About the Book
Dancing Mind, Minding Dance encompasses a collection of pivotal texts published by scholar and researcher Doug Risner, whose work over the past three decades has emphasized the significance of social relevance and personal resonance in dance education. Drawing upon Risner’s breakthrough research and visionary scholarship, the book contextualizes critical issues of dance making in the rehearsal process, dance curriculum and pedagogy in 21st-century postsecondary dance education, the role of dance teaching artists in schools and community environments, and dance, gender, and sexual identity, especially the feminization of dance and the marginalization of males who dance.
This book concludes with Risner’s prophetic vision for employing reflective practice in order to address social justice and inclusion and humanizing pedagogies in dance and dance education throughout all sectors of dance training and preparation. Beginning with his first book, Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance (2009), Risner has distinguished himself as the leading education researcher, scholar, and practitioner to improve young dancers’ education and training and in humanistic ways. The book will appeal to dance educators and teachers, dance education scholars and researchers, choreographers, parents and care-givers of dance students, and those who work as teaching artists, arts administrators, private sector dance studio directors and teachers, as well as arts education researchers and scholars broadly. The chapters in this book, except for a few, were originally published in various Taylor & Francis journals.
Table of Contents:
Introduction Part 1: Dance Making Pedagogies in the Rehearsal Process 1. Exploring Dance Rehearsal: The Neglected Issues Revealed 2. Voices Seldom Heard: The Dancer's Experience of the Choreographic Process 3. Making Dance, Making Sense: Epistemology & Choreography Part 2: Curriculum and Pedagogy in 21st Century Postsecondary Dance 4. Dance Education Matters: Rebuilding Postsecondary Dance Education for Twenty-first Century Relevance and Resonance 5. Weaving Social Foundations in Dance Pedagogy: A Pedagogy of Uncovering 6. Troubling Methods-Centered “Teacher Production”: Social Foundations in Dance Education Teacher Preparation 7. Leadership Narratives in Postsecondary Dance Leadership: Voices, Values and Gender Variations Part 3: The Role of Dance Teaching Artists in Dance Education 8. Hybrid Lives of Teaching Artistry: A Survey of Teaching Artists in Dance 9. The Credential Question: Attitudes of Dance and Theatre Teaching Artists 10. Preparation, Policy and Workplace Challenges of Dance Teaching Artists in P-12 Schools: Perspectives from the Field Part 4: Dance, Gender, and Sexual Identity 11. Rehearsing Masculinity: Challenging the “Boy Code” in Dance Education 12. Bullying Victimization and Social Support of Adolescent Male Dance Students 13. Gender Problems in Western Theatrical Dance: Little Girls, Big Sissies and the "Baryshnikov Complex” 14. Men in Dance, Bridging the Gap Symposium: Gender Inequities in Dance Education: Asking New Questions Part 5: Reflective Practice, Social Justice, and Humanizing Dance Pedagogy 15. Motion and Marking in Reflective Practice: Artifacts, Autobiographical Narrative, and Sexuality 16. Moving Social Justice in Dance Pedagogy: Possibilities, Fears and Challenges 17. Activities for Humanizing Dance Pedagogy: Immersive Learning in Practice
About the Author :
Doug Risner (PhD, MFA) is a distinguished faculty fellow and professor of Dance and directs the MA in Theatre and Dance: Teaching Artistry program in the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University, Detroit, USA. He conducts research in the sociology of dance training and education, gender in dance, curriculum theory and policy, social foundations of dance pedagogy, online learning, and web-based curriculum design. His books include Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance (2009); Hybrid Lives of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre Arts: A Critical Reader (2014); Gender, Sexuality and Identity: Critical Issues in Dance Education (2015): Dance and Gender: An Evidence-Based Approach (2017); Dance, Professional Practice, and the Workplace (2020); and Ethical Dilemmas in Dance Education: Case Studies on Humanizing Dance Pedagogy (2020), which received the 2021 NDEO Ruth Lovell Murray Award for Dance Education and the 2021 Susan W. Stinson Book Award. His most recent edited volumes include Dancing Across the Lifespan: Negotiating Age, Place and Purpose (2022) with Pam Musil and Karen Schupp and Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity: Why Boys (Don’t) Dance (2022) with Beccy Watson.
Jennifer McNamara (MFA) is an assistant professor of Dance at Mercyhurst University, Erie, USA. Following a twenty-year career as a ballet dancer, she was an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, USA, and taught for New Dialect, Metro (Nashville) Parks and Recreation Dance Division, and the School of Nashville Ballet. A certified Pilates instructor, Jennifer explores the relationships between foundational and aesthetic movement choices; she is also an advocate for justice in dance education. She is a past recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship (Dance) from the Tennessee Arts Commission, has designed and built costumes, and has been published in Arts Education Policy Review and Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity: Why Boys (Don’t) Dance, edited by Doug Risner and Beccy Watson. Jennifer earned her MFA in Dance from Hollins University, Roanoke, USA.
