Dance as a Language of Learning and a Source of Embodied Knowledge Richard, Marc The current status of dance in Ontario schools is tenuous at best. Perhaps this reflects the status of dance in the consciousness of the general public. My Masters research (Richard, 2009 indicates that generalist teachers see dance as yet another add-on to an already overburdened curriculum; thus, they fail to see the incredible potential for dance as a language and form of embodied learning. Generalist teachers don't see themselves as artists, let alone dancers, and therefore don't feel comfortable teaching dance (Richard, 2009. For the most part, generalist teachers (and I believe the general public have a very narrow view of what dance education entails: the teacher stands at the front and demonstrates a dance (e.g. the Macarena, which the students learn and repeat. In this teacher-directed model of dance instruction there is little room for the development of living skills (personal, interpersonal, critical and creative thinking, as oudined in the recendy revised Ontario grades 1-8 health and physical education curriculum (Ministry of Education, 2010. Most of the stakeholders in education have very little knowledge of creative dance, defined by Sue Stinson (1998 as "an art form that is based on natural movement rather than movement of a particular style as one might see in tap dance or ballet" (p. 2. In creative dance experiences the students create dances and the teacher's role is not to teach dances or technique but to facilitate learning and creation. Making visible the many profound moments of bodily learning within a
creative dance setting might help to broaden definitions of education and learning. Cancienne and Snowber (2009 recognize dance as a unique site for learning about ourselves, and our world: "Dance allows a relationship to develop between the outer world and our bodies...our bodies experience things first, via our physical interaction with the world; therefore, there are kinds of data that our bodies experience before our minds" (p. 188. This includes such things as the sensation of touch, the feel of air on our skin as we move through space, as well as physical interactions with objects and other people. For many generalist teachers, creative dance education remains an enigma; these teachers look to the 'real' dancers for some idea of what creative dance is and how to teach it. But for studio-trained dancers, creative dance is equally elusive because they have had very few experiences as dance students where they were allowed to create. Joyce (1973 recognizes that "many good dancers fail at creative dance teaching because they are not sure of the goal. They are used to physical goals such as teaching the class to do a combination of steps" (p. 12. Koff (2000 differentiates between dance education and dance training, the former being focused on "the development of self-expression and interpretation through motion with self-knowledge as its aim" and the latter on "mastery and fixture performance". In many Ontario schools where dance education is actually occurring, it is very often a replication of teacher-directed studio dance training (i.e. jazz dance, ballroom dance, video-inspired dances such as Britney Spears routines. Reggio Emilia educators, Cavazzoni, Pini, Porani, and Renieri (2007, seem to recognize the
