Program Foundations Information

Theoretical Approach:

In Experiencing Dance, the authors center their work on developing the dancer from student to artist. This direction helps students gain a sense of their development as an individual, dancer and choreographer. The authors have a strong pedagogical approach which focuses on the dancer and explores the processes and experiences that take students on a personal journey from student to dance artist.

Experiencing Dance 2E educates the dance student about different aspects, processes, and topics that contribute to developing as a dancer, choreographer, and dance artist. The authors connect the text to 21st century learning skills and provide dance education centered in the fine arts. They touch on new state and national arts standards, educational initiatives, theories, and other arts processes, including dance and artistic literacy. The book focuses on the individual student to present them options and guide them in their experiences to find their identity as a dancer, a choreographer, and a dance artist.

Program Effectiveness:

The first edition of Experiencing Dance was a best-selling high school textbook and has been field-tested since 2004 in numerous dance courses and high schools. Human Kinetics also conducted three surveys of high school dance educators on the text to gain feedback and learn how well the book met their needs in the classroom.

Experiencing Dance 2E offers a full color student text and each of the five units contains three or more lessons. Each lesson includes activities and instructional content as well as application and evaluation of the information presented. All lessons include Spotlight to acquaint the reader with a person, thing or event and Did you Know?, which is a tidbit of information to add knowledge on the topic. In each lesson, there is also a companion online journal that could become part of an ongoing student portfolio.

Based upon the emergence of 21st century learning paradigms, new state and national standards and educational initiatives, the second edition of Experiencing Dance provides a cutting-edge text and a host of web-based resources for students and teachers to help develop the next generation of dance professionals for the field.

Author Expertise:

Helene Scheff, Mary Sprague and Susan McGreevy-Nichols are leaders in the field of Dance Education and within the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). The NDEO is a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of high quality education in art and dance. NDEO forges alliances with over 150 federal and state agencies in the United States and with international communities. They are a member organization of the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, and have contributed to the new National Core Arts Standards.

As contributing members of the NDEO, the authors of Experiencing Dance have their fingers on the pulse of dance education, the needs of current students and the preparation of future dance professionals. Together they have over 100 years of dance experience and have authored five dance books.