K–5 Student Experiences in a Dance Residency: A Case Study

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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 on assessing student experiences and calling attention to the socially and theoretically constructed nature of experience. Their assessment research findings yield rich insight into how dance experiences shaped through a complex interplay of both embodied and experiential and social and theoretical forces can illuminate students' complex thinking and abilities to represent knowledge. The implications of these findings provide direction for how to better understand, assess, and communicate students' dance and curricular knowledge that are made possible through arts experiences and arts assessments.