Inclusive Creative Movement and Dance

168 pages published:2006

About the Book

Inclusive Creative Movement and Dance helps teachers guide students with diverse abilities to express their feelings and ideas through creative movement experiences involving dance learning, dance making, and dance sharing. Of equal value to new and veteran teachers, this book provides in-depth coverage of inclusive dance instruction, including teaching strategies, practical learning experiences, movement problems for students to solve, and more:

Open-ended movement explorations and inclusion suggestions help teachers accommodate the different learning needs of their students.

Learning experiences help students understand the elements of movement and dance (body actions and shapes, awareness of space, moving to time, awareness of energy and force, and awareness of relationships).

Teachers can select individual learning experiences or present a series of units for creative movement and dance.

National Standards for Dance Education, goals, movement glossary, journal reflection assignments, and simple assessments are incorporated into each unit for easier assessment and accountability.

Interdisciplinary activities at the end of each unit connect creative movement with classroom subjects—reading, writing, grammar, geography, astronomy, earth science, math, visual art, drama, and music—as appropriate.

This book is organized into three parts. Part I presents a framework to help teachers envision dance for all their students. Part II prepares teachers to design inclusive dance experiences and extend them into performance and discussion. Part III is the book’s heart and soul—more than 100 dance-learning experiences presented in five chapters, or units, that teachers can use in their classes for students of all ages and abilities. These chapters may be used either as separate units that each feature one of the five movement or dance elements for a thematic approach or as progressive units that build in the order presented in the book.

Each chapter, or unit, in part III has three basic sections: Planning information outlining the learners’ outcome goals, movement vocabulary, specific National Standards in Dance Education met, and suggestions for adapting instruction for special needs Dance-making opportunities through students’ exploration, experimentation, and problem solving as they use movement language in multiple ways Dance sharing and assessment opportunities using critical-thinking questions and writing assignments

Inclusive Creative Movement and Dance educates and empowers teachers to use dance in inclusive classrooms, to celebrate and value differences, and to help all students discover the uniquely personal art form of dance. The ultimate goal is to develop students as dancers, creators, performers, and viewers.

About the Author

Karen A. Kaufmann, MA, is an associate professor of dance at the University of Montana, where she heads the dance program in the department of drama/dance. She has taught dance to people of all ages and abilities for more than 25 years, and she has a wealth of experience in preparing future teachers to teach dance to people of all abilities. She has choreographed numerous pieces for children in grades K to 5 that have gained national recognition, and she has toured the Northwest as a solo performer and artist in residence.

She was awarded a Montana Individual Artist fellowship for her lifelong work in dance education, and her dance work with adults with disabilities was the focus of a television program produced by Montana Public Television. Kaufmann has published instructional material for teachers to help them teach dance in schools and has published journal articles in the fields of disability, dance education, and service learning. She has presented at numerous conferences across the nation and has a long affiliation with VSA (formerly known as Very Special Arts) Montana.