Dance Education Description
Founded by legendary dance educator Martha Hill in 1932, the program in Dance Education at New York University is one of the oldest and most prestigious in North America. Throughout our long history, Dance Education at NYU has been guided by a belief in movement as central to human development and education.
The Dance Education Program envisions dance and education as complementary domains of knowledge. We pursue discipline-based inquiries and scholarly research to increase knowledge and expertise in these domains and to transform the way educators understand and teach dance.
Traditionally, dance is not taught as a domain of understanding; rather, it is taught as received knowledge. Our approach is to move away from a knowledge-centered curriculum – “The passive mind, active body: ideal – wherein submissive learners “acquire” dance content through a dominant pedagogy. Instead, we provide a curriculum that requires critical and creative thinking about, and deliberate practice with, key concepts in dance, human development and socio-cultural educational settings.
Our “thinking-centered” approach to dance education necessitates the integration of the developing mind and body in the context of educational/cultural practices. Therefore, our curricular structure is based on three areas of inquiry: 1) discipline-based inquiry which allows the dance artist to master his/her craft, 2) pedagogic-based inquiry that enables deep understanding of teaching and learning processes, and 3) research-based inquiry, which provides theory and methods for creating new knowledge in the field.
Our core courses begin with students developing and examining a personal vision for teaching and learning. Core courses sequence to give students a continual opportunity to integrate their prior-experiences with new knowledge; and culminate in highly individualized projects that evidence the integration of theory and practice. Electives from both inside and outside the program aid students in honing in on particular topics, interests or issues that support their vision. The learning experience in many of our courses is organized around conducting fieldwork in socio-cultural settings such as schools, colleges, institutions and cultural organizations. Through fieldwork, students have the opportunity to analyze educational models, exercise researcher skills, develop professional networks, and to awaken to the “realistic idealism” that propels the future growth of arts education.
Professor Barbara Bashaw talks about the NYU Dance Education program.
Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions - 35 W. 4th Street, Suite 777 - New York, NY 10012 - (212) 998-5424
NYU Steinhardt - Music and Performing Arts Professions - 35 W. 4th Street, Suite 777, New York, NY 10012