia, USA. It sought to enable students to work with peers from 3000 miles away by communicating via web-cam and email. Students worked together to create a short dance works for sharing with others, exploring together how technology could expand their learning network. The key aims of the project were:

2018

"Physical Education" is the subject that influences, during school, the harmonious physical development of children, endowing them with abilities, attitudes and knowledge that stimulate their social and creative approach with the social environment and allow them to continue their education(Cârstea,

It has become apparent all over Greece in the last few decades that, with the intervention of the dance teacher 1 , Greek 'traditional' folk dancing has tended to be acquire a certain uniformity. Learning to dance by being taught to do so, this became a popular activity in Greece in the 1950s started out in the urban centres, promoting a fresh aspect of folk dancing, more homogeneous, unilateral in meaning and stylised 2. This process was not restricted to urban centres however, it was just as dynamic in the provinces, sporadically from the 1950s, and more systematically after the political restoration of democracy in 1974, when, through the educational system it became part of the school curriculum, and through recreational activities was a means of occupying the young in their free time. Both cases require a person to initiate the aspiring dancer in to prepared heritage, whether that person is a member of the community or from elsewhere. Alongside, teaching which introduces new mores to dancing such as names of dances, rhythms, melodies, a new quality in the movements, certain elemental forms of theatricality are introduced too, with the performance of dances before an audience. In the provinces, however teaching coexists with functional knowledge of dancing, since dance is a part of life in many communities, with the result that the dance teacher and the dances he teaches frequently clash with the experiential knowledge of people who know how to dance, irrespective of whether their dancing has today undergone modifications in technique, is used on different occasions, has a different significance, or whether its management has passed into the hands of organized agencies. In dance method is applied teaching the analytical component, which entails the breaking down of the dance into smaller kinetic units so that its components elements can be comprehended, (movements, kinetic motifs, dance motifs, phrases, periods), and executed 'correctly' 3 (exercises in rhythm, coordination , dancing skill). Through teaching apart from the fact that it affects the 'traditional' methods of transmitting a dance-seeing, perceiving, executing and reproducing when dancing-its dynamic interpretations give to and are replaced by one only way. Rehearsal, constant repetition with insistence on perfection eradicate on the polyphony diversity of dance forms, resulting in dance insulated, stylized. Moreover dance that is fixed in recent years, with the diffusion of technology, as well as the dearth of folk musicians who, ideally, supported the dance lesson with live music, the accompaniment is nowadays provided by mechanical means 1 A person, irrespective of sex, age, experience, and ability education, who undertakes to transmit their knowledge of dance to others, by whatever manner and means, either at a local or wider level. 2 There are differences in the way of dancing, between someone taught by a dance teacher and some one who has learned dance through lived experience. These differences, principally qualitative to the position of the body and use of the limbs, the kind of movements and their relation to one another, concern elements denoting a kind of 'signature', of the association, the instructor or the community respectively. 3 'Correctly' that is, according to the teacher's stipulations and knowledge of the subject.