Literature Review: 'Partnering Dance and Education'

At the moment I want to base my inquiry around the benefits performing can have within education.  As I have studied dance within Secondary School, for my AS Levels, as a BTEC and then into my National Diploma as well as extra-curricular class since a child, it has always been a part of me.  Now I am on the other end of the scale after performing and now teach within private performing arts academies and within primary education, it is an area in which I am familiar with and would ideally like to progress into as a future career.

I have looked into the area of Secondary Education however, Primary education is what I know and where my current employment lies.  So to help define what I would like to know: 'Are there skills within performing arts that students can use to develop skills within education?'  I have found this piece of literature which can help me develop my questions and lines of inquiry. 

Partnering Dance and Education- Judith Lynne Hanna

THE BODY IN SPACE, IN TIME, AND WITH EFFORT- p13

'Because the body is the instrument of dance, students learn how the body works.  They learn the names of body parts, kinesiology, physics, and nutrition'

Within this piece of literature, Hanna mentions how Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligence's has broadened the view of dance from educators in the US to show that dance does not have to be considered just 'physical and emotional'.  Instead, looking back at Task 2c, I looked into the idea that Gardner believed in these different forms of intelligence, and so relating to that it doesn't mean that dance has to be seen as an unintelligent subject.  

Hanna discusses dance and intelligence more...

DANCE AND OTHER TYPES OF INTELLIGENCE - p24

'Not only is dance a form of kinesthetic intelligence, but it also draws upon other kinds of intelligence.'

'Vernacular and literary writers, for example, use dance metaphors to illuminate aspects of their work (Hanna 1983)'

Could the information we learn from dance have a positive effect upon our literary skills within English?  I wonder if the language we learn through dance would help develop the language we could use to describe within our language?

I have also considered the wording of the transfer of skills between performing arts and other subjects we study within education.

Hanna talks about this, with reference to other practitioners.

POTENTIAL TRANSFER OF DANCE LEARNING - p27

'The world-famous dancer Rudolf Nureyev recognized the transfer of dance learning to other situations; this transfer is one of the greatest potentials of dance education.  Dance education gives students experiential and other knowledge in dance, enhances learning in other subjects, and can be applied to other areas of life.'

'Nureyev explained, "If you know one subject very well, you know structure, syntax, grammar.  With all that, you can quickly assimilate another language" (Lemay 1990:35-36)'.

Although a lot of what Hanna has mentioned so far in this book is very positive to the effects of dance on the learning towards other subjects within education, I wonder if dance could impair learning in any way?  

One area which may be of use to use for future research is Hanna's identification of evidence which can be used to show 'the benefits of dance education'.

ANECDOTAL REPORTS - p32

'Often anecdotal material is the best evidence we have of the benefits of dance education.  Over the past half century, observational and experimential assessments of the benefits of dance education by teachers, administrators, parents, and students include the following:'

I have picked out Hanna's main points from the list she has used.

'Dance education teaches the values and skills of creativity, problem solving, risk taking, making judgments in the absence of rules, and higher-order thinking skills.'

I can see how dance can teach these things but for example, risk taking, is this a good thing?  I would consider myself to be the opposite of this and I very often choose to play it safe in situations.  But if dance can teach us about risk taking, maybe it can teach is whether risk taking is good and in what circumstances this can be used to make a decision.  From a performing point of view a risk taking situation may be one where during a performance you have missed your queue to come onto stage, so do you risk taking the first opportunity to come back on to the stage or do you wait and consider another time further down the line when it would prove to be an easier moment?

How could this benefit us within education?

'The study of dance fosters an individual's ability to better interpret interpersonal nonverbal communication.'

I relate this to myself by considering how dance has made me aware of my body and subsequently my body language when around others.  This particularly applies to certain environments and being around certain people, for example, in an interview situation.

'Dance education provides a strong base from which to analyze and make informed judgments about corporeal images.'

'Learning the dances of other cultures helps students to develop an understanding and respect for them.'

I certainly believe that dance can teach us a lot about different cultures.  I think that if dance can be introduced from a young age, with the idea of teaching different styles from different cultures, we could develop a respect of those cultures before thinking otherwise.

'Dance enhances an individual's lifelong quality of life.'

I think if dance is taken on a regular basis then the positive effects from increased fitness come into play.  However I don't think that with a short lesson of dance once a week would have much of an impact.  For dance to enhance the the quality of life, surely it would have to include an intense amount of training within a week?

INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING - p65

'Teachers can use dance as a unique vehicle for integrating teaching and learning across curricula.  Dance teachers can work with their colleagues in other arts and other subjects when a concept or theme can be well taught through dance.'

I have done this myself by using a cross-curricular approach to teaching dance within primary schools.  In this way I have communicated with the class teacher to ask if there is anything I can link with the dance lessons as another dimension to their learning.  I am not sure if this actually does enhance their learning so maybe I could use this a a future tool to come back to.

In another way I found this article which shows this in the opposite way to myself.  Here, a science teacher is using dance within his lessons to teach them a concept.

Combining Dance and Science

PROMOTING COGNITIVE LEARNING THROUGH DANCE - p91

'Included in the area of cognitive learning are dance education practices designed to stimulate mental alertness, modeling, sequencing, attention to detail, and memorization skills; to teach an understanding of symbols; to develop critical thinking; to extend reasoning; to foster analysis of images; to organize knowledge; and to promote learning in core curricula.'

Hanna goes on to discuss these areas of cognitive learning further, and other areas of interdisciplinary learning, for example, 'Many subjects, including architecture, are the focus of interdisciplinary learning with dance (Taylor, Vlastos, and Marshall 1991).  In Lincoln County schools in North Carolina, dance teachers fostered learning of geography by asking students to visualize a classroom as a map.  Youngsters planned a trip to four cities and danced from one place to another using different kinds of movement for different modes of transportation such as car and rail'.

Conclusion

This piece of literature by Judith Lynne Hanna, has given some support in my knowledge that there is a link between transferable skills from dance to education.  But what I am unsure of is whether I want to look at how dance could be used to aid teaching in subjects or whether to look at the skills in which dance enhances.  Hanna uses both these thoughts but it has given me lots of research to use for my inquiry.

Hanna, J. (1999) Partnering Dance and Education: Intelligent Moves for Changing, United States: Human Kinetics

Hanna, J. (1983) The Performer-Audience Connection: Emotion to Metaphor in Dance and Society. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Gardner, H. (1992) Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. New York: Basic Books.

Lemay, P. (1990). Rudolf Nureyev. Dance Magazine, 64(5):35-36.

Taylor, A. Vlastos, G. and Marshall, A. (1991). Architecture and Children: Teacher's Guide, Interdisciplinary Learning Activities of the Architecture and Children Curriculum. Seattle: Architecture and Children Institute.