Dance education is at a critical juncture in the United States. Even though it has gained wide acceptance as a valuable educational discipline and has achieved such victories as inclusion in the National Education Goals, its future remains uncertain. Educational reform, budget cuts, and conflicting views on the relevance of arts education all bring into question how—and if—dance should be taught in our schools.
In Partnering Dance and Education, Dr. Judith Lynne Hanna presents a compelling argument for making dance central to every student's education. She examines current trends and issues in education to show how dance can be successfully justified and taught in today's changing educational environment.
Rich with examples from arts magnet schools, arts organization offerings, dance company programs, public school instruction, and programs for at-risk youth, the book addresses difficult questions, including:
- Is dance education in and of itself worthwhile? - What are the ways of providing dance education? - Who should teach dance in public schools? - Why and how should we connect dance to other bodies of knowledge? - What can be learned in, about, and through dance? - Does dance education benefit at-risk youth? - Do we teach gender roles in dance education? - What are the advantages and problems with cultural diversity in dance education?
Divided into two parts, Partnering Dance and Education is full of information and insights that readers will find both illuminating and thought provoking.
Part I recognizes dance as a discipline in its own right with a distinct body of knowledge. Chapters discuss the benefits and methods of providing dance education, ways dance education can develop within the education reform movement, and who should teach dance.
Part II addresses how dance education, while meaningful in itself, has broader relevance. Chapters discuss how dance can be used to teach academic and workplace skills, help at-risk youth, promote national identity while preserving cultural diversity, and help people cope with stress. It explains how children's dance during free play can be used as a teaching tool, and it looks at the role of dance in teaching students about gender.
A special appendix poses challenging discussion questions for students and teachers. An extensive dance resources appendix includes suggested readings, as well as the addresses and phone numbers of leading dance organizations, programs, and schools.
"A unique and insightful view of dance in the context of education and life. With an eye toward potential opportunities available in a reform-minded environment, the author directly explores the multidimensional aspects of dance education and the many ways in which it can enhance the educational experiences of youth and adults. Readable at any level.” Choice
About the Author
Judith Lynne Hanna has spent a half-century dancing, researching, writing, and teaching others about dance in community centers, schools, and universities. After teaching English and social studies for the Los Angeles City School System, she held positions at Michigan State University, American University, Fordham University, and the University of Texas at Dallas. She has conducted field research on dance and other subjects in countries around the world. Currently, she is a Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland and an expert court witness nationwide on cases concerning freedom of expression through dance.
Hanna has long been a leading advocate to make dance an essential component of children's education. In 1972, at Gill/St. Bernard's Upper School in Bernardsville, NJ, she offered an interdisciplinary dance-centered course. Between 1989 and 1993, Hanna worked for the United States Department of Education, where she was able to assess what is happening in dance education throughout the United States.
Hanna received her PhD in anthropology from Columbia University in 1976. She has explored how knowledge in the arts, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences helps us understand dance. Her books include To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication; Dance, Sex, and Gender: Signs of Identity, Dominance, Defiance, and Desire; The Performer–Audience Connection: Emotion to Metaphor in Dance and Society; Dance and Stress: Resistance, Reduction, and Euphoria; and Disruptive School Behavior: Class Race and Culture. Hanna's articles have appeared in Dance Teacher Now, Ballet Review, Stagebill, Education Week, Dance Magazine, Anthropology and Education, and The Washington Post.
Hanna's numerous awards include a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance's Anderson Award for significant publications.
Product Details
Paperback: 272 pages
Publisher: Human Kinetics; 1 edition (December 16, 1998)
A Ph.D. in anthropology, from Columbia University, an M.A. in political science from Michigan State University, and a B.A. in political science from UCLA, Judith Lynne Hanna is an Affiliate Senior Research Scientist, Department of Anthropology, University of Maryland. She is a an educator, consultant, writer, dance critic and an expert court witness in adult entertainment exotic dance cases nationwide.
A student and performer of various dance genres since she was eight years old, Hanna has conducted dance research in villages and cities in Africa, and theaters, school playgrounds, classrooms and adult entertainment clubs in the United States. She explores dance how dance communicates in its social and political contexts. In addition she has conducted research in schools and urban areas and among university students.
Her landmark books are: To Dance Is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication (University of Chicago Press), Dance, Sex, and Gender (University of Chicago Press), The Performer-Audience Connection: Emotion to Metaphor in Dance and Society (University of Texas Press), Partnering Dance and Education: Intelligent Moves for Changing Times (Human Kinetics Press), Dancing for Health: Conquering and Preventing Stress (Altamira) Disruptive School Behavior: Class, Race, and Culture (Holmes & Meier) and Urban Dynamics in Black Africa, co-author (Transaction). Forthcoming Spring 2012 is Naked Truth: Strip Clubs, Democracy, and a Christian Right, (University of Texas Press).
Hanna's more than three hundred articles appear in, e.g., American School Board Journal, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Arts Education Policy Review, Ballet Review, Brown University Child and Adolescent Behavior Letter, Creativity in Performance, Comparative Urban Research, Current Anthropology, Dance, Gender and Culture, Dance and the Child, Dance International, Dance Magazine, Dance Research Journal, Dance Teacher, Dance Spirit, The Drama Review, Education Next, Education Week, Educational Researcher, Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning, Exotic Dance, First Amendment Lawyers Association Proceedings, Interethnic Communication, Journal of Dance Education, Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance, Journal of Planning Literature, Journal of Sex Research, Phi Delta Kappan, Principal Leadership, New York Times, Play and Culture Studies, Policy Studies Review, Stagebill, Teaching Artist Journal, Washington Parent, and Washington Post.
Since 1995, she has served as an expert court witness nationwide in nearly 150 First Amendment and other cases related to adult entertainment exotic dance. Her testimony is quoted in court decisions and the media, and her views on exotic dance have been solicited by, e.g., Corpus Christie Caller Times (TX), North Scott Press (IA), News Tribute, Tacoma/Seattle (WA), City Paper (DC), Washington Post (DC), Roanoke Times (VA), KYCW-FM Young Country (WA), 790-KABC Los Angeles (CA), American Urban Networks (110 radio stations), and numerous TV stations, such as MSNBC and BBC.
Trained at UCLA's Graduate School of Education, Hanna earned a California Teaching Credential and was a Los Angeles City School social studies and English teacher. She has taught dance and about dance in community centers and at several universities. At the Gill High School in Bernardsville, N.J., in 1972, she developed a unique dance program encompassing social studies and writing. Hanna offered pre-service and in-service training in dance for studio, academy, and public school teachers and administrators in, e.g., North Carolina Department of Public Instruction Staff Development Weekend, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools/Cultural Educational Collaborative of North Carolina, and Vail International Dance Festival. She has taught the anthropology of dance to youngsters in a Kuchipudi summer dance camp. For the Alliance for Arts Education and other organizations nationwide and abroad, she has given invited keynotes and presentations.
Hanna has lectured at more than 50 colleges and universities, addressed more than 30 association meetings and special conferences and seminars; published her work in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ghana, Jamaica, Netherlands, Poland, Santo Domingo, Sweden, and United Kingdom; and appeared on radio and television in Canada, Nigeria, South Africa, Sweden, and the U.S.
This review is from: Partnering Dance and Education: Intelligent Moves Changing Times (Paperback)
Partnering Dance and Education is one of the most relevant and informative publications for the dance teacher in America today. It gives a broad overview of the scenario faced by educators in both the academic and the studio settings and the networking which is needed between them. The benefits of dance in the academic settings as related to the studio owner are explored and defined in clear and concise language. Since this is an area to date unexplored and perceived by all dance teachers with hesitation, it is essential for informed decisions and liaisons between all who touch the dance students lives. Career opportunities, outreach programs, and "multiplication effects" are just a very few of the subjects addressed and explored by the author. The changing times of the dance world are viewed from a new and exciting perspective throughout the pages while acknowledgement and validation of the traditional forms of dance education are reviewed. With the inclusion of Dance in the federal government's Goals 2000 program for American Education, it is vital that all dance educators be aware of the innovations, aspirations and directions needed to bring dance into its well-deserved but long overdue recognition within the American culture and teaching systems.
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