Getting (and keeping) in touch: a dance educator’s perspective on networking with the world

Abstract

This short paper presents an example of networking amongst dance educators, using a model from grass roots to international contacts, with personal involvement in the recently held World Creativity Summit

Introduction

I am a dance educator and, as such, have worked at many levels of education and training. This short paper amounts to a reflection on a network of contacts with other practitioners, both within and outside formal educational contexts. Some of these contacts have led to very stimulating discussions and intense critical debate. Others have allowing me to feel comfortable with the ongoing development of my practice; supporting and affirming beliefs and pedagogy. 

Grassroots

What all educators need when they first begin teaching, and continuously from then on, is an understanding of the principles and philosophies that underpin their practice.  What they also need are others with which to share these ideas; others who will be there to respond when there are challenges to these principles and who will be willing to share their experiences, both enlightening and disheartening.  

Dance is a relatively new subject in most school systems (although it is one of human kind’s oldest social activities) and, as such, most dance teachers work in isolation; a single teacher in a school or across a district. Staff team-building activities are often a lonely event and the opportunity to share ideas rare. Professional development activities specifying the gathering of dance teachers are therefore usually enthusiastically received.  However, the chances that all will be able to attend are slim, as so many are only employed part-time or are instructed that precedence has to be given to the other learning area/s or cross-curricula agendas.  

Contact with the world-of-dance-outside-teaching therefore is crucial to gaining information and the stimulus of events of common interest. In my current environment (Tasmania, Australia), much important information is now shared between dance teachers by email. Up to date lists of schools offering dance and individual teacher’s email addresses are therefore vital to this communication. On a broader level, the Department of Education has recently set up an ecentre Arts page - http://www.ecentre.education.tas.gov.au/sites/arts - through which all arts teachers can contribute to discussions, submit articles of interest, dates of events in schools, in the private sector and the broader arts industry for the calendar. Teachers can also post examples of practice for comments and to share.  

Professional performances to which teachers can take their students (allowing for informal ‘foyer-forum’ discussions) news of workshops, auditions and festivals, help to keep teachers abreast of the state of the ‘local arts industry’. Communications about events of this nature are supplied by individuals joining a subscribers’ theatre industry email list, venue subscription lists, a government funded arts@work email group and individual company publicity lists. 

Local to national

Tasmania has a small population of half a million people and, as such, the number of dance teachers in schools and working privately (in studios) is very small.  As an educator seeking stimulus and participation in current debates, it is important, therefore, to belong to a professional network or association. In Australia, that network for dance teachers has long been the Australian Dance Council (Ausdance, http://www.ausdance.org.au/).  This organisation, which began under the title of the Australian Association for Dance Education (AADE), quickly realised that opening the scope for interaction and, taking on a broad definition of ‘education’, allowed for a capacity for networking across sectors of dance practitioners to occur. Consequently, Ausdance now boasts a wide membership, which includes dance companies, professional dance artists, teachers, training institutions, therapists and community groups.

At a local level, most State and Territories have a branch of Ausdance, which, to varying degrees, acts as a conduit for information, expertise and advice.  In some States, such as Queensland, distinct sub-committees have formed out of interest groups. Examples of these include an education group and an independent artists group. Most activities are designed to encourage participation by a range of interest groups, while the sub-committees have their own links to related organisations, such as the Joint Council of Queensland Teachers Associations (JCQTA) http://www.jcqta.qld.edu.au/ and Arts Queensland http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/  respectively in this case.

On a national level, Ausdance has initiated many important cross-system networking activities. These have included the complex consultation leading to the development of the 'Australian Guidelines for Dance Teachers', the Dance Education in Australian Schools forum (Graham, L. 2008a, p.191) and the Ausdance Tertiary Dance Council of Australia (TDCA) http://www.ausdance.org.au/outside/interest/tdca/tdca.html, which is a coalition of directors of dance courses offering intensive training for the dance profession. Through these activities, I feel that I have a link to much broader discussions across dance in Australia, which are regularly reported through newsletters, workshops and at conferences.

Ausdance National is also actively involved with the National Affiliation of Arts Educators (NAAE, http://www.ausdance.org.au/outside/interest/naae/naae.html). This peak body for professional arts education associations allows for members to respond to issues such as proposals for curriculum change, joint discussions with arts and education ministries and lobbying for the role of arts education in schools. This is, of course, just the tip of the iceberg, as Ausdance National’s connections reach out in many other interesting directions!

National to international

The obvious question, then, is how can an educator working in Tasmania be linked to the world of dance and enjoy a rich cultural exchange between practitioners from very different contexts? The World Dance Alliance (WDA) has been formed to allow such networking and is structured to provide membership in the four discrete regions of Asia -Pacific, Europe and the Americas (with Africa is the process of formation). As a member of Ausdance, I am able to receive information on WDA activities online though Asia Pacific Channels http://www.ausdance.org.au/outside/resources/journals/channels.html and by attending the annual regional and biennial global summits. 

This year, Brisbane, Australia, is hosting a global summit titled ‘Dance Dialogues: conversations across cultures, artforms and practices’ from 13 to 18 July 2008 http://www.ausdance.org.au/outside/global_summit08/wdaAP_summit.html, presented by Ausdance Queensland and World Dance Alliance-Asia Pacific, in partnership with the Creative Industries, the Faculty of Queensland University of Technology, the Queensland Performing Arts Trust and Ausdance National, and in association with Brisbane Festival 2008.  This event in itself represents the outcomes and huge potential of networking.  As an educator, I feel that my input is valued and I will be presenting my paper, Acknowledging the school student as an artist – student devised work as a response to interactions with dance artists (Graham, 2008b) at a session hosted by the WDA Education and Training Network (resource sharing, workshops, inservice for teachers) and addressing one of the conference themes of:

• mind/body connections

• sustainability

• transcultural conversations

• re-thinking the way we make/teach dance and performance.

While attending the weeklong conference, I will meet practitioners from around the world and from Australia.  I will be able to attend performances and participate in forums with professional choreographers, critics, researchers, notators, teachers and dancers from very different cultures to my own.  I expect to be stimulated and challenged; listen, debate, observe and absorb.  What I do not expect is simple ‘recipes’ for lessons. Instead, I will be involved in broader debates, which may take years to impact on my teaching practice.

The importance of being a part of such professional networking events cannot be overstated.  However, for each opportunity provided, much planning and consideration of goals must be in place and many years of work go into organising and funding such events. Luckily, so much of this can now be achieved by digital and internet access.

With each international arts education body conducting similar programs and activities, there is also a place for a discussion on the role of arts education in a global context.  In response to this need a World Alliance of Arts Educators (WAAE) was proposed, in Lisbon 2006 (8). With a joint declaration between the International Drama/Theatre and Education Association (IDEA), International Society for Education Through the Arts (INSEA) and the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and the first World Creativity Summit (WCS), representatives of those organisations were able to discuss key issues and potential connections of common interest to a range of practitioners http://www.idea-org.net/en/articles/World_Alliance_of_IDEA,_ISME.

At the recent second WCS, the World Dance Alliance, was also invited to consider membership of WAAE and I was honored be invited as a delegate to speak on creativity, culture and arts education with a focus on dance.  At this summit, practicing educators from a huge variety of cultures and contexts shared ideas and planned for future directions in research, networking and advocacy.   Hearing of inter-cultural activities such as projectguggenheim’s program, ‘The Art of Compassion in Times of War’ http://www.projectguggenheim.org/pg/, groundbreaking fundraising and humanitarian arts projects through World Vision  (Corbeil, R. 2008, p.124) and discussion on the place of art, creativity, arts education and civil society (Kindler, A, 2008, p.60) could only be inspiring.   Equipped with my own experiences in networking, it was refreshing to find myself working on the networking group alongside other educators such as Lianne Hentschke, from Brazil, who said:
‘The World Creativity Summit is an alternative way to bridge the gap between local and global initiatives to promote partnerships and networking systems for Arts education.’  (Hentschke, L, 2008, p.163)
Together, the WCS delegates developed proposals for formalising a network for arts educators, which would allow links across the world, using web-based and face-to-face summit models.  

Conclusions

Professional isolation is a problem for many dance educators. Getting (and keeping) in touch with others is crucial to maintaining a connection to current debates, research and innovation.  Establishing lines of communication between practitioners from both similar and very different contexts is important to encourage diversity. Clearly, there are many challenges to networking.  Helping to establish and utilise existing organisations makes sense. Most professional organisations develop partnerships, affiliations and associations, which create a wealth of potential for connectivity. Many now are able to do much of the business of communicating thorough the internet.  In this way, aspects of important research and advocacy for arts education can be quickly communicated globally.  

In the arts, however, I believe that it is still crucial to ensure an embodied experience with each medium and important to be able to immerse yourself in a culture, with all its complexities, contradictions and sensual experiences.  

So how can we achieve all this networking and experiencing when we can’t even get everyone to a local meeting? It is important that we allow as many practitioners as possible to access information and experiences, which will perhaps expose them to a broader world and stimulate them to review, refresh and reaffirm their practice. The internet is the obvious tool for sharing, however I hope it will never totally replace the stimulation of live performance and debate.

References

Arts Queensland http://www.arts.qld.gov.au/ accessed16/06/08.
Ausdance Aims and Priorities
http://www.ausdance.org.au/outside/about/aims.html accessed 16/06/08.
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Corbeil, R (2008). in ‘World Creativity Summit 2008 June 5-8, Taiwan, Taipei, Program’, World Alliance of Arts Educators. 
Graham, L (2008a). In ‘World Creativity Summit 2008 June 5-8, Taiwan, Taipei, Program’, World Alliance of Arts Educators. 
Graham, L (2008b). Acknowledging the school student as an artist – student devised work as a response to interactions with dance artists (to be published in proceedings of WDA 2008 Global Summit). 
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ms Lesley Graham is a lecturer in dance at University of Tasmania and a dance teacher for the Department of Education, in Tasmania, Australia. She has over 25 years experience in teaching and developing programmes in dance education and teacher training at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, including lecturer in dance education at Queensland University of Technology and Course Coordinator of External Dance Studies.   She is a member of the Ausdance national steering committee for dance education in Australian schools and has made extensive contributions to the development of training for studio dance teachers. Ms Graham was recently invited to write the dance units for the Curriculum Corporation’s Access Asia project and represented the World Dance Alliance at the World Creativity Summit, in Taipei.

 

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