Gabrielle Corrigan

November 1, 2016
Intern Mentor GT
Works Cited
Giguere, Miriam. "Dance Trends: How to Recognize Success as a New Teacher." Dance
Education in Practice, vol. 2, no. 3, 12 Sept. 2016, pp. 26-27.
This article outlines what a teacher can look for in their students to measure progress. The
article emphasises that while new teachers may expect that a quiet, disciplined class is one that's
making progress, often that can be incorrect. Giguere emphasises how beneficial "productive
noise", "student interaction" and even inconsistency can be in observing a classes' growth. She
states that in more modern dance education the emphasis is shifting away from imitation of
movement, and towards production of movement. The later requires more creativity, and
awareness from the dancers. Having a level of conversation in the classroom, and encouraging
conflicting viewpoints forces students to articulate and refine their aesthetic preferences, and
take ownership over their work. Giguere also discusses how inconsistency in students can
actually prove that they are making progress. First, it shows that as a teacher you are providing
the correct amount of challenge. It also shows that while they may not yet have the strength or
muscle coordination to apply a correction all the time, they are beginning to grasp this concept
that is new to their bodies.
I loved this article, because as a student new to teaching, I have very little experience with what
to look for in developing dancers. With older students it is more obvious to see when they are
becoming stronger, and mastering new steps, but with younger children that don't have the
capacity yet to master technique, how do you measure success? I really appreciated the
discussion this article brings up about not only teaching students to dance, but teaching them to
articulate about dance, create movement, and grasp the behavioral requirements for a dance
class. I can see myself revisiting something like this a lot, because I think it's crucial to
understand this information as a dance teacher, so it can easily contribute toward my work at my
internship, or to my synthesis paper.
---. "Dancing Thoughts: An Examination of Children's Cognition and Creative Process in
Dance." Research in Dance Education, vol. 12, no. 1, 22 Mar. 2011, pp. 5-28.
This article outlines the cognitive possibilities of dance education in elementary schools. In this
study, a dance teacher did an arts residency at an elementary school to collect data and observe
the cognitive effects that dance education had on the children. This research also even more
narrowly focused on the creative process of children as they create dance. Often research into
dance education emphasizes dance as a class, where technique and history are learned, but in this
study Giguere observed how the actual process of producing movements effected the students
cognitively. After the study was performed, the findings concluded that cognitively dance
creation greatly benefited the students because it required them to master decision making even
when there were no correct answers, find problems that they wanted to address with their
dancing, and thrive in collaborative environments.

I found this study to be really interesting, because I know that one of the most significant
parts of dance education, particularly for young children, is its cognitive benefits. I think when I
first picked this article though, I was expecting it to be more related to child development which
was what I was looking for, but I still found the research in this article to be very interesting. So
far I have mostly been concerned with what students are getting out of learning to dance, but I
hadn't really thought much about the benefits that actually choreographing could have on
children. I also appreciated that this author took a moment to address the fact that dance
education in schools stands on its own, and produces its own unique benefits that don't have to
directly effect other subjects in school. I think all too often the articles I am reading attempt to
justify dance education in school by explaining how it benefits more concrete subjects such as
math or language arts. On the other hand, this article did not waste time doing that, and proved
how the cognitive benefits of dance education can stand on their own. Although this article is not
exactly in the direction I thought I was going to be going in with my research, I still greatly
appreciate this research, and I think its possible that this is something I come back to later on. If
not for my paper, perhaps when I begin to teach classes I will focus on a little of their own
movement creation to foster their cognitive growth.
Goulding, Alison, et al. "Investigating Learning through Developmental Dance Movement as a
Kinaesthetic Tool in the Early Years Foundation Stage." Research in Dance Education,
July 2016, pp. 1-33.
This article is an extensive scientific investigation into the effectiveness of dance
programs integrated into accelerated learning programs in schools. The article presents extensive
information demonstrating the cognitive benefits of having movement in education, in that
psychologically it assists in neural development, and it also contributes to the students'
enjoyment of the classes, which is a component of AL program. This article also discusses
research performed in this area in detail. They describe the outcome of experimenting with dance
education in a school, which constitutes a large portion of the text.
I liked this article because of the sections about evidence supporting the cognitive
benefits of dance, and its ability to strengthen an accelerated learning program. I do not see
myself referencing it often though, because the text is long and unwieldy, and while it discusses
the benefits of dance education, I think in my research I want to focus on teaching itself, and
what teaching strategies are necessary to be a good dance teacher.
"Home Page." Kinetics Dance Theatre School of Contemporary Dance, 2014,
www.kineticsdancetheatre.org.
This is the website of the dance studio I intern at. information about scheduling,
calendars, upcoming events, and faculty can all be found here. In terms of research, there are no
journals or articles associated with this site.

"Home Page." National Dance Education Organization, 2016, www.ndeo.org.

This is the website of NDEO, an organization for dance education. It's possible to become a
member of this organization in order to participate in professional development, networking,
research, and opportunities for recognition within the field of dance education. There is also a
page on this site about research in dance education. NDEO has two journals that regularly
publish professional articles about findings in dance education, and are accessible on this site (if
you have a subscription). The research page also has an incredibly useful search tool that can
find articles related to almost anything about dance education. In the websites mission statement,
it's outlined that the goals of NDEO are: Developing and strengthening networks at the national
level with federal and state agencies, arts and education associations, businesses, corporations
and philanthropic foundations.Advocating for dance education centered in the arts by supporting
and conducting dance education research.Communicating and disseminating information within
the dance education community and general population. Encouraging and supporting local, state,
and federal policies and legislation which advance dance as arts education.
This is an incredibly useful source for me, because it gives me access to the community
of dance educators. The site is current, and up to date on what's new in terms of dance education.
The research possibilities through this site are also phenomenal, as I would be able to find almost
any information I needed through such a well connected source. The only issue is that to perform
most research and networking through this site, I must have a membership or a journal
subscription. But, I do know that the two journals that they own are ones that I accessed at the
Peabody library, and I have access to at least one of them through the Loyola library as well.
This means that if I do find an article that would be valuable to me through their research tool, I
may still be able to use it. Overall, this is a website that I not only should refer back to for my
research and my paper, but I also should be checking it regularly to stay updated on news in my
field.
Humphrey, Doris. The Art of Making Dances. New York, Grove Press Inc., 1959.
This book begins by discussing the choreographer, and how to begin the creative process.
In the first few chapters she discusses inspiration, and where motivation is derived from to create
new works. The second section of the book overviews every design quality that she finds to be
significant in modern dance. This includes aesthetics, staging, sensory details and more. The last
section of the book includes her concluding thoughts about choreography, and an index of her
works.
This is a book that I was just assigned to read by Mrs. Becca this week. I have started to
make my way through it, and I can already see how this book will benefit me in the production
of my own works. First of all, Doris Humphrey is a legendary choreographer who has set an
incredible number of professional dance works across her career, and is known as one of the
greats of modern dance and choreography. Her checklists for choreographers, and necessary
design components are not all things that I have specifically thought of in great detail while
creating choreography. I often struggle with how to approach the creation of a new piece, and so
I think from this book I will be able to derive a frame work for how I approach pieces that I am
working on.

Kattenstroth, et al. "Superior Sensory, Motor, and Cognitive Performance in Elderly Individuals
with Multi-Year Dancing Activities." Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, vol. 2, no. 31.
This article discusses the cognitive and physical benefits of dance education in the
elderly. Up until this point, a lot of research has been done on the benefits of physical education
on the bodies of elderly people, but not much had been done to research dance and its cognitive
and emotional benefits on elderly. The experiment found that the participants who danced not
only had much improved balance and posture, but also demonstrated the brain plasticity that they
aimed to prove. Memory, ability to deal with certain situations, and more cognitive tests were
able to show data that concluded the enormous benefit of dance education for the elderly.
Although this article addresses a topic very different from the one I am researching, After
my most recent meeting with Mrs. Becca, I thought this would be interesting to look into further.
When we were talking she mentioned that cognitively, the two groups that are impacted the most
cognitively by dance are children and the elderly. I thought that was a really interesting
statement, because with ballet mobile, I work with the other side of that range, the elderly
dancers. This study outlined some of the key physical and cognitive benefits that dance
education has on elderly students which I found incredibly interesting, because they are not that
far off from the benefits that young children can appreciate. I think that this would be an
intriguing direction for me to pursue later in my research as I continue to find new information
on dance education of children.
"Kinetics Dance Theatre Syllabus." Manuscript.
This is the syllabus for classes at Kinetics Dance Theatre. It outlines the requirements for
Ballet, Modern, and Creative Beginnings classes at Kinetics Dance Theatre. It introduces the
core concepts that each level is expected to work on, skills that are to be mastered at each level,
vocabulary to learn, and what exercises can be used to achieve those goals. I will be using these
documents to synthesize my lesson plans for the classes I have been observing so far at Kinetics.
Koff, Susan. "Innovative Instructional Strategies for Teaching Dance." Dance Education in
Practice, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2016, pp. 13-17.
This article addresses a major issue of many new teachers; where to start. Most people who want
to become dance teachers are already accomplished dancers, and have strong technique. Thus the
issue arises that the teacher is unable to relate to the beginner students, because so much of dance
technique is second nature to the teacher. This article outlines the taxonomy of teaching new
dance steps, and how the dance teacher must build on skills in a gradual and logical way. Koff
states that first the skill must be taught independent of other movements, then the students need
to work on coordination of body parts when performing the skill, third, the step can be layered
with other new movements, and finally, the movement is applied to other styles of movement.
It's important to remember that this process builds. And it builds in a way that makes sense and
keeps students from getting injured, if the teacher floods students with too much information
about a step they will become overwhelmed, and wind up doing it incorrectly.
I could really appreciate the content of this article, because as I begin teaching I often
wonder, how will I keep myself from just trying to correct everything at once? And if you dont

make all the corrections at once, how do you prioritize? Understanding the process in which
students most comprehensively build new skills will definitely give me a better understanding of
how dance teachers must approach each level of student. This is an article that I will definitely
want to reference later in my research if I want to look further into the process of obtaining new
skills. I also think having this information will benefit me in my internship, because it will help
me gain more of an awareness of what I can look for, and what I can correct at each stage of
mastery.
Murray, Ruth Lovell. Dance in Elementary Education; A Program for Boys and Girls. 3rd ed.
This book focuses on how teachers can use dance in elementary school education. the
first part of the book discusses how dance can be used in education, the second outlines how to
help children explore movement, the third discusses necessary skills for dance and how to apply
them, the fourth is about rhythm in dance, and the last two sections are related to choreography
and performance.
Although I still have not located a physical copy of this book, I believe it could be a
useful resource to me, considering the breadth of topics it discusses. I think at this point I am
most interested in the section about what skills children need to learn movement, and then how
they apply those skills to dance. Currently I am working with the youngest group of kids at
Kinetics, so having an understanding of what it takes for children to learn dance could be
valuable. I also know that later in my internship I will we working with choreography, so it
would be good for me to revisit this source as I need more information concerning choreographic
techniques with young children.
Sigmund, Becca. Interview. Sept. 2016.
Becca Sigmund is my mentor at Kinetics Dance Theater. She graduated from The
University of Iowa in just three years with her BA in Dance and a minor in Theatre Arts. She
has performed with Upstate NY Ballet Company, San Diego Dance Theater, Ballet Theatre of
Maryland, and Kinetics Professional Company. Becca has trained at summer intensives such as
Joffrey Ballet, ABT, Nashville Ballet, City Ballet in San Diego, and Malashock Dance. She
received year-round training from both The Rock School West and Nolte Academy of Dance and
has taught at studios throughout Iowa, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maryland. Becca has been
teaching at Kinetics for three years and is the School Manager of Kinetics Dance Theatre.

Turner, Margery. New Dance: Approaches to Nonliteral Choreography. U of Pittsburgh P, 1971.

The book describes the process of creating modern dance. The first two chapter focus on
defininging "nonliteral dance" and its components. These chapters explain the origins of modern
dance, and how it originated from attempts to express the human experience. In these chapters it
is also described how some choreographers have approached their own choreography, and how

their unique approaches allowed them to imbue meaning into their work. The next two chapters
talk the reader through how they can approach their own modern choreography, and what
components to look for in the beginnings of the piece. The next two chapters go on to discuss
music and lighting for dance.
This is one of the books that Mrs. Becca gave me this week to start reading, and although
I haven't gotten far yet, I am already really excited about what I can gain from this book. Over
the years I have gotten the opportunity to work with some compositional techniques, but seeing
the history of dance creation and synthesis of movement right in front of me is really exciting. I
plan to reference this book a great deal as I begin to work on the choreography that I will set on
Kinetics Kids.
Wolfe, Rachel. Interview. Sept. 2016.
In 2012 Rachel graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Dance. As an
undergrad she had the pleasure of training with Adriane Fang, Alvin Mayes, Sharon Mansur,
Dawn Springer, Sara Pearson and Patrik Widrig. Since graduation Rachel has danced with The
Collective, Stephanie Miracle Dances and withhart.dance.projects. She has showcased her
choreography at the SOS Dance Festival, Baltimore Theatre Project and Creative Alliance.
Rachel has taught everything from theatre to dance to math in public and private settings, for
pre-k through middle school aged children. Previous teaching posts include Frederick County
Public Schools, The Charis Center for the Arts, C.A.R.E. Actor and To the Pointe School of
Dance. Recently she received her Yoga Teacher Training with Yoga District, a Yoga Activist
affiliate organization in Washington, D.C.