Dear Readers:
At the top of this issue, Susan McGreevy-Nichols and Shannon Dooling-Cain present “NDEO Works: Racial Justice in the Field of Dance Education,” which details NDEO’s commitment to social justice and equity and their stand against racism. They express NDEO’s dedication “to do more as an organization to foster inclusion, diversity, equity, and access, especially around issues of racial justice” and give specific steps the organization is taking. In our second column for this issue, Susan Gingrasso discusses ways in which the life skills we learn and embody through dance have supported our abilities to “pivot” through the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our articles cover diverse topics: “Indian Classical Dance Education in Diaspora” by Kastauvi Sarkar; “Juries vs. Alternate Assessment in Stimulating Higher Order Thinking in Dance Technique” by Robin Prichard; and “Everyone Choreographs: A Process of Inclusive Dance Making” by Heather Trommer-Beardslee. We also present an excerpt from the book Daniel Lewis: A Life in Choreography and the Art of Dance by Donna Krasnow and Daniel Lewis, which provides information on Lewis’s development of the dance division at New World School of the Arts, starting in 1988. I hope these writings will inspire you by offering varying approaches to dance teaching and learning as well as perspectives that might assist us in broadening our approaches to curricula and course content.
Sharing news, we welcome to our editorial board Yauri Dalencour and Meg Regan. They will begin to assist the other editorial board members in the mentorship of articles. Dance Education in Practice is an NDEO-sponsored publication that is for the members and by the members. Your submissions make up the bulk of the writing in each issue. If you have not written an article before, please consider doing so. If you have written one, please consider writing another. What unique ideas and methods are you bringing to your dance teaching practice that you would like to share?
Dance Education in Practice has shifted to a fully online platform. This change was made by NDEO to reduce our environmental impact as well as to ensure the financial health of the organization. Here is the NDEO website that gives the direct link for access to both Dance Education in Practice and the Journal of Dance Education: https://www.ndeo.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=893257&module_id=325205&actr=4.
The last few months have brought much change to many of our lives and work situations as well as to those of our students. May we all bravely face the future and continue to embrace change to make our world more just and humane.
Wishing you and your students good health and continued dance practice.
Executive Editor, Dance Education in Practice
[email protected] Elizabeth McPherson, PhD
Executive Editor, Dance Education in Practice
[email protected]