Investigating Dance in Early Childhood Education: On Analysis and Synthesis

This week we were fortunate to have a meeting on our progress and work as we work on analysis and synthesis of our advanced practitioner inquiry, directed by Maria Salgado from Middlesex University London MA Dance, MAPP on our progress and work as we work on analysis and synthesis of our advanced practitioner inquiry.  It was fascinating to listen to my classmates´research and the different topics they are looking into.  Our themes are as different as our personalities and professional backgrounds. 

Inquiry analysis and synthesis is not as linear as one would hope.  We waltz from literature to inquiry back and forth as we design and redesign our research after our discoveries lead us in different directions.  The pleasure of meetings such as this one is the magic of collaboration.  I entered the meeting with a certain level of frustration since my research on Dance in Early Childhood Education brought with it an emotional baggage in which I hoped to discover areas to seek convergence between pedagogy, educational theory and dance education.  In my vision I wished to find intersections that would direct the search for best practices based on sound educational theory for the dance classroom and for the early childhood education student.  The dream is to understand and advance dance education within my own professional practice and beyond into my dance community.  

To my awe I have discovered literature on Dance Education for young students as far back as the 1920s, and I am privileged to read such dance literature rich in knowledge and tradition.  However, to my great academic and artistic dismay, authorities on the subject have been calling to action for well-prepared dance educators, dance programmes and dance education based on such principles of promotion of the well-being and integral development of students in the early stages of child development.  

Yet, as thrilled as I am to have discovered such beautiful and important literature the looming question hangs on me like a shadow:  Why do dance educators teach as if we did not know anything of early developmental pedagogy?  Why the divorce between theory and practice?  Why, unlike other professionals, are dance teachers not devouring the available literature and staying updated with the newest findings of the profession?  Ethically, how does a dance teacher permit herself to divorce from the knowledge of the adequate and safe exercise of her profession? 

The answers lay in a deep philosophical analysis of the exercise of the profession of dance education.  The philosophy, purpose and justification of dance education attain protagonism in such analysis and synthesis for my inquiry.  

As I shared my experience with my colleagues, a truth became apparent to me: this experience of a divide between practice and the available knowledge resonated in the professional practices of all my colleagues present in the meeting as well.  From our collaborative analysis, I left the meeting with a sense of concern and importance to my investigation.  The divide between Dance Education Theory, Early Childhood Development and the professional execution of dance class requires great urgency.

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On the Evolution of Knowing and Learning

As I read through the blogs of my classmates in the MAPP Dance programme of Middlesex University of London, I read about their own process through the understanding and dis-ciphering of knowledge and learning.  It seems to have been only yesterday that I was awkwardly writing my first blogs on the subject as I joined the ranks of module one: On Knowing and Learning, September 2018.  That blog was the result of writing after a University Skype meeting to discuss learning theory and knowledge.  I recall I had been so nervous before that first class, reading fiercely so as not to be at loss during our discussion.  I was so worried that I was going to have to speak and I would sound stupid and evidence myself as a fraud before my international classmates and professors.  Oh the horror!

I remember asking in class if  there was a learning theory we should focus on and was relieved by the pedagogical of the course.  There would be no shaming, just pure joyful studying.  Just trying to understand learning...my own learning at first through my professional experience.  I read that first blog post that I wrote and I am somewhat embarrassed by how poorly written it was.  I almost started rewriting it, but decided that I should not alter it as it helps me understand my learning process through this Master´s course.  I would not want to destroy or alter the evidence of my own process that I have embarked so far as there is value in this unique learning pathway that has been my graduate studies in dance.

Furthermore, as I re-read I can still perceive how fluid learning is.  I still dance awkwardly with my understanding of learning theory.  I struggle to reconcile my educational past as an academic student from a traditional and repressive educational system based on testing and memorisation of curriculum.  It is a formation I do appreciate at the same time that I criticise, I do feel my formation gave me rigour and structure.

I am still trying to understand learning.  I now perceive knowledge and learning as an ongoing process forever influenced by new ideas and experiences that continually inform and reshape former experiences.  I often find myself bouncing with delight when I find learning and educative theory that resonates.  Yet to find myself breaking my brain to pieces the next time I study the same theory a second time.  What does all the theory mean in the dance studio and in the professional setting?  How does one translate beautiful theory to best practices within dance education and training?  Such is the case I am feeling now after studying a variety of video lectures by Sir Ken Robinson.  His discussions of changing paradigms are extraordinary.  Especially encouraging are the notions of disconnecting students from excessive stimulus and instant technological gratification, and awakening in them the self-discovery and liberating power of creative and divergent thinking.  The power of connecting by being fully aware of oneself in a respectful process of the child´s of the child´s development in which our educative process begins to stimulate instead of repress.

However, the application of this critique to our education system is quite complex. As a classroom teacher myself I understand that teachers must survive testing, curriculum, and especially school programmes.  Teachers pressure themselves because one teacher feeds off her students to the next teacher.  When students present delays on expected learning outcomes, the entire school system enters in crisis.  The second grade teacher gets upset with the first grade teacher...the sixth grade teacher with the fifth grade teacher and so on and so forth.  How to crunch time in an over-saturated schedule with routine activities crowding a short school day.  It would be extraordinary to fill the classroom day with creative activities and projects that motivate and invigorate the student and the school day.

As I return to my reflections starting this Master´s I can see that the notion of a student-centred approach to education that stimulates original thought, creativity and joy- has been in the mind of all of us.  In particular those of us in the field of dance.  Many educators, artists, scientists, leaders, parents, students, etc. echo for the need of a better education system in which our students could bloom.  The agreement is evident.

The execution of the dream is complex.  It shakes the philosophical foundations of why we educate the youth of our society.  If our students are not guaranteed a job of life security from education in today´s changing time, why slave away in school?  Of course, the alternative of students running wildly down the streets without meaning, purpose or structure, is horrifying.  Yet, this is not the reason for education in its own.  Although, the structured daycare of schooling is appealing!

So seeking best practices in education seeking to stimulate creativity and innovation in the student follow the really difficult questions we must continue to study with diligence:

Why educate?

How do we learn?

How to educate?

Thinking About a Direction of Inquiry

A page from my reflective journal

As I enter this new term at Middlesex University London, and after extensive reading, discussions and time devoted to analysis last term, there is a topic that I continue revisiting with great passion which is Early Childhood Development and Dance.  The first time I brushed through this topic was while exploring my Areas of Learning during Module One,  I explored the highly commercial and popular area of Baby Ballet.  I reflected on my formation as a dance teacher at the Washington School of Ballet and my academic formation in Early Childhood Education On Babies, Ballet and Early Childhood Development. I continued to explore this relationship between dance theory and early childhood development.  

I started to recognise that I have a great passion towards this subject.  After all, dance starts young and the early years in dance may have a great impact in the dancer´s development...or is it more important for children to play freely and dance naturally during those early years (as other researchers have suggested)?  I have begun reading articles and books to further deepen my understanding on the topic.  To my extraordinary surprise I have discovered that there are publications on the topic as far back as the 1920s.  Why is it that we have this divide between theory and practice?  What is it that we know and have researched up until today?  How can our knowledge impact our general field of professional practise?  What implications may this knowledge have when extrapolated to practise in schools and in dance classrooms?  How does this impact parents, dance educators and children?  How can we grow from the knowledge gained and enrich our pedagogical practices?  So here begins my advanced practitioner inquiry: meaning making in action. 

Of Endings and Beginnings As We Dance On

This beginning starts at the end.  At the end of a choreography pulled together with my beautiful students in early morning rehearsals after surviving through sleepless nights studying.  My students dancing a choreography that culminated with silence as their poses melted into darkness and their magic faded into the background.  A poetic moment of the artistic process and the diversity of the theatrical experience.  Indeed the recognition and applause irrelevant in moments of great personal discovery and artistic growth.  The pleasure of silence and strength in the survival after a challenge that felt overwhelming and the simple pleasure of relentless collaboration.  The humility of the search for beauty and truth, and the awe of dance as it comes alive in all its autonomy.

My Beautiful Students Onstage, December 2018.  Before fading into the background.

This beginning starts at the end of my Masters in Education.  With the exhaustion and culmination of a process so intense that felt too short.  The end of a process that feels as a beginning: piles of books that deserve to be re-read and studied for analysis and understanding.  With writings, ideas and notes that seem to be beginnings of a thin thread of new ideas sitting in the lines of supposedly concluded work.  Information, theory and practical knowledge to be applied and used in the educational field, and to be translated to dance pedagogy.  Most of all, to be translated to daily life: identifying oneself always as both as teacher and learner.  

This beginning starts with my first feedback of my work presented at the end my first module participation as a student of Middlesex University of London MA Dance Technique and Pedagogy.  A feedback that brought both relief and curiosity as I embark on further exploration and study.  My papers are organised.  Many books selected and stacked for reading and analysis.  My handbooks are printed, underlined and read.  Ideas of my research roughly outlined on paper and post-it notes ready to start weaving those threads of ideas into coherence in a slowly developing jigsaw puzzle.  It seems unbelievable that by December I will be in London presenting.

My desk is ready and the reading, studying and reflection has started.

Module one work for the Masters in Dance was particularly challenging and personally engaging.  As we explored Areas of Learning I found myself revisiting the most important moments of my development as a dancer and professional in the field.  Revisiting the past from the optics of my present was an extraordinary, emotionally charged and disarming experience.  Understanding the connections between experiential learning and academic study through the present reality of professional practice, has been an important development in my work.

The year 2019 begins with dancing and with the seeking healthy habits and routines.  The year begins with studying and training, and with analysis of the teaching and learning process.  The year begins with discipline and, despite the imperfections of old processes and efforts, with a newfound sensitivity that the best place to be is starting with all that needs to be begun in the quest of dreams, dance and personal growth.  Endings leave us in a vulnerable place that allows the analysis of mistakes, imperfections and processes in need of  work.  However when endings mark the way of new beginnings, the opportunity of growth is outlined.  The metaphor of dancing resonates, as each new performance allows the birth of new dance and true joy.