Dear Readers:
When this issue is published, we will have been in a global pandemic for a full year, planning and improvising our way through teaching dance online, muscling through “Zoom fatigue,” and so many more challenges. However, there have also been positive developments, such as spending more time with immediate family, connecting to socially distanced family and friends, watching our students’ creative energies blossom through the use of technology in innovative ways, and increasing just how much we value time in the studio to move in open spaces with others. We have an upcoming special issue (December 2021) with a central theme of Virtual Dance Education. I know many of you have developed innovative practices in the last few months that could be very useful in the future as we move out of the pandemic, and I hope you will consider submitting articles. See the Call for Papers in this issue.
In our opening column of this issue, NDEO Executive Director Susan McGreevy-Nichols and Shannon Dooling-Cain reflect on this very challenging time and focus on NDEO’s vision for moving forward “to create a dance education community that is better, safer, and more equitable for all.” Through the last few months, the importance of taking care of ourselves as we also take care of our families and students has become very apparent. Addressing this need, Susan Gaddy Pope takes us through her process of self-care that is movement based and centered on gratitude. In other articles, Jesse Katen writes about the use of special awards to empower and honor students’ individuality, and Bonnie Oda Homsey outlines an action plan for supporting college students as they move into professional careers in dance with tools for resiliency and self-knowledge.
In our final article and column, Jessie Levey and Miriam Giguere discuss the importance of students creating their own movement in terms of self-development and identity. Levey pays particular attention to avoiding the hypersexualization of female students, and Giguere unpacks some of the reasons why creative movement is often only taught to our youngest students, and she offers suggestions to support change.
I hope you will find inspiration in reading the articles and columns in this issue, and I wish you a healthy and safe spring season.
Executive Editor, Dance Education in Practice Director of the Dance Division,Montclair State University
Additional information
Notes on contributors
