Dance Educators Get $673,000 To Prove Their Worth - Brief Article

Dance Magazine, May, 2001 by Janet Weeks

Musicians and visual artists who teach in public schools have long been able to cite studies and show graphs to prove how beneficial their arts are to education. But when asked to substantiate the value of their art form, dance educators have had a harder case to make. In February, however, National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) secured $673,000 from the U.S. Department of Education to fund a project that should arm dance educators with evidence that other arts educators have long enjoyed.

The apparent lack of studies on dance doesn't indicate that movement isn't a valuable teaching tool. The problem is really one of categorization. "Research on dance and education exists, but it's embedded in other disciplines," explains Jane Bonbright, project director at the National Dance Education Organization and drafter of the project proposal. Up until 1967, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), the most common index of education materials, didn't list dance as a category. As a result, references to dance research were stored in countless other areas such as psychology, sports medicine, science, sociology, and childhood education. The fact that for a good part of this century, dance was part of physical education departments at colleges and universities doesn't help matters either. The first independent dance department wasn't established until 1926 at the University of Wisconsin.

The NDEO will head up a search to gather the research that already exists. The information will be rated and plotted to determine where further investigation is needed. Steps will then be taken to fill the gaps. The dance educators will then work with artists and other teachers from across the country to publish a report on their findings. Finally, the researchers hope to partner with a major university to create a research center for dance education. The three-year process should provide the country with a better knowledge of how creating, performing, and analyzing the art of dance helps people of all ages learn.