Dance History Teachers

An informal meeting of teachers of dance history at the 1998 conference of the Congress on Research in Dance (CORD) led to the formation of the Dance History Teachers Discussion Group, which also functions within the context of the DSA as the Dance History Teachers Working Group. The focus of this group is discussion of issues and exchange of information concerning the teaching of dance history in college and university settings. Through scheduled activities and the online discussion group, opportunities are provided for sharing goals, strategies, practices, materials, and ideas.

Topics of discussion in this group typically revolve around complex pedagogical questions. For example:

1. How might curricula be developed that will not only serve students in investigating European dance legacies but will also enlarge their perspectives of what constitutes dance beyond European and European-American concert dance traditions?
2. How might new scholarship, such as work documenting contributions of minority artists, be woven into the fabric of the syllabus rather than being relegated to an appendix?
3. How might dance history teachers integrate practical studio work with historical and theoretical studies to foster fluidity between the living art form and scholarly investigations?
4. What are the possibilities for generating new reading materials to reflect the needs of new content and approaches to teaching dance history?
5. How do dance history teachers incorporate new technologies such as generative AI and strategies for grading, ungrading, flipped classroom and open pedagogy which center student voice and engagement?

The online discussion group, established in December 1998, was hosted by the Florida State University Department of Dance and the FSU Academic Computing and Networking Services. Since its inception, the number of subscribers has grown to well over a hundred, including users at work in twelve countries around the globe: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, and the United States. It can now be found as a google group "Dance History Teachers Discussion Group".

For further information, contact the chair of the group, Jill Vasbinder Morrison, by email.

Jill Vasbinder-Morrison, Working Group Co-Chair

Jill Vasbinder Morrison, BA (Barnard College), MFA (SUNY Purchase), is a dancer, scholar mother & community activist currently teaching dance studies at University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Howard Community College, the John Carroll School, Morton Street Dance Center and the Peabody Preparatory. After performing with the Lisa Leizman Dancers in Massachusetts and Full Force Dance Theater in Connecticut and New York City, Jill went on to be office manager of Hartford Children’s Theater, Assistant Director of Dance and the Hartt School Community Division, University of Hartford, and Artistic Director of Common Ground Dance Company. She has taught Ballet, Modern, Composition, Ballroom, Latin and Swing dancing, and Ballet for Gymnasts since 1995 in New York, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. She has set works on dancers at Coppin State University, Community College of Baltimore County, and the Maryland School of Ballet and Modern Dance. Jill now centers her research on decolonizing Dance Studies courses, incorporating embodied knowledge and learning into the practice of traditional coursework. She examines the intersections of dance, open licensing & copyright; questioning how historical practices of exclusion have brought us to this ambiguous place. Her article There’s a long history of dances being pilfered for profit and TikTok is the latest battleground was featured on the Conversation and is adapted for Actively Learn. She led the HT Lab: Movement Relationships: Embodied Practice across disciplines. Jill has presented at Maryland Dance Education conferences, internationally at the Dance Studies Association, and at the Inclusion Imperative Symposium and the Dresher Center’s Currents. While studying the Cunningham technique in post-modern dance since 1995, Jill had the opportunity to use the commons license in the re-staging of his work “50 Looks” with the Baltimore Dance Project using chance operations in 2025, and re-imagining it as a group work in 2026. Currently, Jill is writing of the biography and critical analysis of the life and work of Barbara Supovitz, modern & folk-dance pioneer, and published the Open Educational Resource: Dance History, Cultural and Classical Forms. Jill serves on the Adjunct Faculty Advisory Committee, has been the Treasurer of the Maryland Dance Educators Association, was the President of the Hampstead Hill Academy Parent Teacher Organization, is the chair of the dance history teachers working group with the Dance Studies Association, and is a leader with Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. She recently presented an online workshop on Creative Commons & OER dance publications with the National Dance Education Association in June 2025.