Thinking as They Create: Do Children have Similar Experiences in Dance and in Language Arts?

Abstract

This study examines the cognitive experiences of children as they engage in creative projects in both dance and poetry. The data includes interviews with fifth graders from an elementary School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, about their lived experience of writing poetry and creating dances. Students interviewed for this study participated in a three-session artist-in-residence dance program lead by the researcher, which concluded with the creation of group choreography to poetry. Contemporaneously, the students wrote poetry as part of the language arts curriculum. Transcripts of these interviews were analyzed for predominant themes and thinking strategies that emerged from the data. The students' interviews showed connections between the way they think, reason, and problem solve in language arts and in dance. The author suggests that these overlaps in cognition may be a good starting point for curriculum design in dance and may also enhance our ability to advocate for a more central placement of dance and dance making in elementary school curricula.