The Place of Dance in General Education

Abstract

In a published in this journal, Derek Meakin and Patricia Sanderson concluded that and others concerned with dance in English secondary schools may be forgiven if they feel more than a little disenchanted with the condition and of their subject.' This observation applies equally to secondary education in the United States; yet the sources of the problem may be found at the elementary level. This article deals with three educational models which, although not formalized, encompass prevailing conceptions that affect the conditions and study of the field. I am suggesting that the difficulties may lie with perceptions not only by outsiders, but even by those within the field who seek a greater educative role for dance. The belief that dance is essential in the educational process has become encumbered with romantic exhortations and exaggerated claims that neither strengthen the position of dance nor garner support for it. We need to give to dance its rightful attributes and place by claiming neither too much nor too little for it. I will therefore argue for a consideration of the special characteristics of dance as an art form and as a discipline and against well-intentioned but misplaced educational outlooks that have served to consign it to a secondary position in general education. Faced with increasing demands for accountability and validation and with a return to the so-called basics, advocates among teachers and dance educators have attempted to tailor the functions of dance to fit these impinging priorities. Their rationales tend to be subsumed by one of three deficit models which I have called romantic, reductionist, and reinforcement, each of which is exclusionary in its own way.