Taking on the Challenges of Our Present: Dance Education for Children and Youth

Children and youth are undoubtedly the future of dance education. And, while the future is always unknown, little did I know or even fathom four years ago when I began thinking about the topic for this 2022 Special Issue, that this future issue would land at such a tumultuous and cataclysmic time for our children and youth. Finding authors to write about their work with children and youth in dance education already comes with inherent challenges since many involved in teaching this age group do not have publishing as part of their job descriptions. Amid a global pandemic going on its 3^rd year, in-person teaching and research, in many instances, had to stop and were slow to resume due to health protocols and increased demands on educators. Getting by day-to-day, particularly in school and classroom settings, has been a challenge for most educators and researchers. Therefore, putting out a call for envisioning a future for dance education for children and youth presented a complex challenge.

Then, we add to the complexity the confluence of political and social factions and unrest, economic tension, censorship in schools, increasing stress on the teaching workforce, gun violence (particularly in US schools and communities), and continued social inequality and oppression spurring ongoing racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ justice movements onto the present landscape of education for children and youth. The compounding impacts of the multitude of crises facing children and youth make the future of dance education seem rather grim, not to mention the ever increasing digital and technological shifts and barrage of social media that further complicate this landscape.

When we look to the teaching and learning of dance for children and youth in PK-12 schools, private studios, dance organizations, and communities, we cannot overlook this current social, political, economic, and public health context globally. While this Special Issue was never intended to be specifically about the global COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on dance education, the pandemic has undoubtedly shaped all our lives, as well as research, scholarship, teaching, and learning in dance education.

Dance education, while similar in context to other arts disciplines, has also come with unique challenges and technological conundrums during the pandemic (Tariao and Yang 2021; Rugh et al. 2022). Continually, we have had to question how we teach dance, an inherently embodied and social discipline, when we cannot physically be together, or when being physically together puts us at risk. How can digital technologies be utilized creatively and effectively, while also being accessible and inclusive? The resulting and accumulated stress and fatigue of seeking to answer these questions in practice for educators has been significant (Jotkoff 2022).

Classrooms and studios where children and youth experience dance education also remain spaces where social, political, and cultural norms and identities are lived, practiced, and contested. Pronounced and publicized attacks and pushbacks on gains in diversity, equity, and inclusion from the public, in the media, and prompted by legislative moves continue to persist in not only the United States but globally (Lopéz et al. 2021; Mabingo et al. 2022; Sawchuk 2022). Calls to action, movements, and the need to make educational spaces more inclusive, equitable, and accessible for all have always existed but recently have been intensifying. We continually experience a constant push and pull of calls for change and resistance to change that play out in the landscape of educational spaces, making education of late feel like a pressure cooker, in many ways.

Although on one hand educational landscapes seem to be filled with crisis narratives, on the other hand, or maybe more aptly, hand-in-hand with these struggles, we also have an opportunity and duty to examine these educational systems, acknowledge what does not work, and challenge what continually reproduces injustices. Thus, our charge in dance education is to act on what we can and continue as a field to be engaged in making responsible, equitable, and inclusive changes, creatively navigating our struggles. The next National Dance Education Organization’s (NDEO) annual meeting in October 2022 is named “Reigniting the Creative Spark,” illuminating this call, envisioning a positive future, and inspiring our present actions (National Dance Education Organization 2022).

This Special Issue, entitled “Dance Education for Children and Youth: Our Future as a Field,” builds on the premise that children and youth are undoubtedly the future of dance education. We know how transformative dance education can be for children and youth as an art form from positive academic performance to emotional wellbeing and social development. And, if we look to the teaching and learning of dance for children and youth in a multitude of educational settings, we can gain insight into future dance education trajectories, such as what the needs for higher education might be and possible directions for professional dance. Considering the toll that the COVID-19 pandemic and collective crises have taken on students, schools, and arts organizations, informed, strategic, and creative advocacy for dance education is especially important (Buck-Pavlick 2022; McGreevy-Nichols and Dooling-Cain 2022) with digital technologies playing a critical role. The creative problem solving that schools, studios, dance companies, cultural organizations, and teaching artists have had to engage in recently with their students is unprecedented in our lifetimes. As Rugh et al. (2022) write, “Dance artists and educators have utilized the creativity, resilience and adaptability that are markers of their chosen profession to rapidly create an explosion of online and virtual content in the field of dance education and performance” (Introduction). The future of dance education for our children and youth as envisioned by NDEO members and the authors in this Special Issue continue to include the augmenting of curriculum and pedagogy; diversifying ways that dance can be experienced and enrich our lives; acknowledging and combating inequity in gender, race, and abilities; increasing inclusion and access; utilizing digital technologies, collaborations, and community; and continuously defending dance’s rightful place in education (Dooling-Cain 2022).

The articles in this Special Issue highlight where authors from diverse educational contexts serving children and youth in dance education are at in their research, practice, and problem solving of their current contexts and where they are looking to impact dance education in the future. This Special Issue includes three Feature articles and five In Practice articles, along with two relevant In Practice articles from our general call for articles. In the Special Issue’s first Feature, “Creating Liberatory Possibilities Together: Reculturing Dance Teacher Certification Through Emergent Strategy,” Buono and Davis examine dance teacher certification programs in the US for the potential of anti-racist transformation, while also acknowledging and facilitating somatic, reflective practices for readers. The next Feature, Amie’s “Unveiling the Marked Narratives of the Student: Teaching within Perceptions of Racialized Bodies in the Dance Classroom,” provides an empirical study of how dance teaching artists negotiate narratives of culture and race in a community dance program. The third Feature, James’ “‘I Haven’t Got the Combination Yet!’: The Embodied and Emotional Experiences of Dancers with Dyslexia and Other Invisible Disabilities,” highlights the stories and dance experiences of six dance youths with invisible disabilities, emphasizing the importance of acknowledging and learning about the challenges dance students with disabilities face in dance education.

The In Practice articles begin with “Three Rs for Dance Education Now: Reexamine! Reevaluate! Reimagine!” in which Finkelstein questions the ways standards and pedagogical practices perpetuate inequity and calls for dance education to creatively respond and make change. Clark-Fookes’s “Inquiry and Reverse Chronology Pedagogies for Social Inclusion in School-based Dance Programs” discusses two emerging approaches, inquiry and reverse chronology, being implemented in secondary schools in Queensland, Australia to promote inclusive dance education. Next, Corby, LeFeber, and Patterson introduce an interdisciplinary community dance program for PK-8 students and describe the practical steps taken to shift to virtual programming during the pandemic in “Interdisciplinary Integration: Linking Differentiated P(arts) to Create Accessible Dance Experiences.” Kasturi’s “Learning on the Go: Journey of a Dance Educator in a K-12 Space in India” offers strategies for dance educators with backgrounds in Indian classical dance to transition to teaching in K-12 contexts as India implements newer policies for broadening access to dance in schools. Finally, in “Dance & Cultivation: Spurring the Next Generation’s Enthusiasm for the Art of Dance,” Brown maps the growth of a K-5 outreach program and dance ensemble for young audiences that focuses on integrated arts programming to inspire similar programming for young people in the future.

The issue closes with two In Practice articles from JoDE’s general submission call that connect to our Special Issue. In “Tap to Togetherness: A Program for Parents and Children Together,” Heinrich, Pentz, Goodman, Casey, and Rosenkranz present a parent-and-child tap dance program and findings on participants’ physical engagement and how parents perceived the program’s benefits to inspire future programming. Dhillon and Ulmer illustrate how dance and creative arts pedagogies can help refugee youth adjust to new settings in “Everyday Dance Narratives: Visual Biography and Creative Movement Pedagogies with Refugee Youth.”

All the articles included in this Special Issue seek a positive, connected, and inclusive future for our children and youth in dance education through school, outreach, studio, and performance settings. When faced with the challenges of the pandemic and converging crises globally, these authors offer their stories, experiences, lessons learned, and strategies for responding to challenges for the larger dance education community. It is my hope that these collected articles speak not only to those involved with dance education for children and youth but to those invested in higher education, related research fields, and community organizations and studios so that we can see how all these facets of dance education are connected and impactful. I thank all who submitted manuscripts and those who were chosen to be included for taking on these challenges through your work, persistence, and efforts during this difficult time.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.