At this moment of duress, induced both by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and political and social unrest in the United States, we are all wondering what lies ahead. As a dance community, we have watched the livelihoods of numerous choreographers and performers disappear as dance companies fold and Broadway goes dark. And although this is dispiriting, many dancers are adapting through technology and creative alternatives to theatrical venues. Many companies have produced virtual seasons or have found ways to perform outdoors. Choreographers have become creative with the medium of dance for the camera. Dance teachers have quickly adapted to teaching online or teaching in masks, socially distanced.
In the field of dance education, this resilience has been quite striking. In higher education, K-12, private studios, and community dance, teachers have shared strategies for remote teaching through various professional organizations. The National Dance Education Organization did a remarkable job of organizing forums, webinars, and discussions among its membership immediately after the pandemic began, and this helped us all carry on with the business of dance education, our chosen profession. An online conference energized us in the fall, with a burst of inspiration from the many presenters on myriad topics. The online conference even had a side benefit—more people had access than ever before since the need for travel was eliminated.
The Journal of Dance Education is a vehicle that reflects the concerns of the dance education community, including the pandemic and the fight for social justice. It is not surprising that JODE has received and published articles on several social justice issues, including racial equity, gender roles, body image, dance for older adults, decolonizing the curriculum, differently-abled dancers, and dance in conservative cultures. All these topics and more are reflective of the belief that everyone should have access to a dance education; JODE writers are often passionate about removing barriers so that this can become a reality. JODE authors and readers are also passionate about making that education as equitable as possible, by recognizing the role that White supremacy and gender stereotyping have played in determining the nature of the content and practice of our dance study. Our recent Special Issue, Race in Dance Education (fall 2020) shared content designed to help teachers and practitioners create a more racially diverse and inclusive learning experience.
Over the past eight years during my time as Editor-in-Chief, we have worked on diversity, equity, and inclusion, although I am the first to admit that our progress should have been faster. Our Review Board has become more diverse, with about 20% reviewers of color, and we hope to improve upon this moving forward. We have also created Calls for Papers that step outside the White, Eurocentric norms for our field, with topics such as Race in Dance Education, Beyond Ballet and Modern Dance, and Jazz Dance. We have worked on incorporating more inclusive language, such as the use of the “singular they” to accommodate those who do not identify with either a male or female pronoun. We have changed the terminology describing our review process from “double-blind” to “double-anonymous,” since the process of reviewing papers without knowing the identity of the author is not at all similar to actual blindness. We have instituted a policy of capitalization for the words Black and White when referring to race. Capitalization of these words makes clear that their meaning concerns race and not a color, and with the word “White,” it is important to remember that it is a race with its cultural constructs rather than a neutral state of being.
Another area of progress for JODE was the number of submissions we received, and the number of pages we had per issue. At the beginning of 2013, our page budget per issue was 38 pages for actual content. It increased to 42 pages, and then finally became 62 pages in 2020. This has allowed for far more content to be included in each issue. This was particularly fortunate since our submissions increased from 45 in 2013 to 74 in 2020. Article downloads went from 12,000 in 2013 to 65,908 in 2020; a growth of 449%! Finally, our international submissions have increased over this time as well; we have published authors from Scandinavia, Australia, Africa, and Europe, among other places.
As I hand over the reins to my capable successor, Karen Schupp, I am confident that she will continue expanding the gains and reach of the journal while adding her own goals for improvement. Karen was an outstanding Associate Editor during my first seven years as Editor-in-Chief, and for my final year, we shared the job as Co-Editors-in-Chief. I know she will do an excellent job in this role and am grateful that we had someone so experienced and insightful to take my place.
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My nine years as a member of the Executive Editorial Board for the Journal of Dance Education have been an incredibly rich and illuminating experience. The opportunity to directly observe new developments within the research and practice of dance education as part of the publication process continually shapes my work as an editor, researcher, and educator. The privilege of joining an extraordinary community of editors is something that I revere in my new role as Editor-in-Chief. I recognize the lineage of editors who have served JODE and the foundation they built for JODE’s future. Each of the Editors-in-Chief before me: Luke Kahlich, Julie Kerr-Berry, Doug Risner, and Wendy Oliver, has been instrumental in making JODE a critical platform for dance education discourse in the United States and increasingly internationally. Thanks to their collective and scaffolded leadership, foresight, and unwavering commitment to dance education, JODE has served the field of dance education for 21 years and is read by researchers, scholars, practitioners, and students around the world. I am particularly grateful for the mentorship Wendy has shared with me in our work as Co-Editors this past year. It is thanks to her counsel, direction, and generosity that I feel confident, well equipped, and excited to assume my new responsibilities as Editor-in-Chief.
It is my sincere hope to carry forward the legacy of JODE by encouraging greater international readership and authorship, proactively contributing to greater equity and inclusion within dance education literature, and continuing to provide a platform for critical dialogues about dance education. JODE will continue to publish annual special issues centered on topics that apply to an array of teaching contexts and populations. Our upcoming issue for 2021, edited by Matthew Henley, will examine dance education through a lens of 4E cognition, and our 2022 issue, edited by Alison Leonard, will highlight and appraise the vital role that children and youth have in the future of dance education. The JODE Executive Editorial Board will offer professional development workshops and panels, both within the framework of NDEO’s national conferences and beyond, for emergent and established authors. We will actively solicit submissions that address issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within dance education through developing calls for papers, underlining the urgency and gravity of these issues to dance education.
My work as Editor-in-Chief is supported by a stellar team. Joining me in this journey are Senior Associate Editor Sherrie Barr; Associate Editor Robin Collen; Assistant Editors Matthew Henley, Alison Leonard, Nyama McCarthy-Brown, and Kori Wakamatsu, and Graduate Student Editor Aadya Kaktikar. Professor Barr’s and Dr. Collen’s recent promotions reflect the innovation, dedication, and efficacy they have brought to JODE. Professor Barr, as one of our ScholarOne administrators, has helped to refine our submission procedures, leading to a more streamlined and transparent process for our authors. In her role facilitating the book review process, Dr. Collen has broadened the scope of book and media reviews to better reflect the range of interests and practices within dance education. Each editor on JODE’s Executive Editorial Board brings a wealth of knowledge, grounded in specific areas of expertise; collectively the Executive Editorial Board’s expertise spans a diverse range of perspectives, experiences, and dance education contexts.
JODE’s Review Board also serves in an important capacity by sharing detailed, constructive, and thoughtful anonymous reviews of each submission. Our Review Board now includes over 60 educators, scholars, researchers, and artists from across the world who graciously share their expertise with our authors. As such, each reviewer plays a part in fulfilling the mission of JODE, and I am grateful for their continued dedication to cultivating dance education literature.
The contents of this issue reflect the recent evolution of JODE and the bedrock for its continued growth and success. In their article “Teaching Communal Dance Forms,” Hyun Jung Chang and Azaria Hogans discuss strategies for broadening students’ perspectives in postsecondary “world/urban” dance classes. Elsa Urmston and Imogen Aujla examine how dance artists work in inclusive contexts in their article “Inclusive Dance Development Contexts.” Two articles uncover and contextualize the lived experiences of educators. Lisa Wilmot’s article “The Role of Teaching Artists in Postsecondary Education” discusses the contributions of teaching artists in higher education dance programs, and Takahiro Sato, Naomi Suzuki, Kevin Eckert, and Doug W. Ellison’s “Japanese Secondary Physical Educator’s Professional Development Experiences of Teaching Japanese Traditional Dance” looks at what educators discovered about themselves while learning to teach traditional dance forms. Elin Lobel’s In Practice article outlines her approach for engaging dance education and physical education majors in holistic dance experiences through prioritizing social and creative dances in her article “A Model for Integrating Social and Creative Dance Forms in a Dance Education Course.” Susan McGreevy-Nichols and Shannon Dooling-Cain outline NDEO’s new Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Program Review Initiative in NDEO Reports. The issue closes with 16 book reviews that reflect the abundance of dance education research and literature published in recent years.
Both the incoming and outgoing editors of JODE share a mission: to provide a timely vehicle for current information that assists dance educators of all kinds to excel in their chosen professions. We hope you enjoy this issue, and we value the trust that you have placed in us to bring you the best in dance education research and practice.