Toward a Definition of Dance Education.

The word "dance" may bring to mind images of incredibly talented ballet dancers, like Mikhail Baryshnikov, who are capable of leaps and turns that appear to defy gravity. Or we might think of popular stars of dance, like Michael Jackson. While professional dance in its many forms provides hours of entertainment and inspiration, these images are of the specialized few who have trained for years. This perception of dance and dancers only serves to limit the acceptance of dance into the school curriculum.

In spite of many efforts to place dance as a fundamental aspect of the public school curriculum, it is still considered extracurricular and expendable. The debate concerning the value of dance as a regular component of the curriculum generally begins with an inaccurate definition of dance education. In its current marginalized standing, dance often is categorized as a branch of physical education--an old-fashioned attempt to add grace and bearing to, mostly, female students.

This misunderstanding of dance education derives from a cultural prejudice suffered by all of the fine arts, in which the visual and performing arts are perceived as purely performance and entertainment. Their contributions to all other aspects of learning and education are excluded. On the other hand, language arts is not designed to train each child to become a prize-winning novelist. Instead, children are taught language arts so that they will be able to use and understand these communication skills. Similarly, dance education does not have complex mastery as its goal. Rather, it enables every child, regardless of physical capabilities, to be expressive in a nonverbal manner--to explore and incorporate the physical self as a functioning part of the whole social being.

What Is Dance Education?

Critics often object that not every child needs dance training, and they therefore oppose the inclusion of dance in the curriculum. Their objections appear to derive largely from not discriminating between the terms "dance training" and "dance education." Dance education does not seek to prepare children to become performers. Dance training, however, dictates movements and strategies for learning specific motor skills with the aim of mastery and future performance. Dance education can be described as the sequential development through the exploration of time, space, and energy in order to express oneself (Griss, 1998; Purcell, 1994; Stinson, 1988). In simpler terms, however, dance education seeks the development of self-expression and interpretation through motion, with self-knowledge as its aim.

The foundation of both dance education and dance training is in learning about the body and how it can move. From that point, dance training narrows into learning codified steps and motions, while dance education continues the exploration of body parts and movement in sequence with self, others, and the environment, through variations of time, space, and energy. These elements of dance are best explored and experienced in a creative and student-centered fashion, without imposition of style or codified forms.

Once students have become comfortable with these basic elements, they can combine the elements to express and explore more complex ideas. As this curriculum is developed and experienced, the possibilities of movement for each individual student become broader. Once freedom of movement exploration has been established, dance education may branch off into dance training as the student refines his or her expression.

Learning Through Movement

Movement, as a form of expression, is fundamental. Many people add an artful flowing of hands, arms, and other body movements as they speak. Nonverbal expression adds immeasurably to the enjoyment and clarity of words being expressed and received. Movement is a natural form of communication. Indeed, it is among the earliest forms of communication that children explore and learn, because it allows for the expression of ideas and imagination without words.

Developmentally, a child explores the environment through movement even before learning to speak. This movement is at first vague; eventually, it becomes focused on other objects and people, and grows in scope as the child develops the ability to move through his or her environment. Before a child can name an object, the object already has been fully explored. Language development follows, but does not limit, this initial sense of exploration through experience. As movement skills develop, the world expands as the child finds more to explore.

This exploration of the world and objects continues as a child grows, and it is often focused into play. From a developmental perspective, a child's interest in play and physical exploration continues throughout childhood, although the classroom's formal structure often places limits on those activities. As any elementary school teacher will attest, a constant struggle exists between a child's desire to move and explore, and the need for the more sedentary behavior considered necessary for classroom order and learning. Children gradually learn to transfer their skills of learning through movement into learning through more quiet activities.

In the United States, unfortunately, the instructional processes of elementary and secondary education are based on an assumption that bodies need to be sedentary in order for the mind to learn. The implicit message of the rows upon rows of desks and chairs, found even in the early elementary school grades, conditions students to stop approaching their everyday learning through movement. The usual curricular response to a child's need for motion and action is that it should be reserved for playground activities. Such breaks from sedentary learning are scheduled in order to burn off "excess" energy. Is that energy excessive, however? Or, is it simply mischanneled, when it could be used to enhance and increase learning?

Dance and motion can help resolve the problem of satisfying a child's innate desire for action during at least one period of the day, thus reducing that need during times when it might be necessary to assume more sedentary learning behaviors. The human body functions according to cycles; the most obvious is the cycle from sleep to wakefulness and then back again. Children also follow cycles of motion-to-calm activity. They progress naturally from a state of action to a state of quiescence. Reserving action and motion to extracurricular periods does not necessarily promote quiet concentration in the classroom. Instead, we should take a lesson from hatha yoga and learn how moving the body in a deliberate way can usher the mind into a state of learning and reflection.

Simply allowing movement time, in unstructured form, is not sufficient to either satisfy this need for movement or use it productively as a communication device. Rather, an instructional program should give shape to this energy. This is the realm of dance education. As a systematic program of instruction, dance will not only promote growth and development within movement, but also ensure that the movement aspect of the curriculum is more than a mere release of energy. At its core, it concerns the child's development of his or her full capabilities.

Providing time for unstructured activity, such as recess, is appropriate for the development of young bodies. In addition, a program of motion could be included during the structured hours of the curriculum to shape this natural energy and need for expression into opportunities for communication and self-exploration. It also can foster physical development through guided practice in gross and fine motor skills and coordination. This is yet another area where instruction in dance becomes important. A well-designed dance program, integrated within the regular curriculum, ensures that learning takes place while the child is engaged in releasing energy. A dance curriculum can give structure to an environment of self-exploration through nonverbal communication with others, while providing the skills necessary to accomplish that communication.

Curricular Integration Through Dance

Words and motions can say quite different things about the same ideas. Adding motion as a vehicle for exploring subject matter increases the depth of resultant learning and understanding. Dance expression, in the body, refers to complete learning that allows understanding to become fully integrated into one's being. Multidimensional learning strategies can bring that sort of curricular experience to children of any age.

Howard Gardner's (1983) theory of multiple intelligences suggests that children use different forms of intelligence in learning and problem solving. His ideas suggest that multiple approaches can be used to enter an area of content. Those approaches can involve--singularly or in combination--different senses, skills, knowledge sets, and abilities. Children, given the opportunity, will naturally assemble a personalized aggregate of intelligences needed to approach a learning situation. These sets are not fixed, however, but rather are dynamic and as varied as the problems demand. Movement and nonverbal exploration make up the kinesthetic intelligence.

Dance can be used to integrate curricular content in at least two ways: as a way to consider discrete concepts, and as a medium for the holistic weaving of multidisciplinary content. As an example of the former, elements of dance can be learned parallel to elements of literature. While one is not learned in service to the other, consideration of the same elements through the medium of writing and the medium of movement can deepen understanding and learning. Dance maybe incorporated into public school curricula in this fashion.

Maureen Manning and her 4th-graders have created a dance to present at a school assembly. It is based on a magical tale they wrote together about a special place where inhabitants flourish as learners--the "Land of Rosanbeek." Manning has learned how to help her students discover and refine their inventive movements. The result of everyone's efforts is a dynamic and original dance. While a student narrates from the side of the stage, music plays over the auditorium's speakers. Dancers appear as powerful creatures, and stalk across the stage against a colorful painted backdrop. With fluid movements, they stretch their arms into space, then curve their backs quickly and sharply, communicating the nature of these mysterious creatures to the hushed audience. (Zakkai, 1997, p. 9)

Curriculum integration, in its ideal form, allows for learning in a holistic fashion. The integrated curriculum presents ideas and knowledge not as isolated disciplines, but rather as intertwined concepts that contribute to all discipline bases (Jacobs, 1989). Dance excels in its ability to bring together many different disciplines into a cohesive, understandable expression. As an example, this exploration would begin with the concepts, and then a discovery of the manner in which these concepts are explored in different disciplines. Using space, each discipline exploration of this concept can inform the other, so that it deepens the discovery process and brings new understandings to bear. Since dance exploration is at the foundation of this discovery/exploration process, it encourages a new perspective of this concept in another discipline (math, for example).

Summary

While the need to develop keen communication skills is evident through curricular "standards" of reading, writing, and verbal practice, other (but no less important) aspects of expression are not often seen as central to what may be termed a "core curriculum." Music, dance, and the visual arts often are viewed as ancillary to this core. What is overlooked, either through a lack of understanding by curriculum designers or because of inadequate training within the arts, is that these nonverbal, nonlanguage based forms of communication and expression can enrich--without compromising--what is already extant within the core. Too often, the arts are given limited recognition as expressions of extraordinary performance, rather than as media for richly expressed, ordinary exchanges between people and groups of people.

Dance in the curriculum provides a fundamental aspect of education that is not present in any other form. For the development of the whole child--one who is fully expressive, who encounters and understands the world in many ways, and who integrates these experiences into shared meaning--dance is an important complement to traditional subject matter. Dance education provides an important avenue of entry into teaching nonverbal communication skills. Furthermore, dance education provides an important, structured outlet for students' energy and motion. In so doing, it can provide a needed release for movement, thus enhancing the quality of those times when behaving quietly is in order.

Learning through motion also can provide exciting reinforcement to traditional instructional practices. Recent developments in learning theory suggest that students learn best when subject matter is approached through multiple cognitive domains, or intelligences. Incorporation of dance education into the regular curriculum will provide yet one more pathway to learning. As an integral part of existing curricula, dance education provides excitement and allows creative inroads into the integration of subject matter, for the appreciation and benefit of teachers and students alike.

Recognizing the full potential of dance education means placing it in an essential position in the curriculum from the earliest years, and continuing throughout all the years of schooling. In this manner, the complete benefits of dance in the curriculum can be realized as it is experienced in a fully developed, sequential manner. The depth and range of curricular implications will increase along with the children's development. The value of implementing a fully realized dance curriculum is significant (Dixon & Chalmers, 1990), making it clear that now is the time to put it into practice.

References

Dixon, G. T., & Chalmers, F. G. (1990). The expressive arts in education. Childhood Education, 67, 12-17.

Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of mind. New York: Basic Books.

Griss, S. (1998). Minds in motion: A kinesthetic approach to teaching elementary curriculum. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Jacobs, H. H. (Ed.). (1989). Interdisciplinary curriculum: Design and implementation. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Purcell, T. M. (1994). Teaching children dance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Stinson, S. (1988). Dance for young children. Reston, VA: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.

Zakkai, J.D. (1997). Dance as a way of knowing. York, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.

Author's Note: Sincere appreciation is expressed to Jack Dexter for his careful assistance in the preparation of this manuscript.

Susan R. Koff is Assistant Professor and Coordinator of the Dance Education Program, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York.