Dance education: a redefinition

Winner of the 2021 Ruth Lovell Murray Book Award

Dance Education redefines the nature of dance pedagogy today, setting it within a holistic and encompassing framework, and argues for an approach to dance education from a soci-cultural and philosophical perspective.

In the past, dance education has focused on the learning of dance, limited to Western-based societies, with little attention to how dance is learned and applied globally. This book seeks to re-frame the way dance education is defined, approached and taught by looking beyond the privileged Western dance forms to compare education from different cultures.

Structured into three parts, this book examines the following essential questions:

- What is dance? What defines dance as an art form?
- How and where is dance performed and for what purpose?
- How do social contexts shape the making and interpretation of dance?

The first part covers the history of dance education and its definition. The second part discusses current contexts and applications, including global contexts and the ability to apply and comprehend dance education in a variety of contexts. This book opens up definitions, rather than categorising, so that dance is not presented in a hierarchical form. The third part continues to define dance education in ways that have not been discussed in the past: informal contexts. The book then returns to the original definition of dance education as a way of knowing oneself and the world around us, ending on the philosophical application of this self-knowledge as a way to be in the world and to engage with others, regardless of background.

This textbook is a refreshing and much-needed contribution to the field of dance studies by one of the most eminent voices in the field.