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Physical Education
Physical education offically became part of public education establishing the importance of good pysical health. -
Margaret H'Doubler
Founder of the first university dance program. -
Martha Graham
Martha Graham is considered the mother of modern dance. She blessed the world with her talent. She has instructed and choreographed many dancers and pieces where she has left a legacy behind. She created a movement “Language” based upon the expressive capacity of the human body that is still taught today. In 1926 she acquired her first students that trained with her for over 66 years. -
Great Depression and WWII
Dance activity and education was kept primarily in the physical education department and was not yet taught in classroom settings. -
George Balanchine
George Balanchine is a famous dancer and choreographer that establed the American Ballet in 1935. He taught countless students of his dance knowledge and has given the world the gift of his beautiful ballets. -
Gene Kelly
Gene Kelly was one of a kind changing the dance world forever. He was featured in many musicals and was one of the best dancers of his time. Kelly had created a fusion of dance styles that included modern, ballet, and tap. In 1952 one of his most famous productions "Singing in the Rain" deputed. Gene Kelly helped children get excited about dancing because he appeared on Broadway and on television. -
Segregation and Intergration
The civil rights movement allowed all minorities in America to be included together in public education. In education this change allowed more focus on student diversity in cultural background, school accomplishments and new curriculum planning which included dance. -
National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities
This legislation brought interest in the arts education to the attention of public schooling It also provided funds for artists and art specialists to go into schools and teach students about their profession and provide an arts experience. -
War on Poverty and ESEA
The Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was created where every four years students that were economically and educationally deprived received funds. The dance departments benefited because they were now able to provide dance and arts activities to these students as inspiring experiences. The dance curriculum was expanding because dancing in school was viewed as innovative. -
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Increased Government Funding
The government was providing more funding for education and arts programs in schools. There was a national focus on diversity, which helped dance education, and dance in education expand tremendously. -
Passage of Title IX in ESEA
There was a greater emphasis on the creativity part of dance education when dance programs began to shift from physical education to arts affiliation. -
Equal Educational Opportunity Act
The joining of men and women's physical education took place because the separate programs often appeared to emphasize athletics and not dance. -
Dance in the College Setting
More university dance degree programs were developed and many more dance students were working toward receiving a higher academic degree. -
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson gave the dance world originality and began the era of music videos Jackson was an inspiration to new dance students because he was self-taught and was always designing new dance moves. He flaunted natural grace, flexibility, and astonishing rhythm. He was given the nickname Sponge that described the way he soaked up ideas and techniques from other artists. In 1982 his famous song and music video "Thriller" was released. -
Funding Stopped
Funding for many arts programs including dance were stopped but the advancement in dance education continued where both the value and place for dance was taught to children in K-12 education. -
Learning Styles
By the 1980s and 1990s an education theory acknowledged the differences in learning styles for all students because not everyone learns the same ways. New critical thinking skills were taught rather than merely memorizing information. Many new routes combined learning and doing activities about the arts including dance. -
Merce Cunningham
Merce Cunningham was an American dancer and choreographer who created and taught modern dance . He taught dance as pure form where dance only consists of bodies moving in space and time. His ideas began to change the way dance was thought about and taught his students in a way no one has ever done before. He studied dance on film in the 1970s, and choreographed pieces using the computer program DanceForms when his body was finished dancing. This program came out in 1991. -
Goals 2000 Educate America Act
This act reinforced the place of dance in education by stating its importance in the core curriculum. Funding was reissued to arts that met the curriculum content standards, which included dance. Guidelines for teacher certification in the arts was also established as a requirement to dance and arts instructors. -
No Child Left Behind Act of ESEA
This legislation decribed the high levels of accountability in the core subject areas to be taught by highly qualified teachers where the arts were included as care academic subjects. -
Dancing in School
Dancing in preschool and elementary schools was designed to include all members of the class. They were expected to experience dance as an expressive creative art form where they could develop communication and collaborative skills. The students could now link academic subject material with arts education through physical movements.