Visual and Performing Arts
The Intrinsic Value of Education in the Art of Dance. Dance is basic to human nature and is a basic form of individual and cultural expression. It is pre-verbal, beginning before words can be formed. It is innate in children before they possess command over language and is evoked when thoughts or emotions are too powerful for words to contain. Dance can celebrate play, prayer, courtship, recreation, entertainment, and the human need to communicate the meaning of life in art. Just as all societies create forms of visual representation or organize sounds into music, all cultures organize movement and rhythm into one or more forms of dance. Dance can be a powerful artistic medium for communicating values and beliefs about the human experience.To study the art of dance, is to learn the language of bodily movement as it expresses and communicates the essence of humanity. Artistic dance education serves to stimulate conscious understanding of the language of movement and to develop aesthetic knowledge and skill in movement expression.
Education in the Art of Dance provides:
students with deep, thought-provoking experiences that combine many art forms and disciplines. The act of choreography is akin to sculpting with the human body in mobile space--a visual arts endeavor. Musicality with rhythm, phrasing, and a full partnership with the musical accompaniment is demanded. Dramatic skills and techniques are necessary to choreograph an interesting work and perform it. Learning the art of dance is a full, enriching, and physically joyful experience.
Philosophy Underlying Ages 5-18 Standards:
Bodily movement is an adaptive necessity as well as a human birthright. As humans, we move for many reasons. We move for pleasure, communal bonding, ritual, and self-expression. When movement becomes consciously structured and is performed with awareness for its own sake, it becomes dance.