Educating Dance

Lyne Pringle discusses the growth and challenge of dance in schools, fuelled by the new dance curriculum. Lyne is the National Secondary Schools Arts Coordinator - Dance

The four strands of the new arts curriculum - Dance, Music, Drama and Visual Arts - have opened up huge possibilities for the development of the arts in secondary schools. That dance is recognised as one of the key strands is a major coup and one that bodes well for the art form.

Several initiatives are in place to support the curriculum, and one of these is the National Secondary Schools Arts Coordinators Project. DANZ has secured the Dance section of this contract with the Ministry of Education through until June 2005. This is a unique brokering role between the secondary sector and the arts industry enables an interface between arts providers, arts coordinators and dance teachers in schools. There has been an astute acknowledgement that the delivery of the curriculum can be greatly enhanced and supported by students having access to quality arts experiences. Dance is now a legitimate subject that can be studied up to Level 3 in the new NCEA framework, and the implications of this across a range of sectors are far reaching.

Last year I was fortunate enough to attend the Outstanding Feet Concert in Christchurch. This is an annual event to showcase the dance experiences occurring in several Christchurch schools, organized by Megan Platt. The energy and commitment from all involved is dynamic and contagious, providing an opportunity for students to perform in a non-competitive way (an antidoteto the Stage Challenge phenomena). The focus is on contemporary dance - students are encouraged to look outside the predominant hip-hop culture. There is an inspired and productive flow between sectors, with freelance choreographers brought in to work with various schools.

In fact the whole scene in Christchurch is full of healthy collaborations, support and communication between practitioners. At the hub of this strong community is the dance programme at Hagley Community College run by the inimitable and devoted Sheryl Robinson, a graduate of the New Zealand School of Dance. Following in the footsteps of Hagley Theatre - a community based programme attached to the college - Hagley Dance Theatre was formed.

This is a unique foundation course in dance that manages to sidestep the exorbitant costs of tertiary training. There is an opportunity for Sheryl and others to choreograph for the company, with the work included in the Outstanding Feet concert, as well as producing shows of their own throughout the year. Secondary students get to see this work as an example of the next step up. Many dance graduates from Hagley have gone on to further study and work in the dance industry. Sheryl is a great model of a committed dance artist working in the secondary and pre-tertiary sector.

Gradually dance programmes in secondary schools around the country are getting up and running, and these often rely on the energy and commitment of key individuals to the art form and to their role as educators. At Avondale College Melanie Turner has stepped into the role of running the dance programme. After graduating from UNITEC School of Performing and Screen Arts, then dancing with Footnote Dance Company and spending time as a freelance dance professional, Melanie has directed her talents and energy to education.

She considers herself as a dance artist working in a school and cites one of her greatest challenges with students is getting them to understand that dance is an art form. This is not just about learning moves but rather it is about expressing themselves through movement. Generally she thinks the curriculum provides a good template for this kind of exploration.

She also gets to choreograph on the students, which in part satisfies her creative urges and provides them with the material to fulfil the NCEA unit standard on performing dance. Avondale has good facilities due to a partnership with Auckland City Council; the dance studio and stadium are used for community programmes in the evenings. In 2004 they had students sitting 3 levels of NCEA dance as well as large numbers of year 9 and 10 students studying dance. Melanie feels it is important to have dance experts in front of kids providing a model of good practice.

One of the key issues in delivering the new curriculum is the lack of dance experts available and trained to teach in schools. The dance industry, and particularly the tertiary sector, needs to sit up and pay attention. A clear career pathway is unfolding that needs to be noticed and celebrated.

We have a narrow definition of success in our industry. Working on the 'concert stage' is ratified as 'making it' whether as choreographer or a dancer (this happens right across sectors from the funding providers to the tertiary sector to the professional dance industry). How many people actually get to do this? How many of the vast numbers of students trained in tertiary institutions actually have a career in this domain? You can almost count them on one hand. Does this make everybody else a failure and what happens to the high level of training that is embedded in people's bodies after tertiary education?

Whilst not negating the vast amount of skill and talent and sheer bloody-mindedness it takes to work in these arenas, we need a broader definition of what it means to be successful.

There are many creative and dedicated practitioners working in the secondary sector - bringing an artful experience to young people, opening their minds and bodies to the expressiveness of dance. This will have an enormous impact on our future dance artists and the sophistication of the audience for dance.

We need to hold up and celebrate the role of artist educators, to give the career pathway visibility and credibility, to ensure that people who choose this pathway are given the best possible education to fulfil a role that is as important as the artist who appears on the "Opera House" stage.

Return to DANZnet Magazine Index