Dance in Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning

Abstract

Dance is often positioned in contrast to more “academic” disciplines. Its marginalized status in pre-collegiate education means that it is too often absent from schooling. When taught at all, it is often used for the purpose of increasing student engagement or advancing understanding in another subject. In such a role, the standards, concepts, and methods of dance are not usually upheld. An alternative approach to combining dance with another subject can be found in interdisciplinary learning where dance and another discipline are brought together, with each discipline equally valued for its contribution to understanding a complex topic. The two disciplines come together to complement and challenge each other, and to provide insights into a multifaceted phenomenon that cannot adequately be understood through a single disciplinary perspective. This article introduces a framework for interdisciplinary teaching and learning, grounds it in a portrait of practice at the intersection of dance and anthropology, and explores the role of dance in this type of integration. Simply stated, interdisciplinary education, as proposed here, provides unique opportunities for learning about dance as well as through dance.

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