Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T12:37:38.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“I Feel Like I'm Going to Take Off!”: Young People's Experiences of the Superordinary in Dance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Karen E. Bond  and
Susan W. Stinson
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Work by children in every art form has been both romanticized and criticized by adults. Child art has been emulated as “natural” by artists seeking to free themselves from social and historical conventions (Lowenfeld and Brittain 1987; Read 1957, 1973) and to reconnect with qualities of purity and simplicity (Coleman 1998). Such values have been challenged by those seeking a rationale for instructional programs in the arts (Clark, Day, and Greer 1987). It often seems that educators view children as incomplete adults, in need of education and training to make them mature as well as civilized (Torgovnick 1990). This may be why the ideas and opinions of children are rarely found in research literature, even in education.

Similarly, books about how to teach young people rarely include the perspective of the student. Except in child-centered programs for young children, teachers and educational administrators generally decide what children should learn and then, at least sometimes, assess to see if it has been learned. Very little is known about how young students experience the educational activities designed by adults or construct meaning from them.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , Winter 2000 , pp. 52 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Albrecht, S.L., Chadwick, B. A., & Jacobson, C.K. 1987. Social Psychology, 2nd ed.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Alexander, T. 1987. The Horizons of Feeling: John Dewey's Theory of Art, Experience and Nature. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Ashley, K., Gilmore, L., & Peters, G. eds. 1994. Autobiography and Postmodernism. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Baer, R.A. & Carper, J.C. 1998/1999. “Spirituality and the Public Schools: An Evangelical Perspective.” Educational Leadership 56, no. 4: 33–37.Google Scholar
Berman, M. 1981. The Reenchantment of the World. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Bond, K.E. 1991. “Dance for Children with Dual Sensory Impairments.” Ph.D. dissertation. La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.Google Scholar
Bond, K.E. 1994a. “Personal Style as a Mediator of Engagement in Dance: Watching Terpsichore Rise.” Dance Research Journal 26, no.1 (spring): 15–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, K.E. 1994b. “How ‘Wild Things’ Tamed Gender Distinctions.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance 65, no. 2: 32–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bond, K.E. & Deans, J. 1997. “Eagles, Reptiles and Beyond: A Co-Creative Journey in Dance.” Childhood Education 73, no.6: 366–371.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks Schmitz, N. 1990. “Young Talent Research Project: An Analysis of the Effect of Arts-in-Education Programming on the Motivation, Academic Performance and Personal Development of Inner City Youth Involved in the Young Talent Project.” Unpublished manuscript. Available from Arts Connection, 505 8th Avenue, 9th floor, New York, NY 10018.Google Scholar
Brown, A.K. & Wernikowski, C.M. 1991. “What I Want to Say: The Child Speaks.” In Proceedings of the 1991 Conference of the Dance and the Child: International. Edited by Stinson, S.W.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A., Day, M.D., & Greer, W.D. 1987. “Discipline-Based Art Education: Becoming Students of Art.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 21, no. 2. (summer): 130–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coleman, E. 1998. Creativity and Spirituality: Bonds Between Art and Religion. Albany: S.N. Press.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1975. Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1996. Creativity: F.o. and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. New York: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1997. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Cuffaro, H. 1995. Experimenting with the World: John Dewey and the Early Childhood Classroom. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Current, J.S. 1988. “The Meaning of Dance for Young Public School Dance Students: An Interpretive Inquiry.” Master's thesis, University of North Carolina at Greensboro.Google Scholar
Dewey, J. 1934. A Common Faith. Hanover: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Eagleton, T. 1990. The Significance of Theory. Cambridge: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eisner, E.W. 1981. “On the Differences Between Scientific and Artistic Approaches to Qualitative Research.” Educational Researcher 19: 5–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, C. & Flaherty, M.G. eds. 1992. Investigating Subjectivity: Research on Lived Experience. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Garbarino, J. & Stott, F. M. 1990. What Children Can Tele Us: Eliciting, Interpreting, and Evaluating Information from Children. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Glesne, C. 1997. “That Rare Feeling: Representing Research Through Poetic Transcription.” Qualitative Inquiry 3, no. 2: 202–221.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, J. & Stinson, S. W. 1999. “Postpositivist Research in Dance.” In Researching Dance: Evolving Modes of Inquiry. Edited by Fraleigh, S. & Hanstein, P.Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Grodin, D. & Lindlof, T., eds. 1996. Constructing the Self in a Mediated World. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halford, J.M. 1998/1999. “Longing for the Sacred in Schools: A Conversation with Nel Noddings.” Educational Leadership 56, no. 4: 28–32.Google Scholar
Hanna, J. L. 1979. To Dance is Human: A Theory of Nonverbal Communication. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, E.C. 1983. “On the Acquisition of Aesthetic, Escapist, and Agentic Experiences.” Empirical Studies in the Arts 1, no. 2: 157–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
hooks, b. 1994. Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Howe, D. S. 1996. Individuality and Expression: The Aesthetics of the New German Dance, 1908–1936. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Janesick, V. J. 1998. “The Dance of Qualitative Research Design: Metaphor, Methodolatry, and Meaning.” In Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. Edited by Denzin, N.K. & Lincoln, Y.S.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Jay, M. 1992. “‘The Aesthetic Ideology’ as Ideology; or, What Does it Mean to Aestheticize Politics?” Cultural Critique (spring): 41–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lane, B. 1988. Landscapes of the Sacred. New York: Paulist Press.Google Scholar
Lazaroff, E.M. 1998. “Thinking on Their Feet: A Study of Children's Experiences in an Elementary School Dance Course.” Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University.Google Scholar
Linton, P. 1991. “How Can Children's Creative Dance Facilitate Evolution of Consciousness?” In Proceedings of the 1991 Conference of the Dance and the Child: International. Edited by Stinson, S.W.Google Scholar
Locke, L.F. 1989. “Qualitative Research as a Form of Scientific Inquiry in Sport and Physical Educatin.” Research Quarterly 60: 1–20.Google Scholar
Lowenfeld, V. & Brittain, W.L. 1987. Creative and Mental Growth, 8th ed. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Martin, F. 1998. “Why Do Humans Dance?” University of Melbourne, Australia. Unpublished manuscript (with video).Google Scholar
Maslow, A. H. 1968. Toward a Psychology of Being. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand.Google Scholar
Minichiello, V., Aroni, R., Timewell, E., & Alexander, I. 1990. In-Depth Interviewing. London: Longman Cheshire.Google Scholar
Moustakis, C. 1994. Phenomenological Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Novack, C. 1990. Sharing the Dance: Contact Improvisation and American Culture. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, P. J. 1998/1999. “Evoking the Spirit in Public Education.” Educational Leadership 56, no. 4: 6–11.Google Scholar
Park, Sun Hee. 1993. “Physical Scientific Research on Korean Shaman: Centered on Mental and Physical Changes at a State of Possession.” JADE Conference Proceedings.Google Scholar
Piaget, J. 1929. The Child's Conception of the World. Translated by Tomlinson, J. & Tomlinson, A., NY: Harcourt Brace.Google Scholar
Read, H. 1957. The Significance of Children's Art: Art as Symbolic Language. Vancouver: University of British Columbia.Google Scholar
Read, H. 1973. “Art as a Unifying Principle in Education.” In Child Art: The Beginnings of Self-Affirmation. Edited by Lewis, H.P.Berkeley, CA: Diablo Press.Google Scholar
Richardson, L. 1992. “The Consequences of Poetic Representation: Writing the Other, Rewriting the Self.” In Investigating Subjectivity: Research on Lived Experience. Edited by Ellis, C. & Flaherty, M.G.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Richardson, L. 1998. “Meta-Jeopardy.” Qualitative Inquiry 4, no. 4: 464–468.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richardson, L. 1999. “Dead Again in Berkeley: An Ethnographic Happening.” Qualitative Inquiry 5, no. 1: 141–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rubin, H.J. & Rubin, I.S. 1995. Qualitative Interviewing: The Art of Hearing Data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Slowinski, C. 1995. “Mastery Learning Goals: Interpreting Motivations of Adolescent Ballerinas.” University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Sparshott, F. 1988. Off the Ground: First Steps Towards a Philosophical Consideration of Dance. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stinson, S.W. 1985a. “Curriculum and the Morality of Aesthetics.” Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 6: 66–83.Google Scholar
Stinson, S.W. 1985b. “Piaget for Dance Educators: A Theoretical Study.” Dance Research Journal 17, no. 1 (spring/summer): 9–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stinson, S.W. 1990. “Dance and the Developing Child.” In Moving and Learning for the Young Child. Edited by Stinson, W. J.Reston, VA: AAHPERD.Google Scholar
Stinson, S.W. 1997. “A Question of Fun: Adolescent Engagement in Dance Education.” Dance Research Journal 29, no. 2 (spring): 49–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suhor, C. 1998/1999. “Spirituality—Letting it Grow in the Classroom.” Educational Leadership 56, no. 4: 12–16.Google Scholar
Tart, C. ed. 1972. Altered States of Consciousness. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Theobald, R. 1998. “Toward a Sustainable Future: Will the Arts Lead or Follow?” Public Lecture, October 1998, Scienceworks Museum, Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Torgovnick, M. 1990. Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Torrance, R. 1994. The Spiritual Quest: Transcendence in Myth, Religion and Science. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, V. 1969. The Ritual Process: Structure and Antistructure. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Turner, V. 1982. From Ritual to Theatre: The Human Seriousness of Play. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications.Google Scholar
Vallance, J. 1991. “Conversations with Children: Prompting Pedagogical Text.” In Proceedings of the 1991 Conference of the Dance and the Child: International. Edited by Stinson, S.W.Google Scholar
van Manen, M. 1990. Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Albany: SUNY Press.Google Scholar
Vlassopoulos, K. 1995. “Perceptions of Transformation in Mohiniattam: An Educational Perspective.” M. Ed. thesis, University of Melbourne, Australia.Google Scholar
Waegerle, M. 1997. “The Rational and Transcendent in Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence.” University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar