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?

The online discussion group, established in December 1998, is 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.

For further information, contact the chair of the group, Heather Castillo, by email.