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NATIONAL ARTS IN AUSTRALIAN SCHOOLS PROJECT

Dance education in Australian schools

A position paper prepared by the Australian Association for Dance Education

• What is dance education?

It is time for us in Australia to clearly articulate what we mean when we use the term 'dance educa­tion' if we wish it to become a valued area of the curriculum. Education administrators, our teaching colleagues, parents and students need to have a clear mental concept of what is implied when the term is used. Currently, the meaning of the term is nebulous and the great range of possible interpretations hinders the active support of the discipline by many of our potential advocates. Many agree with the advantages of education in, through and by the arts, but many, unfortunately, have only a vague understanding of dance. In Australia, dance educa~ion is a relatively new area in the school curriculum and there is a general reluctance on the part of dance educa­tors (in both the public and private sec­tors) to categorically define the frame­work of their discipline. For example, when we use the term 'English edu­cation' we are all generally aware of its meaning. Students are taught how to read and write, how to or­ganise and present their ideas in either the written or verbal forms, how to express and communicate their ideas using the language, and how to appreciate the written or spoken forms of communication used by our culture. Yet there is no equivalent understand­ing when the term 'dance education' is used.

We should now develop a national framework that is coherent and uni­

fied, yet flexible enough to suit the needs and ap­proaches of the vast range of educators and/or educa­tional contexts within which the study of dance could occur. To continue the analogy with English - all English teachers are engaged in the same fundamental tasks, yet the number of approaches and/or emphases on particular areas are exceptionally diverse. It is time that the educational administrators, our teaching col­leagues, parents and students, were made aware that dance education is more than learning how to dance. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for the study of dance within a P-12 cur­riculum.

It has been stated that:

... dance is part of the history of human movement, part of the history of human

culture and part of the history of human communication. These three elements are brought together and realised through dance activity. Therefore dance activity is an important factor in human social development. Some

societies have accorded it this role. Not, however, British society today. (Gulben­kian Report 1981, p. 1)

The same can be said for contempo­rary Australian society. We as dance educators need to accept part of the responsibility for this situation.

The current situation

The position of dance education in this country is hard to determine.

There is certainly no unified approach,

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but there is improved understanding and communica­tion between the practitioners - the dance educators. Often we are engaged in developing the same skills and understanding but our terminology is different. Or, as a result of differing educational philosophies (child-centred or discipline-centred), our approach to the discipline varies considerably. The proponents of the various theories or approaches to dance education often feel they have little in common. This need not be the case.

No education department has, as far as I am aware, granted dance education the respectability of purpose­designed-and-built facilities suitable for the subject. Yet all have done so for visual art and music and, occa­sionally, for drama. At the moment, dance studios, when and where they do exist, are either general-pur­pose facilities that do not cater adequately for dance, or they are the result of careful planning and lobbying by an ardent dance teacher. There needs to be a con­certed national effort to improve our teaching condi­tions and facilities.

Classroom practice is also incredibly diverse. There are those who emphasise performance and the acquisition of particular technical skills relevant to a particular movement code. There are the proponents of 'creative dance', where the main aim is the freeing of the individ­ual, without the constraints of an imposed movement code or the need to develop particular physical skills. Then there are those engaged in teaching the social forms of dance. In primary schools, this is often justi­fied in terms of its physical benefits - exercise; and its social benefits - cooperation (because the participants have to work together for the dance to succeed). In sec­ondary schools the rationale for social forms of dance is expanded to include the notion that dance education provides the participants with the social skills they will need in the adult world. Most recently, the proponents of the folk/ ethnic forms of social dance have also used the growing emphasis on multicultural education as a rationale for their activity.

Such diversity of opinion and intention can and does create an unproductive tension between the exponents of the different approaches. Unfortunately, it has also engendered an enormous amount of confusion amongst many of our potential advocates as to what dance education is.

Very few courses include the notion of dance apprecia­tion, other than in the context of dance history, or the writing of reviews of dance performances. Many stu­dents must feel that dance is only a pleasant pastime. In English courses, students are called on to read and discuss Shakespeare, Joyce, Camus, Yeats and others; in dance classes their reviews of dance works, if they are required, are often written at an elementary level.

Stude~ts are rarely challenged to look closely at and

analyse a dance work or a dancer's performance; or to discuss and evaluate the work, or particular form of dance in relation to its function, or its broader cultural context.

Often students are not provided with the skills and un­derstanding they need to evaluate the choreographers' use of the dancers or of the music; to discuss the type and treatment of the subject matter; to analyse the choreographers' use of a physical code; or to decide how effective the choreographers were in realising their intention.

There is little doubt that, as long as students of dance in both public and private educational institutions continue to study only one aspect of the dance or sev­eral aspects in little depth, then dance in our schools will continue to be a peripheral activity.

A call for understanding There is no need for people working in the various dance genres (and the many styles within each), to continue to suffer from a lack of understanding of the philosophies, needs and approaches of others; for pro­ponents of various theories of creativity to ignore the approaches of others; for all to act like missionaries en­deavouring to further their individual or group cause. We need, first, to define what the parameters of dance education are, and second, to clarify, as individuals or groups of dance educators, what our particular focus is. Is the context of our study of the dance to occur within the field of arts education, or are we engaged in prevocational training, psychotherapeutic education, or social and/or anthropological education? A concep­tual framework should be able to include all of these possible approaches. All are educationally valid, and all have specific educational outcomes.

In essence, I believe we should be working towards a clarification of our aims. These should be formulated within the clearly stated global framework that is ap­plicable to a broad range of educational approaches. These aims should be sufficiently flexible for all dance educators to adopt them and adapt them to suit their particular needs and the needs of their client groups.

Formulating a framework

Dance in context

To develop such a framework, I turned to the work of J. Adshead, in particular her book The Study of Dance (1981). Adshead initially discusses the dance in rela­tion to its context. She states that 'the form which dance takes, and its function in a given society, varies with the context in which it occurs' (p. 4). She presents the following three contexts in which dance occurs:

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Ritual and religious context

Where dance is associated with rites of birth, initiation into adulthood, marriage and death as well as with ceremonies in praise of gods, and in propitiation of forces beyond man's conscious control, for example, the weather, alien spirits etc.(p. 4)

Social context

... the ever-changing popular forms of dance which are manifest in all societies. Their purpose is one of increas­ing social cohesion, reinforcing group values, giving expression to festival and celebration and providing a socially acceptable marriage market. (p. 5)

ArUtheatre context

The context of theatre lends a particular emphasis and focus to the works presented. (p. 6)

Here the dance is elevated to an art form.

Dance as a discipline

Using these three contexts as a basis for her discussion of dance, Adshead then presents the argument that dance should be considered as a separate discipline worthy of study. To do this she defines the nature of a discipline:

A discipline might be characterised in the following way. It is seen to be important that there exists a coher­ent collection of ideas, objects and/or experiences which justify interest and close examination.

Clearly the content of the discipline depends upon the particular problems which it is concerned to examine. It is argued that this examination might be theoretical (in making statements about), practical (in learning how to make, create and perform) and/or evaluation (in learning how to criticise, appraise, make judgments about). A discipline with these features contains no­tions of standards applicable to understanding theoret­ical structures and is revealed in the ability to apply principles of procedure in practice, and in making judgments within the framework of the activity. (p. 11)

Within the dance form there is a coherent collection of ideas, objects and/or experiences which justify close examination. These are:

1. The ways aesthetics and aesthetic values are ap­plied and are relevant to dance.

2. The notions that dances occur through time and in space; they have a separate but transient existence as objects; and as objects they can serve a range of functions within a variety of contexts.

3. That the act of dance-making is a rational as well as intuitive process that uses the human body ­moving or still- as the instrument. It relies on the manipulation of, and/or play (improvisation/ex­perimentation) with the elements of time, space and .effort/force (quality). This manipulation

and/or play occurs within a particular stylistic pa­rameter and the product of that manipula­tion/play - the physical movement - is then ordered through the application of various cre­ative skills, into appropriate forms. These forms are governed by aesthetic values as well as the con­text and function of the work, and contribute to the coherent realisation of the dance maker's intention - the creation of physical, and therefore visual, signs and symbols that fulfil their function and are relevant to the context within which they occur.

4. That the objects created need a particular range of physical and expressive skills and understanding closely related to their form, function and context to bring them into existence and to fully realise the intentions of the maker.

5. That there are standards of appraisal and evalua­tion related to the dance's context and function, both within the various genres and within the larger social and historical context.

It has been argued at great length and detail- and this is not the place for such an argument - that in all of the dance's contexts, the preceding notions apply. I will now briefly discuss the implications of these no­tions in relation to the study of dance.

Aesthetics and dance

All dance is basically concerned with the aesthetic. By this I mean that all dance is constructed out of those values regarded as aesthetic by a culture or society, and deemed to be essential in the formulation of a work of dance. These specific values are not only de­termined by the culture, but also by the context that the work occurs within, and the function that the work serves. They are made evident through the use of the physical code, the ordering of the movement in rela­tion to itself and to the whole work, the use of the rhythmic and spatial elements in the work, and the de­gree of dynamic polarity present within the work.

If we agree that all dance is aesthetic, then dance edu­cation, irrespective of its stated contextual focus, should be concerned with developing an awareness and understanding of the relevant aesthetic values. It should also be concerned with educating the students' response to those values and providing them with the opportunity to accept, accommodate and assimilate, to challenge, or to reject those value systems through their own creative work.

Making dance

The second idea, that all dance is made, also needs elu­cidation. While it is conceivable that a dance could exist as a concept in the mind of an individual, unless it is given physical form, unless it occupies space and consumes time, and unless someone exerts some de­

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gree of effort to execute it, then it cannot be said to exist physically.

For dance to have a physical form it must be con­structed. This could occur as an ongoing or instanta­neous process, as in some forms of improvised dance; as a direct response to some physical, emotional or spiritual stimuli, as in the case of trance dance; or through the conscious or unconscious manipulation or play with the elements of time, space, and effort/ force by the maker - whether it be a Shaman exorcising a spirit, a temple dancer instructing initiates in their sacred art, or a choreographer developing a work for the theatre.

Performing dance

Contained within the notion that all dance is made is the idea that each particular dance requires a series of physical and expressive competencies; and that both the physical and expressive competencies alike are di­rectly related to the work's context and function. This area of activity we call performance, and it includes:

the act of showing, demonstrating or performing in front of an audience of peers or others, at any level, or, in any context related to, or relevant to, the student's class work.

We learn to perform only to serve the intentions of the makers and as makers ourselves, to be free to realise our own intentions. The acquisition of peljormance skills is not an end in itself.

Appreciating dance

Finally then, when considering the dance as a made, and then performed, object it is possible to apply stan­dards of appraisal and evaluation that are appropriate and relevant to the dance's context and function, in order to arrive at an understanding of its meaning, and an estimation of its significance, in relation to its con­texts and function.

Dance works reflect, support or challenge the belief system of a culture by showing physically the makers' perception of their world and the interaction of people and objects within that world. The performance of those works reflects, supports or challenges the moral, religious and philosophical attitudes and beliefs of a culture, not only through the physical code itself, but through the performers' use of that physical code. This is true of all dance activity, whatever its context. All dance, because of its immediacy, reflects changes in its cultural, social and philosophical environment.

Dance appreciation involves placing dance in its broader sociolcultural context. This is done by describ­ing, analysing and evaluating the functions that the dance performs in a given culture and the influences of that culture, through its prevailing ideologies, on the

dance. Students learn the reasons why and how a dance form comes into existence and study and an­alyse its changing style or emphasis.

A global framework Dance education should be primarily concerned with developing the aesthetic awareness, understanding and response of students at all levels of education from P-12, and with developing, through both theoretical and practical study, the students' understanding and ability to operate in the making, performing and ap­preciating processes, which are aspects of, and rele­vant to, all dance activity.

The responsibility of those planning specific dance curricula models is to articulate the particular context within which their study of the dance is to occur - the ritual or religious context, the social context, and the theatrical!art context; and to ensure that the content of these specific curricula models is clearly focused within the expressed context.

We need not feel a responsibility to please all those working in the range of dance genres and their compo­nent styles by including their particular genre and/ or style within our curriculum, unless its inclusion is seen as being related and relevant to the stated contextual focus. But we need to agree that dance education is more than teaching people how to dance, more than using move­ment creatively, if we intend to justify its existence within the educational system.

Making dance <Composition)

Let us first address the area of dance making, or chore­ography. It is a common belief among many profess­ional dancers and choreographers in this country that the 'art' of choreography is not something that can be taught other than through the traditional apprentice­ship mode, whereby a dancer, through being choreo­graphed on and through actively performing works from the particular company's repertoire, learns by os­mosis the 'art'.

The act of choreography is a very complex process, and the production of a significant and esteemed work is a rare event. However, students of dance can and should be taught the crafting skills that underpin the dance-making process. They can be taught the prin­ciples and elements of composition. It is not a mystical process. The teaching of the elements of composition is a normal and accepted component of most other arts education processes.

We do not expect every student of English literature to be a Bruce Dawe, Albert Camus or a Marquez; nor do we expect every student of music to be a Sculthorpe, a Mozart or a Cage. Yet many dance educators working in the art/theatre context perceive this to be our stated

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aim and purpose, and unfortunately many working in the social context do not see this type of study as rele­vant.

The aims of teaching students to write, to compose music, or to choreograph are surely to develop their ability to appreciate, evaluate and understand their art form; to provide them with the skills and understand­ing needed for expression and communication within their particular form; and to raise the general level and quality of their particular art form and develop its po­tential as a meaningful social activity within our con­temporary society.

If the focus of the curriculum is to be the art/ theatrical context of dance, then it must be clearly understood that the issue is not the production of 'great art' but that the students are learning to:

(i) make statements about their understanding and perception of their world or of their own experi­ence of that world;

(ii) give physical form to their ideas, images and feelings;

(iii) communicate with others in a unique and often non-verbal manner;

(iv) be tolerant and accepting of the attempts of oth­ers to communicate through the creation of non­verbal signs and symbols; and

(v) read dance - how to perceive from and to un­derstand the language of the creator (through an experimental understanding of the 'making' pro­cess).

In other words, the process - the acquisition of skills and understanding - is the emphasis we, as educa­tors, place on the making of dance and not the product, which is, by necessity, the focus of the profession.

An emphasis on the process in the educational sector will have a corresponding effect on the professional sector. As the audience for professional performances increases in awareness and critical facility, then the de­mands made on the professionals to experiment with new forms will allow for the development of a more dynamic art form.

Such a process is not only relevant in the art/theatre context, but also in the social context. As students are given the opportunity to create their own social dances, to understand how dance functions in society and how it can be used as a medium for expression within the social context, then it might be proposed that there would be a burgeoning of new social forms of dance. These would emerge directly out of the youth culture, as young people are not only willing to experiment, but through an education in the making process ~re equipped with the necessary skills to create

their own material- material that is relevant to them­selves and hence to society at large.

The creation of new dance forms is as essential to the continued survival of the social dance as it is to the sur­vival of the art/theatre dance. Without the generation of new forms, new styles and new images, people en­gaged in the social forms are operating at the level of physical museums, preserving the products of a vi­brant past without developing or creating anew.

A study of the existing social forms - how they are structured and use the elements of time and space ­and an understanding of their physical codes and often metaphoric significance is educationally relevant in a multicultural society. However, treating these ob­jects as sacred and unchangeable leads to stagnation and a lack of respect for the potentially socialising force of the form itself. Only when we demystify the making process through education will young people, and ideally the older generation (through continuing education programs), be prepared to create anew and allow the social forms and the art/ theatre forms to de­velop so that dance can become a vibrant expression of contemporary culture.

If members of the dance world are not willing to ac­commodate a change in taste, or in the style and struc­ture of the social forms, then their function as a dynamic expression of a root culture becomes an his­torical curiosity and consequently their survival is threatened - particularly in this era of instant enter­tainment and instant pleasure. It is my contention, then, that an education in the making process is as relevant in the social context as in the art/ theatre context.

Performance

This brings me to the second component of a balanced dance curriculum - the performance process. All dance is performed. Physically, performances range from children dancing in a playground, or showing their peers in infant school the products of their exper­imentation, to the fully lit, staged and costumed spec­tacles of the nation's major companies, and to the community participation in social/recreational dances at the local hall or club on a Saturday night.

All dance requires a series of physical skills or 'bodily competencies' and a series of expressive or 'interpre­tive competencies' closely related to their form, func­tion and context, in order to fully realise the intentions of the maker. This is applicable to dance in all its con­texts - social, theatrical or ritual.

These bodily and expressive competencies can be taught. All dance genres, with their varied range of styles have common underlying physical skills and understanding. All require an understanding (whether conscious or unconscious) of the conceptual base of their particular code if they are to be performed hon­

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estly and expressively, and all require different levels of focus and concentration, different levels of risk tak­ing, musicality and projection. All require, to some de­gree, the ability to work constructively but sensitively with others in order to realise the dance as an object ­to make it 'real'.

Education in the bodily and interpretive competencies required for performance should be part of all dance education. This is the area that perhaps most clearly distinguishes dance from movement education. In movement classes, the area of bodily and expressive competencies is not emphasised when movement is used for expression. The physical interpretation of the emotional state of the participant is of the foremost im­portance. In courses that focus on the science of human movement - where dance is only one among the many modes of human movement studied - the em­phasis is usually on the efficient execution of the action in order to achieve the maximum effect (this is particu­larly the case in sports movement and in industrial movement studies).

It might be suggested that 'creative' movement expo­nents have constricted the development of dance edu­cation by taking away emphasis on bodily and expressive skills. They have made claims of impaired creativity and of a lack of affective response/engage­ment by the participant, caused by his or her concern with the technical execution of the act. This is perhaps a result of the creative movement exponents' lack of understanding of the total performance process, shared, it must be emphasised, by those dance educa­tors in the private and public sectors operating from the other end of the spectrum, who see the acquisition of physical skills through rote learning as the sole aim of dance education. Such extremely diverse opinions can, and indeed do, cause an unproductive tension be­tween their proponents.

A balanced education in both the bodily and express­ive competencies should ensure that experiential and cognitive understanding go hand in hand. The devel­opment of the students' understanding of efficient static and dynamic body mechanics, of their kinaesthetic awareness and of their personal levels of flexibility, strength, coordination and endurance (both aerobic and muscular) are the primary goals of an ed­ucation in the bodily competencies. These physical goals are developed in conjunction with the expressive goals.

Students need to understand the conceptual basis of their particular technique/s in order to more fully ap­preciate their stylistic characteristics. Such an under­standing of the physical code's philosophical basis should also increase the depth and breadth of students' performance. As members of an audience we have, I'm sure, witnessed the problem that some 'classical'_ dancers experience when, for example, they

attempt to perform a 'modern' work (and vice versa), and they don't understand the conceptual base of the technique - the source of the movement, its philo­sophical and aesthetic basis. This lack of understand­ing is demonstrated in their physical performance.

Dance does not exist in a vacuum. It is a response to a whole series of conditions and the intellectual climate is an essential component of those conditions. The ideas/concepts that are prevalent in a culture serve to provide a stimulus for the development of an appro­priate movement code (this is so in all the dance's con­texts). Performers need to understand the code they are using if they are to do more than perform a series of physical movements with technical precision.

This lack of understanding of the importance of the cognitive processes in the acquisition of bodily and ex­pressive competencies has perhaps been engendered to maintain a certain mystique in the profession, within the art/theatre context. Many students are rig­orously trained in the bodily competencies with little or no exposure to the underlying conceptual base of their technique. This, many believe, is only acquired when you begin to perform.

The traditional model for training students in the area of folk/ethnic dance in both primary and secondary schools has also suffered from a lack of understanding. This was pointed out to me by a young Greek boy who, as we watched a performance of traditional Greek dances turned and said, 'These white folks don't have any idea of what the dances are about, do they Sir?'

I was taken aback, but on reflection realised this was so. Many in the audience could appreciate the light, colour and movement of the performance, but few un­derstood the dance's origin - its significance as a cel­ebration of the willing sacrifice of a group of women, who, in order to save themselves from being defiled by invaders, threw themselves over a cliff.

Often, students are only told, for example, 'This is a harvest dance, and they wear these clothes'. Many times, not even this small bit of information is con­veyed. The students are taught the dance as an exercise in coordination or in order to develop some type of so­cial skill. Surely this ignores the opportunity for in­creasing the students' understanding of the heritage of many of their friends in a multicultural Australia.

The folk dance experience often becomes a meaning­less repetition of a range of movements that are per­formed to please the teacher. It is not denied that the experience might be pleasant and that the students are getting some form of exercise, and indeed that they are interacting with their peers, but they can do the same in any number of other activities in the school curricu­lum. This seems to be a denial of the potential benefits

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that a complete education in the performance process offers.

Training in the bodily and interpretive competencies is an essential element of all dance education whether the focus is on the social, ritual or theatrical forms. Un­derstanding is best engendered by doing - by learn­ing how to control and refine the instrument of communication, and by learning how to become ex­pressive and how to communicate. If enjoyment is what is to be communicated, or some significant image or idea, it must reach from participant to observer, or from participant to observer/ participant as is often the case in the social forms.

In summary then, training in the bodily competencies in the art context should be complemented by training in the interpretive competencies, and education in both areas should be balanced in terms of theory and practice - 'learning about' and 'learning by doing'. This same balance should also be evident in any study of the ethnic/social forms of dance - particularly when students are studying forms of dance alien to their own cultural experience. How can they perform them expressively if they have no understanding of their conceptual base or indeed their function?

An education in the performance area of the dance dis­cipline encompasses developing the participants' un­derstanding of the following areas.

Physical competencies:

• the principles of human movement;

• gravity, energy and dynamics and how they can be harnessed;

• the skeletal system, the neuro-muscular system and the principles of conditioning and fitness;

• the development of the student's spatial and rhyth­mic awareness and the development of their kinaesthetic sense.

Expressive competencies:

• the particular physical codes used and their concep­tual base;

• the particular expressive/ interpretive abilities, such as musicality, projection, the willingness to take risks and accept challenges and ability to work sen­sitively but assertively with others;

• particular skills such as focus, concentration, disci­pline and commitment.

• The degree of expertise, or amount of personal input, understanding and involvement required, vary according to the dance's context and function, and the maker's particular intention.

Appreciation

This brings us to the third area, appreciating. For stu­dents to adequately appreciate dance they will need to

understand and be aware of the values and standards of the discipline, and to understand the relationship between the dance's context and function within the various genres and within the larger historical and so­cial context. This understanding and awareness is then wedded to the student's developing skills of observa­tion, description, analysis and interpretation, thereby enabling the students to adequately evaluate the dance in its complexity: the made object (the dances); the per­formance of those objects by the dancers; the relation­ship of the dance to its context and function; and dance's relationship to its broader sociocultural con­text.

There is a need for the students to have an experiential, cognitive and affective understanding of the concep­tual basis of the making process before they are fully able to appreciate the products of the dance makers (choreographers). This understanding encompasses the following areas:

1. The principles and elements of time, space and ef­fort/force and how they are used to shape and control human movement in order to create dy­namic images imbued with invisible forces.

2. What form is and how it is used to impose order on chaos and to facilitate communication.

3. The aesthetic values (relevant to the particular genre under study) and how they operate to shape and control the statements of the dance makers.

4. The possible types and treatments of subject mat­ter that are relevant to the dance's context and function.

5. The possible relationships between dance and music.

6. The relationship between dance and the other arts, e.g. the elements of visual design.

All of this understanding (experiential, cognitive, af­fective) serves to create a dynamic and interrelated system for making evaluations of particular dance works/ objects, and students need to be educated in these areas in order to fully 'appreciate' the product.

The second area of appreciation is that of performance, i.e. the performance of the dances (the made objects) by the performers. Students will need to be educated in the theoretical basis (through both practical and the­oretical means) of the bodily and interpretive compe­tencies in order to adequately evaluate their execution by dance performers and be able to monitor and eval­uate their own progress and the progress of their peers, and those engaged in the performance of dance what­ever its context.

This means they must understand the following areas:

• the principles of human movement;

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• gravity, energy and dynamics and how they can be harnessed;

• the skeletal system, the neuro-muscular system and the principles of conditioning and fitness;

• the elements of the spatial, rhythmic and kinaesthetic senses;

• the particular physical codes used and their concep­tual base;

• the particular expressive/interpretive abilities and skills that are related to the context and function of the dance that are necessary for the realisation of the maker's intention.

The third area of appreciation is the placing of the dance into its broader sociocultural context. This is done by describing, analysing and discussing the func­tions that the dance performs in a given culture, and the influences of that culture, through its prevailing ideologies, on the dance. Rather than learning the his­tory of the dance in terms of times, dates, places and significant artists, a more relevant study would be of the ideas of a culture and how they, in effect, create and influence the prevalent dance forms of that culture. This is an historical approach that centres on the dance in its broadest terms. Students learn the reasons why and how a dance form comes into existence and study and analyse its changing style or emphasis. This is more relevant than learning a series of facts and fig­ures to be regurgitated during exams.

Dance works reflect, support or challenge the belief system of a culture through the physical realisation of the makers' perceptions of their world and the interac­tion of people and objects within that world. The per­formance of those works reflects, supports or challenges the moral, religious and philosophical atti­tudes and beliefs of a culture, not only through the physical code itself, but through the performer's use of that physical code. This is true of all dance activity, whatever its context. All dance, because of its immedi­acy, reflects changes in its cultural, social and philo­sophical environment.

Summary These then, the making, performing and appreciating processes, form the framework of a balanced dance ed­ucation, an education that focuses on dance as a disci­pline, and not on one aspect, such as performance or 'creativity'. This framework can be applied to a study of the dance, irrespective of its context, but its context is what we are now called on to define. If we accept the above framework as possible, it is our responsibility as educators to clearly state the focus of our particular courses and to ensure that the course content is clearly focused within its context.

This requires dance educators to re-evaluate the nature

of their courses - particularly in relation to their global aims and objectives. If the aim of the course is to study the dance in society, then obviously the social forms would become the core of the students' study with some provision for the study of the theatrical forms in relation to their sociocultural context. If the course is to be taught in the context of an 'art' educa­tion, then the theatrical forms would become the core of the study with some provision for a study of the so­cial forms as perhaps a stylistic resource, enabling the students to create works that draw on their own socio­cultural experience.

If a specialist institution should arise in the public ed­ucation system that aims to provide a complete educa­tion from P-12, while at the same time offering in conjunction with that education an opportunity for in­tensive pre-vocational training, then the students would still need to be exposed to a balanced curriculum in dance. This would mean that equal time should be given to the three areas - making, perfo/7ning and ap­preciating, and that there should not be an over-empha­sis on the acquisition of the bodily competencies. Only then could the institution hope to develop significant artists of the dance (which I am sure would be one of their aims).

Dance educators will now also need to address the issues of what type of learning activities should be pre­sented and when they should be presented in each area of the dance discipline.

If in Australia we accept the term 'dance education' as meaning an education in the making, performing and appreciating of dance, then we have gone some way towards alleviating the general lack of understanding from which the term currently suffers, and of estab­lishing dance as a subject worthy of study instead of a peripheral activity. We will also be firmly placed on the road leading to a general recognition of the value of dance in our culture, and of its particular value in the educational context.

References

Adshead J. The Study of Dance Dance Books. London (1981).

Gulbenkian Report on Dance Education and Training in Britain. (1981).

This paper was prepared for the Australian Associ­ation for Dance Education by Robert Osmotherly and published by the Department of Education, Queensland as part of the National Arts in Austra­tian Schools Project. For additional copies of the paper, contact the appropriate subject association in your state. © 1991

8 V. R. Ward, Government Printer, Queensland-1991

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