DANCEchARTS

A framework for dance education today

DANCEchARTS is a practical guide for all teachers of dance, for all ages, abilities and levels. This handbook provides a framework for dance education aimed at training today’s dance students. Its ideas are transferable across the many disciplines and styles that dance embraces.

In recent years, both our society and the field of contemporary dance have changed to such an extent that dance educators are required to critically rethink traditional teaching methodologies. Communication, attitudes, expectations and personal ambitions have all evolved and there is a necessity to develop a range of personal skills that supports the diversity in our society as well as dance specific skills.

DANCEchARTS proposes a flexible system that encourages a teacher to zoom out from the steps to see the bigger picture of their dance education. From this macro perspective, relevant choices can be made for the target age and ability to provide a framework for the education. Once the framework is defined the content and methodologies can be inserted to make a dance programme realisable.

Natalie Gordon is co-artistic director of the Bachelor dance and Educational Master dance programmes at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp in Belgium. She trained at the University of Roehampton in London, took advanced notator training at the Labanotation Institute at the University of Surrey and qualified as a Certified Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst in the Integrated Movement Studies programme based at the University of Utah, USA. Natalie is a co-director of Retina Dance Company and previously managed and notated works of Random Dance/Wayne McGregor. Her ongoing research is concerned with teaching methodologies and the role and development of vocabulary within contemporary dance education.