dance questionnaire please help!

[traceyplatt]

My name is Tracey Platt and I am currently studying an Foundation Degree in Theatre and Performance. I have been taking dance training at local dance schools since an early age including numerous dance exams so that I can reach teaching levels. However, the exams I undertook are not a recognised qualification, therefore I wanted to take this training further within Higher Education. My passion for dance lies within popular dance forms and I have discovered that there is very little popular dance currently being taught within HE, therefore I have decided to write my research paper on ‘Popular dance within HE’. I have compiled a questionnaire to collect other people’s opinions and help me find out more about my chosen topic and I was hoping that you could find the time to help me. I have included this questionnaire within this e-mail and I would be extremely grateful if you could complete this questionnaire to help me with my research, and e-mail the answers back to me.
§ How do you think dance currently being taught within Higher Education?
§ Do you think there are so little popular dance forms such as tap and street dance, being taught within HE?
§ Is this something that we should be concerned about?
§ Why do you think the two forms of Ballet and Contemporary dance considered more worthy of study?
§ Do you think popular dance forms are worthy of study with HE?
§ Why do you think the blurred boundaries of 'high art' and 'popular culture', not yet present within the study of dance in HE as they are within music and theatre?
§ In your opinion where do the boundaries of ‘High art’ and ‘Popular Culture’ lie within dance?
§ Do you have any further comments that may be relevant?

I recognise that you are a busy person and may not have the time to complete this questionnaire. However short answers would still be a great benefit to me and help me an awful lot with my research paper.
Thank you for your time.
Tracey Platt
traceyplatt@merseymail.com

[lynn]

Welcome Tracy!!

I'll be back to answer the questions, but in the mean time, maybe we should move it to General Dancing??

[pygmalion]

Yeah. I agree, lynn, this probably belongs in a dance-related forum. :cool:

Welcome, traceyplatt. And thanks for at least attempting to participate in the forums. You'd be surprised how many people don't.

A couple questions and comments.

Questions first. :wink:
By higher education, do you mean post-secondary education (college level?) Do you mean within the US, for example, or some other educational system? What approach are you taking with your paper? An opinion-based paper or do you want hard data or a combination of the two?

Comments. This may not be the best forum for you to get a lot of information about the dance forms that interest you. Most of our active members do partner dances -- ballroom, salsa, Argentine tango -- and so may not have the backgrounds to give any authoritative input. (It's certainly worth asking, though. :cool: )

Are you a member of criticaldance? Check out their forum. If it's opinions you want, there may even be threads over there that address your question. It's a well-established discussion forum where topics ballet, jazz, tap, etc, are very thoroughly discussed. Or you might check out DF's non-partner dance sister forum -- danceforums.net.

And last comment ( I bet you thought I'd never shut up, huh? :oops: )

I googled "dance major post-secondary education US" and found this cool site -- the National Center for Education Statistics, which tracks educational trends in the US from kindergarten to graduate school. It might be worth digging around on their site a bit, to see if you can find anything pertinent to your thesis.

http://nces.ed.gov/

I'll ponder your questions a bit, and be back later, if I can come up with some intelligent input.

Good luck with your paper. And welcome to the forums.

[traceyplatt]

thankyou very much for your help. it is much appreciated.

[traceyplatt]

i not quite sure how to use this site yet and its not lettin me post my messages anywere for some reason.

even if you think your opinions are not intelligent i would be extremely grateful to have them as mine r not intelligent either

[traceyplatt]

by higher education i mean college or university level.. and by popular dance i mean all forms of dance that are popular except ballet. In the uk all you can study in educational dance is ballet and i wish there were more styles of dance like partner dances as well as tap and hip hop. just more variety. Thankyou very much for the websites i will definetly use them.

[pygmalion]

Ah. Thanks for the clarification, Tracey. :cool:

I'm really not sure how university-level study of dance in the US works, although I certainly have the impression that formalized study of non-ballet forms of dance are available quite commonly. That's not true in the UK?

Maybe someone else can comment. :cool:

About criticaldance: IIRC, there is some sort of new member trial period during which posts are restricted. (A lot of forums have rules about brand new members posting, btw. Even this forum does; new members aren't allowed to post links here.)

I wasn't suggesting that you post your survey over there, anyway. It's a very, very, formal forum compared to this one, so I'm not sure of the reception you'd get. I suggest that you use their internal search function, to see if there are existing threads that touch on your topics of interest. They have a ton of information there, already. So, at least to me, it makes sense to see what's there before posting a new topic. criticaldance archives contain a wealth of information for non-partner dancers of all types. :cool:

Good luck. :)

[pygmalion]

Oh yeah. I just googled "university level modern dance US" and got a ton of hits of US-based universities with programs everywhere from BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) to PhD in dance. I didn't see any that featured only ballet.

I suspect things may be different in the UK than in the US. :cool:

Hmm. If UK universities really do offer only ballet, that might be an interesting slant for narrowing your thesis. A UK versus US approach -- with you choosing a position for one approach or the other. :cool:

[Sagitta]

I suspect things may be different in the UK than in the US. :cool:

Hmm. If UK universities really do offer only ballet, that might be an interesting slant for narrowing your thesis. A UK versus US approach -- with you choosing a position for one approach or the other. :cool:yup, and good idea. :-)

[Chris Stratton]

For a subject to be included in a higher education program designed around academics, there has to be either a formalized body of knowledge, or a formalized method of analysis on which to base the teaching.

Genuine popular arts, as in those created by the people, often do not initially support such study. Newly risen practical experts in the style lack the credentials to be a core part of academic institutions, while professors of established formalized styles will at first either dismiss the new style or see it only through the biases of their existing style and thus not be viewed as really having a very genuine understanding of the new form. Only with time are the bridges built to the point where you have people respected both on the street and in academia who can be the foundation of a program in the style.

Another path does exist, which is to set aside the goal of formal inclusion and pursue the amateur study route. There's a long history of highly intellectual people turning their professional methods to the study of hobbies that at first would seem distant from their official fields. As a result, a college campus can be an interesting place to take highly detailed instruction in a diverse variety of unofficial subjects, from self-made instructors who may fall anywhere on the range between expert and eccentric. But even when a real tradition in a subject is established at a school, it's rare for that to cross over and be recognized as an official academic program in the subject. As a result, you might find a computer science post-doc teaching ballroom, but with anywhere from little support to outright opposition by the dance department.

[pygmalion]

I was thinking about this while I should've been sleeping. There are opportunities for formal study of dance forms other than ballet in the UK, though, right? We have a DF member (whom I haven't seen in a long time) who's spent the past couple years going through what seems to be a very structured course of study of non-ballet dances (I guess there you call them popular dances? ) with periodic examinations and certifications through the ISTD. No, it's not in a university, as far as I know. But it quite formalized, from what I can tell.

[pygmalion]

Or is it the "street" dances, such as hip-hop, that you're after?

[traceyplatt]

thankyou all very much for your help. I will think about your answers. I will definetly look at dance in the usa as there r other ppl who have told me that dance in uk is very much influenced by dance in the usa. i will definetly be mentioning the difference between dance in the uk and usa as it seems very interesting that is so different.
the uk do offer other forms a lot of popular dance forms to learn but it is only within private dance schools and not within education. however to teach u need a degree but u can not get a degree in these popular forms only in dance in general, but within these courses u only learn ballet and contemporary so someone like me who wants to be a dance teacher wud have to go an do the dance degree but wud have to do it in ballet and contemporary which are not of interest to me therefore i would not have good marks as i do not do these forms of dance.
thanku very much for ur help and i will definetly continue using these forums.

[pygmalion]

Ah. Now I begin to understand better, I think. You have to get a dance degree in dance forms that don't interest you, in order to teach dance forms that do?

Wow. Interesting you should mention that. There's been a lot of discussion of that, as it pertains to ballroom dance. Meaning, why does one need a degree in dance to teach ballroom dance, when the most widely accepted ballroom training and credentials have nothing to do with a university education? There's just one university in the US (that I know of) which does offer a BFA in ballroom dance. But the majority of ballroom dance teachers here don't go through that program.

So your argument is that, if a dance degree is going to be required, it should be pertinent to the subject matter that you're going to teach? :cool:

That makes sense to me. :cool: I guess one question I'd ask, though, is are not the underlying principles -- body mechanics, human physiology, basic understanding of music, principles of the teaching process, etc.-- aren't those more or less common to many, if not most, forms of dance? So couldn't a university degree in contemporary dance, for example, with supplementary certification in whatever your specialty, satisfy your objective? (Just being difficult lol, since your professor probably will be even more so. :wink: )

I'd love to hear your perspective on this. :)

[Sagitta]

I know quite a few people who have got education degrees, and then moved to teaching dance. I guess if you have some experience teaching it may help strangers to dance feel more comfortable in some respects?

[traceyplatt]

dance degrees in the uk dont include methods of teaching, they include chorography modules and creative learning but not teaching methods or body mechanism. They include dance technique which is were u see all the ballet. They also include alot of the history of styles of dance but only social dance in general, ballet and contemporary. There is one place that has only just started to do a degree that includes popular forms but that only appears in ur second year and still have to do ballet in first so if ur like me who not studied ballet before then you would propbally fail the first year and then not get the chance to be on the second year were you would get to do the styles of dance that you love. It a vicious cycle. stupid.
It is very interesting though finding trying to find out why. If you can take the time would you give me some of your opinions in relation to my questionnaire because you seem to have very interesting views of dance and i would like opinions from people all over the world.

[Chris Stratton]

Put simply, places where a degree in a completely unrelated subject is required to be allowed to teach a particular subject, may not be that serious about the teaching of that subject. Sometimes this is because the hands of those who might make a sensible decision are tied by unalterable policies. But if mere results are enough there is another way - organize the ballroom (or whatver) program as a recreational activity under they physical education department or simply as a student activity.

And for the best training in unrecognized dance forms, everyone knows that you do not enroll in an institution, but instead seek out specific teachers where they are to be found.

For someone hoping to be a ballroom teacher, or a teacher of any other insufficiently recognized dance form, there may be little point in earning a dance degree. Earn a degree in thinking, communicating, financing, whatever, and study your dance form as you see fit.

Something to remember is that in the formal side of a university setting, it is not enough to be good at a particular activity, or even be good at teaching that activity. In a way, it is a greater requirement to be able to foster consideration of that activity from an academic viewpoint - a systematic analysis and discussion where the difference between ballet technique and ballroom technique may be arbitrary, because both are at first handled only as examples of "a dance technique". Ballet technqiue may be chosen as the initial example to study because it is better understood, better documented, and has fully qualified professors to guide the program, even if they aren't teaching the first year practicals. It is sort of like computer science freshmen complaining about having to study an obscure langauge made up by the professor instead of something like C or java - the point of the class is not to teach the language, but to discuss computer science - the particular langauge is important only to the degree that it established a common frame of reference. This may be harder to see in a dance program though, where ballet is both the example, and a major subject of later specific study.

[traceyplatt]

thankyou very much for your opinions chris. you made some very interesting points that i will definetly think about for my research paper and presentation of my findings. it is very much appreciated! if you have any further comments please let me know.