The School's Dance Partner: Exploring Community, Collaboration, and Democracy During a K-5 Dance Residency

• In Event: Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Division G Section 5 Poster Session: Social Context of Research on Schools and Communities

Abstract

Dance artist-in-residences in schools can ignite collaborations, creating community and highlighting democratic education opportunities and practice. This paper session explores case study findings from a three-week intensive whole school dance residency that focused on curricular concepts at a diverse and inclusive K-5 school. Through examining the data, it was found that the dance pedagogy utilized in the residency created, nurtured, and challenged democratic principles and practice, fostering a unique collaborative arts community. This paper session seeks to call upon these findings to give insight into how dance residency models help us to continue to bring dance to schools as a way of thinking, knowing, and communicating while creating artistic, democratic learning communities in schools.

Author

• Alison E Leonard, Clemson University