Dance Technique Class Research Articles

Psychological Safety in the Western Concert Dance Technique Class

Psychological Safety in the Western Concert Dance Technique Class

This is a Course in Translation Not Imitation

ABSTRACT In this student reading, I use examples from dance technique classes to bring attention to the choices that students make when learning new movement via observation and repetition. Based on these examples, I frame learning in technique class not as a process of imitation but a process of translation. In doing so I hope to advocate for the intellectual practices and opportunities for student agency embedded in dance technique learning.

Embodying the Dance Rehearsal: The Time, Space and Situatedness of Dance Making

ABSTRACT One of my principle aims as a dance educator is to cultivate somatic-based learning environments so that students develop, integrate, and hone a holistic, embodied sense of self. In order to achieve this objective, I strive to help students connect their movement to their ongoing thoughts, sensations, and perceptions. In this article, I describe the work that I have developed in relation to M.M. Bakhtin’s dialogism and the practice-based approach of F.M. Alexander. I suggest that while these objectives are readily attainable in dance technique classes and somatic-specific courses, the process is decidedly more challenging during the dance rehearsal. In an effort to design a somatic-based learning environment that supports the rehearsal process, this article describes work on self-other relations and the conveyance of meaning through embodied movement, with an eye to creating an approach to the rehearsal process that focuses on embodiment and dialogism.

The Impact of Student-Centered Learning through Use of Peer Feedback in the Dance Technique Classroom

ABSTRACT This study compares two methods of teaching a dance technique class to determine which yields a greater increase in high school students’ technical skills. The historic, widely accepted method of teaching a dance technique class is through direct, teacher-centered instruction. However, current research, largely on undergraduate college students, suggests that student-centered instruction may be more effective. In this experimental study a group of high school students (n = 23) received standard, direct instruction, while the intervention group (n = 24) received student-centered instruction. All students took pre- and post-performance assessments and were scored on a skill rubric. Analysis of these assessment scores indicated a statistically significant increase in students’ technical abilities in both the direct instruction group and the intervention group, however, the experimental group was not found to be more successful than the control group. The results of this study found that future research on this topic should include teaching students how to give and receive feedback before entering a student-centered curriculum structure.

Integrating Compositional Forms into Technique Class

This article details a teaching practice of integrating music compositional concepts and dance technique class by using technique class material to embody music compositional forms. The compositional concepts presented in this article are traditional compositional forms based on Western classical music. This practice exemplifies cross-curricular connections, offers a deeper understanding of both the compositional forms and the technique class material, and takes this particular curricular content out of the composition class, allowing more time for investigating other choreographic processes. This article outlines the compositional forms, their integration into class exercises, the pedagogical benefits, and recommendations for applying this methodology.

Assessment Of Undergraduate Dancers’ Health And Fitness Profiles At A Liberal Arts Public University

PURPOSE: ACSM is an affiliate of and contributor to “Athletes and the Arts” (A&A). A&A recognizes the demands and needs of performing artists and acknowledges their limited access to prevention and treatment services. Dance is one of the most grueling of the performing arts, particularly in terms of musculoskeletal injuries. This study’s purpose was to assess undergraduate dance students at a regional university in terms of their overall health and fitness profile to identify potential weaknesses that could be addressed through prevention focused efforts. METHODS: College dancers (N=22, M age = 19.8 + 1.3; 18 female, 4 male) underwent a battery of 69 anthropometric, clinical, health, and fitness assessments. Clinical assessments were administered by licensed physical therapists, where all other data were collected and/or supervised by an “ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist.” The analysis consisted of identifying primary weaknesses (i.e., those affecting >50% of the dancers) within the amalgamated areas. Due to space constraints, areas affecting </=50% of the dancers are minimally reported. RESULTS: Flexibility limitations were identified in the ankles (100%), hips (100%), and legs (86.4%), more than the knees (45.5%), x2 (1) = 4.97, p=0.03. Weaknesses in strength were observed in the abdominals (90.9%), hips (77.3%), shoulders (77.3%), knees (63.6%), and ankles (54.5%), more than the feet (9.1%), x2 (1) = 11.96, p<0.001. Postural misalignments were noticeable in the pelvis (100%), spine (95.5%), feet (77.3%), and shoulders (77.3%), more than the head/neck (50%) and knees (13.6%), x2 (2) = 15.3, p<0.001. Specific concerns included weight distribution (100%), balance (90.9%), pelvic tilt (86.4%), iliac crest height (86.4%), shoulder height (86.4%), hamstring ROM (81.8%), thoracic curvature (81.8%), trapezius strength (72.7%), hip abductor strength (68.2%), scapula/shoulder placement (68.2%), knee flexor strength (63.6%), external hip rotator ROM (59.1%), ankle-foot alignment (59.1%), and lumbar curvature (54.5%). CONCLUSION: Dance technique classes are insufficient for addressing these problems and may even contribute to them. Dancer screens and individualized, supplemental conditioning and referral to medical professionals is needed. ACSM/A&A can support these efforts through advocacy.

Grit for Dance Students: What, Why, and How

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the recent diminishing resilience I have witnessed from students in my dance technique classes when they experience setbacks and challenges in their training, examines the role helicopter parenting might have had in influencing this decline, and details how I modified Angela Duckworth’s Grit Scale to be dance-technique specific to help students develop efficacy and self-reliance. I detail strategies for educators to help students find their inner reasons for staying with dance, develop the life skills necessary to have a fulfilling dance education experience, and offer practical tactics for building lesson plans in technique courses that help dance students develop high levels of grit.

Descriptive Analysis of the System for Observing Dance Activities in the Classroom Environment (SODANCE)

ABSTRACT Dance as physical activity (PA) is underinvestigated, with little information about artistic technical dance in public schools. This study aimed to use the System for Observing Dance Activities in the Classroom Environment (SODANCE) instrument to report PA levels, time spent in moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), time spent in different lesson contexts, and frequency of teacher promotion of activity. Four different secondary (Grades 6–12) dance technique classes at a public performing arts school were each observed four times using the SODANCE instrument. Students engaged in MVPA 39.82 percent of the time. Percentages spent in SODANCE lesson contents were: management, 9.53 percent; knowledge, 22.29 percent; fitness, 6.94 percent; technique, 44.04 percent; choreography, 17.19 percent; and other, 0.0 percent. Percentages of teacher interaction were: promotes in-class activity, 27.67 percent; promotes out-of-class activity, 0.27 percent; and no promotion, 72.06 percent. This suggests dance technique classes offer equitable MVPA to physical education classes, but are still short of national recommendations. Dance technique classes spend the majority of time engaged in technique and choreography activities.

Balance Training in Modern Dancers: Proprioceptive-Neuromuscular Training vs Kinesio Taping.

Kinesio tape and proprioceptive exercises are both used for increasing balance in dancers. The purposes of this study were to: a) determine the acute effect of kinesio tape (KT) application on the ankle joint on balance performance, b) investigate the effects of an 8-week proprioceptive-neuromuscular (PN) training program on balance performance, and c) compare their effects vs modern dance technique classes alone. Thirty-three trained, university-level modern dance students (9 male, 24 female) were divided randomly into three groups: kinesio tape (KT, n=11), proprioceptive-neuromuscular (PN, n=11), or control (n=11). Static (turn-out passé-opened eyes/relevé and turn-out passé-closed eyes/flat foot), semi-dynamic (airplane), and dynamic balance (monopodalic-straight and -transverse in a turn-out passé-eyes opened/flat foot) tests were performed before and after the intervention. One day after pre-tests, KT mechanical correction technique was applied to the left ankle joint (supporting leg) in the KT group, and tests were repeated to determine the acute effect of KT. The PN group participated in an 8-week balance training program (2 days/wk, 60 min/day) involving exercises using stable and unstable surfaces. Significant improvements were observed for all static and dynamic balance tests in the PN group; semi-dynamic airplane and dynamic monopodalic-straight and transverse tests improved in the KT group; and only semi-dynamic airplane test scores changed significantly for the control group (p<0.05). Our findings suggest that with the exception of the semi-dynamic airplane test, both PN training and KT application were more effective at improving balance performance for modern dancers than modern dance technique classes alone.

Unsettling materials: Lively tensions in learning through ‘set materials’ in the dance technique class

Abstract An explorative engagement with learning through set materials in the dance technique class enables embodied knowledge. This qualitative dance research, framed through practitioner-led inquiry, reflects upon the experience of a deliberately unsettled process of bodily learning in the studio. Set materials in contemporary dance technique classes are considered through two intertwined strands of learning; exploration and embodiment. A series of ‘lively tensions’ are articulated through the student participant data that reveal the multidimensionality of dance technique practice. The pedagogical considerations and theoretical framing of what it means for set materials to enable rather than restrict dance student agency are discussed. The teacher/researcher reflects on how unsettling the process of learning in the studio might encourage dance students to more thoroughly engage with bodily inquiry. The voices of students as research participants, are quoted in order that their words articulate the nuances of the experience of learning in dance technique.

Self-somatic authority: Exploring the cultivation of somatic intelligence through a dialogic approach to self-reflection in dance technique learning

Abstract This article contemplates the notion of a ‘self-somatic authority’ by exploring the relationship between dialogue, self-reflection and the cultivation of somatic intelligence. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism, and specifically his concepts of ‘authoritative discourse’ and ‘internally persuasive discourse’, the author explores whether a dialogic approach to teaching release-based contemporary dance technique in higher education can enable learners to meaningfully reflect on their practice, subsequently leading to a stronger sense of somatic intelligence. To examine the efficacy of this pedagogical approach, responses from a focus group discussion conducted with a group of first year students who participated in a cycle of action research are examined; the teacher’s reflective journal notes are also analysed. Drawing on the data, the author proposes that a dialogic approach to nurturing self-reflection in the dance technique class constructs a particular kind of somatic-informed pedagogy that not only appears to facilitate ‘self-somatic authority’, but also presents unexpected challenges and contradictions.

I am a teacher and I will do what I can: some speculations on the future of the dance technique class and its possible transformation

At a time when dance technique teachers may feel marginalised both by criticism of the quality of training in our conservatoires, and by questions raised by artists and their work in the twenty-first century, Sonia Rafferty and Erica Stanton (both including technique teacher in their portfolio of skills) discuss the place and function of the technique class. In the guise of a conversation that dance teachers might have with one other, we ask what might be revealed during class to afford a fuller sensory awareness of the ‘work’. We question the packaging of approaches that can enable dancers and educators alike to make productive connections within both the class and the curriculum in which it is sited. What is the nature of the environment in which technical capacities can be revealed and enhanced? We look at ways to communicate, organise and combine our individual stylistic tools and learning strategies effectively to afford a more productive engagement between all participants in class, including the dance teacher.

Community to Classroom: Reflections on Community-Centered Pedagogy in Contemporary Modern Dance Technique

ABSTRACTThis article reflects on the ways in which socially engaged arts practices can contribute to reconceptualizing the contemporary modern dance technique class as a powerful site of social change. Specifically, the author considers how incorporating socially engaged practices into pedagogical models has the potential to foster responsible citizenship in the technique classroom. The article discusses community arts values and facilitation techniques, as well as the challenges that arise when socially engaged ideologies collide with student expectations and academic policies. In the context of a technique class, an emphasis on reciprocity, collaboration, and inclusion as opposed to individual achievement often raises questions about technical mastery, authority, and assessment. Despite these concerns, the author concludes that a community-centered pedagogy promotes collective awareness, generosity, and social engagement, all of which are essential in nurturing artist-citizens who truly embody democratic ideals.

Alive, Responsive, and Integrated: Toward Intentional Language in the Dance Technique Class

Alive, Responsive, and Integrated: Toward Intentional Language in the Dance Technique Class

Transactional Space: Feedback, Critical Thinking, and Learning Dance Technique

This article explores attitudes about feedback and critical thinking in dance technique classes. We discuss an expansion of our teaching practices to include feedback as bidirectional (transactional) and a part of developing critical thinking skills in student dancers. The article was written after we undertook research exploring attitudes and cultures surrounding feedback in dance technique classes within university settings in the United Kingdom and the United States. Using a hybrid ethnographic (practice as research) model we collected data through class observations, individual interviews with students and teachers, and journaling and reflecting on our own daily teaching practice. Pseudonyms have been used throughout and permission obtained from participants to include their voices in the article.1(1. This research was approved by University ethics board and institution review board, and followed rigorous ethical procedures, including consent forms and reviews during our process.) At the beginning of our inquiry we were interested in exploring how students received feedback. We thought this would involve discovering more about the forms and ways feedback can be communicated to students, particularly how a climate of negative feedback can be avoided in the classroom. However, as we carried out the research we realized that merely looking at how feedback is communicated constructs feedback as one-directional. We questioned whether we had been placing enough importance on the notion that feedback can be transactional. Following John Dewey, we take the term transactional to indicate dynamic, co-created relationships and environments (Dewey and Boydston 2008 Dewey, J., and J. A. Boydston. 2008. The later works of John Dewey, 1925–1953. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.). We realized that how feedback is communicated is significant, of course, but the means by which it is recognized as feedback by students, and how it is responded to is of equal bearing. This led us to consider the importance of students’ (and teachers’) critical thinking in our classrooms, as we felt student responses to feedback are as important as the action of giving it. By critical thinking we are suggesting skills of evaluation that allow for synthesis of ideas and support the ability to have shifts in perception. We want our students to develop the analytical skills to let go of an essentialist approach to their perception of themselves as dancers, and instead critically challenge their habitual movements and notions of what dance can be. Thus we see critical thinking as supporting the co-construction and permeability of a transactional approach to feedback. Informed by Dewey’s somatic starting point we approached the inquiry from a theoretical framework that places bodily experience as central—which we are calling embodiment. (This methodology is examined further in Akinleye 2016 Akinleye, A. 2016. Her life in movement: Embodiment as a methodology. In Researching embodied sport: Exploring movement cultures, ed. I. Wellard, 178–96. London: Routledge.). In this article we discuss how we have come to see a relationship among feedback, communication, and critical thinking in dance technique classrooms.

Feminist pedagogy, body image, and the dance technique class

This paper investigates the evolution of feminist consciousness in dance technique class as related to body image, the myth of the perfect body, and the development of feminist pedagogy. Western concert dance forms have often been taught in a manner where imitating the teacher is primary in the learning process. In this traditional scenario, teachers serve as role models and students strive to emulate their teacher’s performance as closely as possible. The authors provide possibilities for broadening such an approach through examining characteristics of feminist pedagogy. The reframing of teaching through a feminist lens reveals options for technique class teaching–learning paradigms to better support student learning in a fully engaged manner.

Teacher-created social environment, basic psychological needs, and dancers' affective states during class: A diary study

Grounded in Basic Psychological Needs Theory (BPNT; Deci & Ryan, 2000) and drawing from Duda's (2013) conceptualisation of the teacher-created social environment as a multidimensional construct, this study examined, at the within-personal level, the interrelations between dancers' perceptions of teacher-created empowering and disempowering social environments, basic psychological needs and changes in dancers' affective states during class. Vocational dancers (n=135) completed self-report measures before (affective states) and after (affective states, teacher-created social environment, basic need satisfaction/thwarting) dance technique classes for 5 consecutive days. Multivariate multilevel modelling analyses revealed basic need satisfaction to mediate the relation between dancers' perceptions of empowering environments and dancers' changes in positive affect during class. Basic need thwarting mediated the relation between disempowering environments and changes in dancers' negative affect during class. Findings support the tenets of BPNT at the inter-individual level, advancing current understanding of the social–psychological mechanisms that may underpin dancers' optimal and compromised functioning within classes.

Creating Cultures of Teaching and Learning: Conveying Dance and Somatic Education Pedagogy

ABSTRACTOften in teaching dance, methods of teaching and learning are silently embedded into dance classroom experiences. Unidentified and undisclosed pedagogic information has impacted the content of dance history; the perpetuation of authoritarian teaching practices within dance technique classes and in some dance classes deemed “somatics”; and the perception of the field of dance as “dance as art” or “dance as education”. This research illuminates a history of dance pedagogy in United States higher education. Dance pedagogy is aligned with current educational theory and practice, which reveals the impact of pedagogic choices on creating student-centered and teacher-centered cultures of teaching and learning. This article calls upon dance educators to be cognizant of the implications of pedagogic choices and to be transparent to students about pedagogy in their classrooms.

Improvising with Material in the Higher Education Dance Technique Class: Exploration and Ownership

On her website, performer Katie Duck (2013) states, “Improvisation is not a subject with aims and objectives … it is pedagogy.” With reference to academic research and my own teaching practice, I w...

“How seeing helps doing, and doing allows to see more”: the process of imitation in the dance class

Our field research in five contemporary dance technique classes, observing and describing the complexity and diversity involved in the traditional “demonstration-reproduction” pedagogical relationship, has led us to reconsider the role of modeling behaviour in the dance teaching context. We have also outlined recent neuroscientific findings concerning imitation processes, which tend to point to a biological basis for interactions based on movement observation. A theoretical framework drawing on concepts from the fields of Activity Analysis and Communication allowed us to develop an original methodology in order to observe, describe and analyse human interaction in the dance class. We have identified some of the constructive aspects, as well as the weaknesses, inherent to the conventional pedagogical configuration. The present research develops a number of analytical tools which may be applied to research in dance pedagogy and stimulates further reflection on teaching-learning activities in the dance context.