Experiencing Dance: From Student to Dance Artist

Experiencing Dance: From Student to Dance Artist will walk your students through the process of becoming well-rounded dancers and deepen their understanding of dance as an art form.

Systematic in its approach, Experiencing Dance: From Student to Dance Artist places teachers in the roles of facilitators who encourage critical thinking and student involvement in the learning process. This text is designed for students who have had some dance experience and are interested in exploring the art of dance.

With movement experiences and written assignments, more than 45 self-paced lessons, and complete guidelines for building a portfolio, the book provides a complete curriculum progression that can also be used to supplement an existing curriculum covering the following elements:

- Understanding dance as an art form
- Creating and performing dances
- Understanding how cultural diversity influences dance
- Evaluating and critiquing dance

The book's 15 chapters outline for students the steps involved in the making of a dance artist: how to identify movement potential, express ideas through dance, develop choreography, connect to the community and tradition, showcase student work through a formal production, train to become a dancer, refine the art form, and develop a portfolio.

Each chapter includes chapter objectives, a list of lessons, introductory text, three or four lessons, portfolio items, and an end-of-chapter review quiz.

The self-paced lessons allow students to work independently and allow teachers to address students of various abilities within a class. Each lesson features the following elements:

- Move It! is a student's first experience with the content of the lesson.
- Vocabulary section presents selected definitions of key terms.
- Curtain Up presents background information that students need to do the work.
- Take the Stage features student work produced and shared.
- Take a Bow covers student response, evaluation, aesthetics, criticism, and revision.
- Spotlight features highlights of prominent dancers and dance companies.
- Did You Know? presents further information relating to the lesson, including historical and cultural facts.

Whether you use the textbook for one semester or two, you'll find there's nothing like Experiencing Dance for instilling in your students a fresh, new appreciation of dance.

Helene Scheff, RDE, has been a dance educator and administrator for 45 years in both the public and private sectors. She is coauthor of Building Dances: A Guide to Putting Movements Together) (1995 and its second edition (in press), Building More Dances: Blueprints for Putting Movements Together (2001), and Dance About Anything (in press).

A registered dance educator, Scheff is the founder and executive director of Chance to Dance, an in-school dance program started in 1985 that brings quality dance education to children in grades four through eight.

A graduate of the famed NYC High School of Performing Arts, Scheff is a former Joffrey Ballet dancer. She is a founding member and former president of the Dance Alliance of Rhode Island and has served as vice president of dance for the Eastern District Association of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (EDA). She is a board member of the Rhode Island Alliance for Arts Education and the Committee Liaison for UNITY. Scheff is a member of the National Dance Association (NDA) and a charter member of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO).

Scheff was named the Rhode Island Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance's (RIAHPERD) Dance Teacher of the Year in 1996 and was honored as an EDA Outstanding Professional in 1996. She received the RIAHPERD President's Honor Award in 1997 and an NDA Presidential Citation in 1998. She was awarded the Dance Alliance of Rhode Island Dance Legacy Award in 2002.

Marty Sprague, MA, is a professional choreographer and performer with more than 29 years of experience in public dance education. She is dance teacher at the Providence Academy of International Studies and artistic director of Chance to Dance.

Marty holds a master's degree in dance education from the Teacher's College at Columbia University. She has been a licensed trainer for the National Center for Education and the Economy's Course I, Standards-Based Curriculum—a professional development course for standards-based teaching and learning. She served on the Rhode Island Governor's Task Force for Literacy in the Arts. Marty is a member of the Arabella Project, a dance group exploring the realms of the older dancer.

Marty is coauthor of Building More Dances: Blueprints for Putting Movements Together (2001) and Dance About Anything (in press). She also served as a consultant to the authors for Building Dances: A Guide to Putting Movements Together (1995) and is coauthor of its second edition (in press).

In 1992 Marty was named the Rhode Island Dance Educator of the Year and in 1998 earned an Outstanding Professional Award from EDA. She is a member of National Dance Association (NDA) and a charter member of National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Susan McGreevy-Nichols is the national director of Arts, Planning and School Support for the Galef Institute in Los Angeles. She taught at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island, from 1974 to 2002. She was the founder and director of the inner-city school's nationally recognized dance program in which more than 300 of the school's 900 students elected to participate.

Susan is coauthor of Building Dances: A Guide to Putting Movements Together (1995) and its second edition (in press), Building More Dances: Blueprints for Putting Movements Together (2001), and Dance About Anything (in press). She is a charter member and presenter of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) and a former treasurer and board member. She also has served as the president of the National Dance Association (NDA) and the nominating chair and (Rhode Island) state leader for the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education.

Susan has received numerous NDA presidential citations and an Eastern District Association (EDA) of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, and Dance (AAHPERD) Merit Award in Dance. In 1994 she was named Rhode Island's Dance Teacher of the Year, and in 1995 she was honored both as the NDA National Dance Teacher of the Year and as an EDA Outstanding Professional. She received AAHPERD's Honor Award in 2000.