Middle school choreography class: two parallel but different worlds

Abstract

This research explored how middle school students construct meaning from their dance‐making experiences in comparison to the meaning attached to these experiences by an outside observer, the researcher. An interpretive methodology was used to study two nine‐week‐long dance classes taught at a private K‐12 school. Eleven students enrolled in the dance classes consented to participate in this study. The same dance teacher was the instructor for both classes. Observations were recorded throughout the duration of the dance classes. The students also answered the same questions in the form of two questionnaires concerning their feelings about making a dance. In addition, the teacher’s lesson plans were examined as they related to the choreographic process. Two themes emerged from this study. The first one dealt with involvement in the dance‐making process, and the second one was based on student communications. The meanings attached to each theme differed, however, with respect to the observations of the researcher and the expectations of the teacher in comparison to the reflections of the students. As a result, the researcher was able to describe the middle school dance classes as two separate but different worlds by describing the classes first based on the researcher’s observations and the teacher’s goals, and second from the viewpoint of the students.