Dance Power and Difference: Critical and Feminist Perspectives on Dance Education

Sherry B. Shapiro

Human Kinetics, 1998 - Performing Arts - 194 pages

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In Dance, Power, and Difference, eight leading dance educators from around the world examine the fundamental values and goals of dance and dance education.

Using a variety of approaches-including general critique, case studies, and personal histories-Dance, Power, and Difference provides a foundation for reconstructing dance education in light of critical, social, and cultural concerns. This is not an answer book, however. It is a thought-provoking book that encourages readers to question traditional practices and develop a personal philosophy that is both critical and feminist.

Dance, Power, and Difference seeks to transform the way readers think about dance-not only regarding how it is taught, researched, and critiqued, but also in terms of its purpose and aims. The contributors link dance to themes of human emancipation, multicultural awareness, and gender awareness, prompting readers to contemplate questions like these:

- How do we think of and value ""the body"" in dance?
- What cultural values, if any, should we impart to our students?
- What changes might a feminist-oriented pedagogy for dance stimulate?
- How should we prepare ourselves to work with students from cultures that are different from our own?
- Should we perpetuate old teaching methods?

Part I introduces the reader to foundational questions concerning curriculum, pedagogy, and research. Part II presents personal stories that place these questions in the context of specific situations. Part III discusses the role of dance within the broader political and social arena. Each chapter includes an abstract, critical reflections, questions to spur class discussion and individual thought, and references.

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About the author

Sherry B. Shapiro has been a professor of dance education at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, since 1989 and is the coordinator of Meredith's dance education program. She pioneered the development of a critical pedagogy of dance that integrates dance with critical and feminist approaches toward education. She has also taught dance at all levels, choreographed extensively with diverse groups, and performed modern dance for more than two decades.

A member of dance and the Child international (daCi), Shapiro chaired the steering committee for the formation of the U.S. chapter of daCi in 1995-96. She is also a member of the National Dance Association and the Congress on Research in Dance. She has written a book, Pedagogy and the Politics of the Body: A Critical Praxis (Garland), published in the fall of 1998, as well as numerous articles for professional journals, both national and international.

Shapiro earned her doctorate in cultural studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dance Power and Difference: Critical and Feminist Perspectives on Dance Education
• Editor: Sherry B. Shapiro
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Human Kinetics, 1998
• ISBN: 0880117478, 9780880117470
• Length: 194 pages
• Subjects: Performing Arts / Dance / General