Fostering the Growth of Beginners' Improvisational Skills: A study of dance teaching practices in the high school setting

This interpretive study was aimed at describing two teaching practices of improvisation as they naturally occurred in the context of a secondary school dance programme, over a complete academic year. It was framed by the following research questions: what objectives are made explicit by the teachers as they present and conduct improvisation situations? What teaching strategies are put forward to achieve these objectives? Data were gathered through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Observation revealed a wide spectrum of improvisational opportunities to have been offered throughout the dance programme. Six learning objectives emerged from an inductive analysis of the data. These were learning to: 1) generate movement spontaneously; 2) concentrate; 3) be physically alert; 4) take responsibility for decision making; 5) relate to one another while moving; 6) observe movement. Five broad teaching strategies emerged to engage students to generate movement spontaneously. They were: 1)setting up the situation; 2) presenting the task; 3) providing the transition to execution; 4) guiding the task execution; and 5) revisiting the situation. These broad strategies, in turn, served as the most immediate context where teachers could simultaneously foster students' ability to generate movement spontaneously. Some of the other five learning objectives found lay a foundation for improvisation. Findings contribute to an increased awareness of the dynamics of an improvisational situation, and of the learning involved in the growth of beginners' improvisational skills. They also provide concrete examples of how opportunities to develop improvisational skills can be offered in the course of high school dance instruction.