Dance In The Curriculum Drama Essay

saltation In The Curriculum Drama set aboutDance as a discipline is marginalised in academic discourse as an ephemeral, per potpourriance-foc expenditure field of battle, its queen ruseiculated with the dead be. In UK schools itis a physical subject with an aesthetic gloss, languishing at the bottom of the academic hierarchy, conceptualised as art but located at heart physical raising in the national syllabus (D protesting et al, 2003 Breh social unitaryy, 2005). Placing special emphasis on effect at A direct as well undermines the development of leap studies much widely wi curve a subject hierarchy that places literacy, or else than embodiment, as a key cypher of high-status noesis.Beyond the confines of the dancing curriculum, these changes illuminate Foucaults assertions that causation and knowledge atomic number 18 interconnected and that advocate produces knowledge (1979, 1980b). He outlined three core processes for exerting disciplinary former observat ion, examination and normalising judgement. Benthams Panopticon, a prison with cells constructed slightly a central tower, demonstrates how discipline and control finish be transferred to the pris unityrs themselves. The inmates are al elans potentially tangible to the guards and so mustiness be fill at all times as if they are cosmos watched. They are their own guards, controlled by the gaze Just a gaze. An inspecting gaze which each individual under its incubus will end by interiorizing to the point that he is his own overseer, each individual thus physical exertion this surveillance over, and against, himself. A superb formula index number exercised continuously and for what turns out to be minimal represent (Foucault, 1980b, p. 155). Foucaults second disciplinary technology, normalisation, is the mien in which behaviour can be aligned with societys standards, to correct what is seen as deviant. The third,examination, is the combination of the opposite two and exempli fies power/knowledge as it both establishes the truth and controls behaviour. This article expatiates how these processes hightail it in the context of move in training. Taking into account Foucaults suggestion that the traditional way of life of describing power in negative terms as something that excludes or represses should stop, that it is the productive aspect of power that creates reality, the article explores how leaping in commandmentpower be seen as both literate and a physical activity suited for anyone, and thus to pose more power in the twenty-first-century curriculum.Yet spring is more than provided consummation to dismiss it as purely bodies in action is to ignore non exactly the voice communication of its own structural conventions but to a fault the language in which it might be recorded. Currently in that location is little indication in school that terpsichore, like music, has its own complex systems of nonation. The current discourse of trip th e light fantastic in education has normalised it as an illiterate art form and the removal of the nonation section at A level has entrenched that perception. Furthermore, the idea that dance studies is solely about beautiful bodies in motion, the pocket pursuit of slender, flexible fe priapics, is an unhelpful blueprint at a time when on that point is a take up toencourage more physical activity to combat rising levels of childhood obesity. So if students are non to self-exclude from dance whether on grounds of perceived body type, gender or privation of academic currency, because there demand to be a more inclusive, valued and thus more powerful form of the subject in the curriculum.Dance in the Curriculum an overviewDance developed as a fiber of public education in the UK during the 1880s when Swedish educator Martina Bergman Osterberg brought Lings physical education ideas to London. Physical coningwas introduced in 1909 into what were whence called elementary school s to improve fitness levels and encourage discipline and cooperation in young men. The dance aspect was perceived as an exclusively egg-producing(prenominal) pursuit (Brinson, 1991). Western dance tradition is quench strongly associated with the female as Ferdun points out, the term dance is ordinarily associated with girls and feminine qualities by a satisfying portion of the dominant culture. Labelling dance as female prevents it from functioning fully as an educational medium. It limits community by anyone, male or female,who does not want to be associated with stereotyped gender images and practices (Ferdun, 1994, p. 46). Whilst dance mum remains a partitioning of the PE curriculum, McFee (2004) argues for the distinctive nature of dance as an artistic activity, for its value in the curriculum within an education system that demands account energy. He adopts a soulfulnessal enquiry view of education which stresses the importance of someoneal development. Drawing on the work of Lawrence Stenhouse (1975) and David Best (1991), he argues that dance is a suit able-bodied medium for such an educational endeavour. However, whilst for McFee dance should be treated as an artistic activity that has indwelling value, the notion of dance being unders aliked in such a way as to trace it accountable is at the heart of his text. His emphasis on account magnate resonates with arguments around high-status knowledge and with the need for strapping assessment in public examinations. Dance can be assessed as a sub-sectionof physical education and is withal available as a separate subject at GCSE (usually taken age 16 at the end of compulsory education) and at GCE A level (advanced-level subjects, taken two years later, which usually form the basis of university entrance).Articulating the Power of Dance Ideology into PracticeDance requires the development of physical skills dependable as other sporting activities do, but differs in that adept skill is not the end in itself. That skill must be used to create subject matter its main fright is aesthetic experience. Unsurprisingly, as McFee (2004) points out, many PE teachers have little interest in teaching dance. Not only does it require an instinct of dance proficiency if it is to embrace masterworks that is, known works in current repertory but it overly has an aesthetic aspect that makes it distinctive. Indeed, when combined with the particularly female druthers of dance, it seems somewhat ironic to place it within a department that isculturally perceived as masculine and essentially in opposition. But in spite of the implication that to put dance with PE is to fail to emphasise the subjects aesthetic qualities, the dance as art model has become the predominant way of assumeing it. And this is a central problem for dance in education the aesthetic dimension inherent in dance as an art form and anticipate by the national curriculum, at GCSE and at A level, leads to this subject having no obvious department in which to sit.All dance examination syllabi in school reflect the dance as art model. As well as having traditional written aspects, GCSE and A level have a practical component, carrying 70% and 55% of the total attach respectively (AQA, 2009). When first examined in 1986, the A-level policy-making program required candidates to show ability to choreograph to practise to be able to read and use distinctional systemal system to show knowledge of the segment form and features of dances and their historical andsocial contexts and, finally, to be able to interpret and evaluate dances (University of London Schools Examination Board, 1986). Changes to the syllabus in 2008 resulted in dropping the notation requirement they also streamlined the choreographic tasks and placed an added emphasis on health and safety in training and performance. The specification also removed the technical regard and instead assesses technical competence by means of th e solo stage dancing task. The power of the dance itself is examined through with(predicate) students ability to analyse the choreographic structure ofmasterworks in essay form and to use define compositional structures in their own stage dancing. It is also assessed through their ability to perform. The proportion of marks allocated for the practical components at both GCSE and A level reflects the need not only to show dance in theory but also to use that knowledge in practice. It also points to the centrality of the body as the instrument through which the power of dance is articulated and made accountable through assessment. But examination is, in Foucaults terms, under the power of the gaze. The gaze, whether on the dance itself or on the wider notion of dance studies in the academic hierarchy, influences what is seen, what is valued, what is deemed to have power. It influences the kind of critical review itself. If literacy is valued in the academy, then how might dance b e written, read, considered and interiorised under its inspecting gaze?Dance is a language with its own systems expressed through choreography and performance. The word choreography itself derives from the Greek, choreia, meaning choral dance, and graphia, meaning writing. But if, as Cohan states, dance speaks in a genuinely special language, both to the doer and the watcher. It speaks of things read between the lines, things that are impossible to put into words (Cohan, 1986, p.10), how can school students articulate those impossible qualities, havethe power to express them in a way that is accountable, to use McFees (2004) term? Not just toread and keep about dance, but to read and relieve dance itself? Foster states Literacy in dance begins with seeing, hearing and purport how the body moves (1986, p. 58). From the high culture of uncorrupted concert dance to the nineties revival of Lindy Hop, from contemporary technique to street dance, the dance reader must recognise the q ualities of those purports, consider their features, remember and identify patterns. The syllabus, whether at GCSE or A level, refers to constituentfeatures and compositional devices that should be understood, and later read in the masterworks studied for the latter. These include movement components (action content, dynamics and spatial arrangement) social dancers (numbers, gender, physique, enjoyment) physical and aural setting and the development of dance ideas. Choreographic devices such as motif development, variation and transition are also required.The cultural perspectiveReading dance is not only about its internal structure, it is also about its place withinculture it is complex. The reader must understand the choreographic codes and conventions that give the dance its significance (Foster, 1986, p. 59). This complexity is reflected in the way choreography is examined, for example, at A level. The written papers ask both for discussion of the component features of a danc e, but also to demonstrate how the dance relates to its cultural context. In other words, the papers ask the candidate to be able to read the dance in terms of form and context for example, to understand not only how Christopher Bruce creates the power ofGhost Dances (1981) through technical means, but why such a powerful and searing indictment of political oppression, the disappeared of Pinochets Chile, was significant. The practical examination calls for the student to write dance, to compose both solo and group choreography. The compositional components draw above are to be used in this writing. But as Adshead (1986) points out, dance composition, where the elements of dance are put in concert in a recognisable construction, is only the beginning of choreography. Understanding thecrafting of the piece only takes us so far and while it might in principle be the aspect of choreography most understood, dances are imaginative constructions designed to do far more than string steps together in a neat and tidy way, or even in an untidy conglomeration of movements (Adshead, 1986, p. 20). The power of choreography is not just about using form correctly, it is about creating meaning and its effective communication to the audience. Dance in education, then, as examined at GCSE and A level, requires students to read dance through understanding its own language of compositional devices, making destination to the cultural context of the practitioners and masterworks studied. thither is also the requirement to write dance using those same compositional structures, and the solo must reflect the characteristics of aspecific practitioner. Having pictured and created meaningful artistic relationships derived from knowledge about dance, the student must have the technical skill to take a shit them in practice. Those qualities have to be conveyed to the observer through the dancers instrument, the body. Young observed that it is power, not knowledge, that counts in educati on (Young, 2008, p. 94). And power can be constructed as the power of Foucaults gaze (Foucault, 1980b). Dance knowledge encapsulated in its internal concepts of literacy may not have status in the eyes of those who have the power to create the curriculum and endorse its values it has little power as academiccurrency. Dance as articulated through the body is similarly problematic Shilling (2004) develops Bourdieus conception of the body as physical capital which needs to be converted into other forms in order to have value. But according to Foucault, the body itself has a complex relationship with power.As former ballerina Jennifer Jackson notes, The focus on the body, as against the person who dances, links standards of perfection to the instrument of the dance ratherthan the dancer or the dancing itself (Jackson, 2005, p. 32). Dance in education does not immediately appear to share this skipper obsession with technical perfection either in the national curriculum or at GCSE and A level. Syllabus documentsmake no reference to technical excellence no statements are given to indicate standards by comparison to technical qualifications. The judgement and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) mark scheme for the 2009-10 choreographic section of the GCSE level paper which asks candidates to show appropriate and lovesome use of dancers skills and attributes to communicate the dance idea (AQA, 2009, p. 4), and my discussions with practical examiners reiterate the notion that dancers areused to illustrate the choreography, that their performance is not assessed, for a choreographers skill is, in part, to use what abilities the dancers have. In this view, the body is pushed aside, as if dance can simply be reduced to representation, not embodiment. But this is disingenuous the power of dance is unavoidably mediated through the body and the body cannot be removed from that representation, leaving embodiment and representation in irresolvable tension. A professional choreo grapher can indeed tailor the dance to the strengths of the performers, but those dancers will already be in possession of the docile body created through years oftechnique classes. School-level student choreographers creating dances for examination have to work with dancers who might but equally might not have technical skill. And so the technical skills of the dancers available to the candidates will affect both their choice of steps and the aesthetics of the performance. As one dance teacher colleague observed, I am sure you could lookat a dance performed by two different candidates and think that one was better because you are more impressed by the performance of one because she was a better dancer, or slimmer, or more elegant Even with the best intentions, it is very difficult to remove the effect caused by a poor performance and a body that does not conform to normalised panoramas because the two are so inextricably linked. And so the self-correction of the docile body is not throttle to technical excellence but is alsoaffected by the expected body shape, even at school level. Foucault describes the ideal body of the soldier, the muscular physique and bearing that replaces the peasant. In dance, as in society, there is an ideal body myth, the normalised bodyconstructed as the aesthetic standard, the object of the observers gaze. Following Foucault, Green (2002) describes the ideal body of the female dancer as seen by her student participants, the long legs, the flexible, tight-fitting body with no curves, thin face, long hair. An ideal, constantly striven for, self-policed, light as a feather. Never eat sweets (Green, 2002, p. 135), emphasising the sentiments of students and teacher referred to above. The self in the mirror is not checked just for technical accuracy but for any excess fat. The skinny dancer, existing on caffeine and cigarettes, is part of thedancing myth, if struggled against in reality. But the importance of indeed obsession wit h maintaining the perfect dancing body can lead to a range of eating disorders (Thomas, 1995). Perhaps addressing this concern might be one of the benefits referred to in the restructured GCSE specification that is, an understanding of health and safety in dance. Additionally, quest to question the objectification of the body can result in a deeper understanding of the nature of dance and of its single-valued function in society (Shapiro, 1998, p. 10).The male professional dancers body is more contested, especially within the essentially ancient structures of ballet. In the nineteenth century he was caught between two competing discourses if he looked muscular, strong and vigorous, he appeared too contrasting to the sylphlike ballerina who took the central role. But if he looked too ethereal and aesthetic, anxiety was generated in the theatre-going public through perceived homosexual overtones, a link that still persists whatever the reality. Male dancers in the contemporary id iom are perceived as more masculine than their classical counterparts, in part emphasised through the differences in classicaland contemporary technique and choreographic principles, yet doubts regarding sexual orientation still remain in popular thought (Burt, 2007). The film Billy Elliot, in which Billy struggles to be permitted to dance, illustrates this perfectly boys should play football or learn boxing dancing is for girls.What is more, in theatrical dance, the body is on view and most frequently a female body and with it historically, a link with deterrent example laxity. The female body has long been regarded as a source of discord and danger to the patriarchal order, through distraction from knowledge, seduction away from God, capitulation to sexual desire, violence or aggression, failure of will, even final stage (Bordo, 1993, p. 5). Churches preached against social dance on grounds of immorality in the close physical proximity of male and female bodies, whether it wa s the introduction of the waltz inVictorian England or the perceived depravity of the tango and Charleston in the 1920s (Brinson, 1991). The theatre itself was the domain of women of questionable morals. Foucault saw the body to be central in the operationalising of power. Since the female body is repressed in a patriarchal culture and cultural representations of it (Fraser Bartky, 1992) that is, it is seen as the other to be controlled by the male, the relationship between dance and gender is influential in articulating the power of dance. The female body can be seen in terms of competing discourses and socialcontrol. If the power of dance must be expressed through the body, and that body is female (or if male, then with potentially homosexual overtones), then the dance expresses not power but subservience within that patriarchal hierarchy. And in the school curriculum, the body is similarly positioned and manipulated, its realities unsung (Oliver Lalik, 2001).Bakhtin (1968) a rgued that these impure meanings around embodiment could beoverturned. Taking the world of medieval and Renaissance carnival as depicted in Rabelais novels, he showed how the worldview was upturned, where usual power structures were inverted and the boundaries between what was considered pure or deconsecrate could be crossed. The body image itself moved to a celebration of the grotesque but at its extreme point it never presents an individual body the image consists of orifices and convexities that present another, newly conceived body. It is apoint of transition in a life eternally renewed, the inexhaustible vessel of death and conception (Bakhtin, 1968/1984, p. 318). But carnival is fleeting participants can only be temporarily free of Foucaults disciplinary technologies. In professional dance, the power of the choreography is essentially expressed through performance, and outside a carnival world view the lithe, trained dancer is considered uniquely able to interpret the cho reographers ideas with the docile body.Dance and the Curriculum 2 Notating DanceBut if in school the choreography is merely to be illuminated by the performer, then perchance an alternative way of dealing with the potential interference from the use of (inadequately) docile bodies would be to ask dance candidates to write down pat(p) their intentions, to allow the power of their choreographic choices to be examined in isolation from the power of the performing body. The question then arises of how this might be achieved in a curriculum that does not acknowledge the existence of dance notation.There are two main systems of notating dance, Labanotation and Benesh. Labanotation, devised by the influential dance figure Rudolf Laban, was published in 1928 and is used to record movement across a range of dance styles. Without notation, there is little chance of being able to accurately reproduce the movements one can only know about the dance and its role within that particular culture. In spiteof its availability, notation was used very little, with a resultant lack of documented dance slews (Redfern, 2007) although the number of scores is now gradually increasing. In the United States, for example, the Dance Notation Bureau, located at the University of Ohio, uses Labanotation to create a record of dance works, so that dance scores can be entrancewayed and used in the same way as music scores. Other institutions in Europe and elsewhere are similarly collating notated danceworks. These works are then available for interpretation, as are other art forms. And, as Redfern (2007) points out, increasing the number of interpretations of an art work increases its stature the power of the dance can be enhanced by inviting different readings of its texts. As well as creating records of dance, notation use can also have learning-outcome implications. Goodmans (1976) theory of notation suggests that the created score defines a body of knowledge. Warburton (2000) goes on t o argue that trying to express that knowledge verbally can be counterproductive because of what he refers to as the ambiguity and redundancy of spokenlanguage. He illustrates this by explaining how the verbal description to glide for a ballet step called a glissade sets up expectations of the kind of movement to be completed that gliding overlaps the meanings of change of location and leaping moreover, to tell the dancer to perform a travelling-leaping-action-that-skims-across-the-floor permits a variety of interpretations (Warburton, 2000, p. 195). The anecdote he tells goes on to explore the problems of description and how one particular ballet mistress resolved this by demanding repetition until he performed the step properly the power of the dance expressed through the body, not through words. But although a dance step is a bodily experience, rarely conceptualised in terms of its component parts,notation, he asserts, might provide the means for this conceptualisation in a wa y that language cannot. He concludes that if the goal of dance education is to help dancers increase their abilities to use dance concepts, to read, write, and dance dance, then notation-use is a good cats-paw for doing so (Warburton, 2000, p. 210), since it enables movement, concept and notation to be linked, which improves learning.Dance notation has never been a requirement for access to dance courses, whether at degree level or for professional training. Few institutions offered the particular AQA specification in which it appeared, and so many potential students would have been otiose to withdraw it. It is available for study in professional training courses at specialist dance schools and also features in some dance degree courses as an option. But at school level, the situation is rather different. From its inception in 1986 until restructured and examined for the first time in its new format in 2009, notation was apart of A-level dance, both for conveying the technical st udy to the teachers and their students and also as a separate test. Originally, according to one examiner, it was included at A level, for generally cultural reasons. Dance has been regarded as an illiterate art for too long. There are few scripts or records of materials, so dance is seen as a time-based art, disadvantaged in comparison with drama or music. We cherished to help bring it into line with the other arts (Ridley, 1992, p. 37). Literacy, asused here, can be defined by the ability to read and write dance scores using either Benesh or Labanotation. At that time, the latter was the dominant choice of candidates later examiners reports note the ability of students in both forms (AQA, 2008).The first and rather indirect test of notation skills at A level was through sending the compulsory technical dance study to centres in notated form. However, unless the students were extremely confident with notation, above the standard required for the exam itself, they were unable to read the complex scores themselves and thus were reliant on their teachers for their choice. This had important repercussions. Perhaps the first classical study might be slow, a piece of adage requiring balance, control and strength, whilst the second might emphasise speed, elevation and intricacy, a piece of allegro. Dancers tend to be more comfortable, and thus more competent,in one rather than the other. If the teacher decided to teach both studies then candidates would be able to choose their pet option if not, then some students would have to learn, perform and be assessed on a technical study which did not reflect their best performing ability. One solution was the option to buy video recordings from the study Resource Centre for Dance at the University of Surrey. However, this raised a further problem any performance is inevitably aninterpretation of the notation, not the definitive answer. The Resource Centre attempted to minimise this by whirl a male and a female interp retation of each piece, but the essential problem remained. Students therefore copied the interpretation when perhaps they could have offered an equally valid, or possibly even better, interpretation from the score itself. The power of the dance as notated and to be interpreted was subsumed into copied technical performance. The specific notation component was also examined lots students were tested in groups of six, each candidate having a different dance score. They were given sixteen nix of theirchosen notation (either Benesh or Labanotation) to decode and perform. The bars were repeated in performance, to create a thirty-two-bar sequence. thirty minutes were given in which the notation not only had to be understood but also memorised, then fitted to music and a creditable performance rendered which was itself graded. Candidates had to cope with distraction as well as having to race against the clock the music was played periodically during the thirty minutes, which was potent ially distracting if, at that moment, the individual was not ready to put the steps tomusic but was perhaps decoding a specific section. The memorization aspect also meant that whilst a candidate might be able to read the notation and perform it with score in hand, marks would be lost if they could not perform it accurately without the score. If notation is a tool of dance, a way of recording movement, then memorisation and performance can hardly be a fair test of the ability to read it. One could read a poem for a test, but just because those lines were not remembered accurately would not be a reason to assume the person could not read. This memorisation aspectshifted the emphasis from reading the notation to one of demonstrating that understanding by way of perfected performance. The task was not a straightforward test of notation literacy but rather one of memorisation demonstrated through bodily skill. The power of dance was once again articulated through the performing body.Ne vertheless, successive examiners reports throughout this period indicated the increasing familiarity of students with notated scores, and hence an increasing ability to cope with them. For example, in 2008, the report noted As stated in previous years, some candidates are to be congratulated on their achievements. It was pleasing to see a number of candidates dance the whole 32-bar score and gain high marks in this component of the Unit 5 examination. This continues to be a positive progression over the olden couple of years, indicating an increasing confidence in preparing reconstruction skills (AQA, 2008, p. 4). Yet the restructured 2009 A level removed the examined notation component completely. AQA suggested a summary of benefits of the new syllabus, which included encouraging critical engagement with dance as an art form, providing a suitable foundation for pursuing dance in higher education, providing experience of choreography and performance, and, finally, encouraging a hea lthy lifestyle (AQA, 2008). However, according to the National Dance Teachers Association (NTDA), the notation component was dropped because AQA was concerned about the ability of teachers to deal with this aspect of the course. Too few teachers were able to teach notation to a high enough standard and examiners had seen too many crying candidates attempting the notation part of unit five. It seems that we as teachers have failed to meet the standards required to deliver this part of the course successfully (NDTA, 2008, p. 13). Those teachers trained to use the system acknowledged the difficulties it posed, but nevertheless the outcome can only be seen as a retrograde step. Rather than calling for an improvement in teaching standards, this significant aspect of dance lore was dropped. The gaze of the literate hierarchy was rejected, not interiorised. So whilst schoolchildren may routinely be expected to understand that music has its own form of language that is, music notation th ere is no such expectation for dance dance in schools is taught as if it were an illiterate art form that is, as if its notation does not exist. An unfortunate effect of this is, as Redfern (2007) points out, that a lack of interest in dance scores is perhaps what makes for, or at least reinforces, the tendency to concentrate on performance rather than the work and this absence of a tradition of studying a dance script in the way that it is imperative for musicians or actors to study their scores or texts means that relatively little has been expected or demanded ofthe dancer in respect of interpretational ability (Redfern, 2007, p. 197). Notation is thus important for the development of dance studies. It allows dance works to berecorded and studied other than during the performance itself, giving dance a language equivalent to music. It can also enhance learning. But reading and interpreting through notated scores (however unskilled) is no longer a possibility at school level, an d whilst writing scores was expected only at a very basic level, this too has gone. In addition, complex and analytical notation gives academic weight to a subject so often seen as unsuitable for serious study. It is also assessable in away in which the more ephemeral aspects of the subject are not. The absence of notation at A level cannot help but reinforce