Barbara Bashaw

• Music and Performing Arts Professions
• Dance Education

Barbara Bashaw, MA, CMA is a full-time Teacher of Dance & Dance Education in the Department of Music & Performing Arts Professions where she coordinates the K-12 Dance Teacher Certification Track.  Her accomplishments within the program include the development of the NDEO Center for Research in Dance, the design and initiation of the ABT Ballet Pedagogy track and the cultivation of many new and innovative courses within the program including Artistic Resources for Dance Education course that networks students into dozens of NYC dance and education venues.  She is cited for her commitment to breaking traditional Western European barriers of dance in education through her strong value for the many cultural voices that must be brought into K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. (Foundation for Community Dance, UK) Ms. Bashaw is the 2003 recipient of the National Dance Education Organization Emerging Visionary award and is a featured teacher in the March 2003 Dance Teacher Magazine.  She holds permanent teacher certification in dance from New York State, New York City and New Jersey.

Ms. Bashaw’s primary research interest is in the artistic development of children, and in particular the phenomena of untutored dance making that children naturally engage in at home, after school, in neighborhood environments and within Internet cultures.  Her current dissertation research at Teachers College, Columbia University is entitled: Young Choreographers:  An Ethno-Phenomenological Study of Developmental and Socio-Cultural Influences During Untutored, Adolescent Dance Composition Experiences.  

Prior to joining NYU, Ms. Bashaw founded the dance program at P.S. 295, The Studio School for Arts & Culture in Brooklyn, NY. Her endeavors at P.S. 295 included the development of a dance education curriculum which fused artistic development with literacy development through her “choreographer’s workshop” approach. This method is featured as an exemplar of the Eight Learning Principles on the Institute for Learning CD-Rom produced by the University of Pittsburgh, developers of the NYC Primary Literacy Standards. Ms. Bashaw’s work in integrating Laban Movement Analysis and Labanotation is noted in the NYC Best Public Elementary Schools (2002, Teachers College Press).

Ms. Bashaw is a Charter Member, selected by a jury, of the NY State Academy for Teaching and Learning and is a Content Advisory Committee member for the New York State Teacher Certification Examinations. She has contributed to the NYC DOE Blueprint in Dance including sections on assessment. She was instrumental in the reorganization of NYSDEA and its affiliation with NDEO and currently serves as a board member. (www.nysdea.org) In addition to her work in the public schools, Ms. Bashaw has served on the faculty of the Dance Education Laboratory (DEL) at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center and served four years on the adjunct faculty of Teachers College, Columbia University where she instructed the children’s pedagogy courses.

Ms. Bashaw has worked as a master teacher for ArtsConnection and a faculty member of the Teachers College Creative Arts Laboratory. She has worked in numerous schools throughout NYC as a teaching-artist and staff-developer for organizations such as 92nd Street Y School Partners, ArtsConnection, Creative Arts Laboratory, Long Island University, and The Kennedy Center at NJPAC. She has conducted research and consultancies for The Center for Arts Education Research, ArtsVision, ArtsEmpower and the NY State Assessment in the Arts. Ms. Bashaw has presented her work at national/international conferences such as the National Dance Education Association (NDEO), the National Dance Association (NDA), American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance (AAHPERD), Dance and the Child International (daCi), and UNITY. In 1996 she was the recipient of the NDA Student Literary Award for her essay entitled “Dance Education: Reflecting Upon John Dewey”, which was published in Spotlight on Dance.

Early in her career, Ms. Bashaw worked as a professional choreographer for local theater companies in Connecticut where she also taught at private dance studios and community centers. She is a co-founder of The Bridge for Dance studio on Broadway in Manhattan and was the artistic director of Ludique Dance Theater. Her dance training is focused on somatics and the work of Jose Limon with technique interests including Humphrey-Weidman, Afro-Brazilian and Tap.

Ms. Bashaw holds a B.A. in Interdisciplinary Arts for Children and Dance from SUNY Brockport, is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) from the Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies, and holds a M.A. in Dance & Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University where she is currently completing her doctoral studies.