Towards a dance technique for the secondary school

In recent years the approach to dance in education has undergone considerable change, generating a need to reappraise the role of technique within the educational context. In this thesis it is argued: (1) that when dance is taught as an art form, with a contribution to make to aesthetic education, greater attention must be paid to the technical aspect of performance; (2) that such technical aspects are best taught through the vehicle of an Educational Dance Technique rather than a professional training technique. It is further argued that an educational dance technique would act: (1) as a practical basis for the teaching of performance skills; (2) as a conceptual basis for the comparison of the style characteristics of theatre dance techniques. A core of basic performance skills is identified and proposals are made for teaching strategies appropriate to the eleven to fourteen age range and the fourteen to eighteen age range. Selected techniques, relevant to the major Western Theatre Dance Genres, are examined in order to elicit their style characteristics in terms of action vocabulary and spatial and dynamic qualities. These characteristics are then summarised and appropriate teaching strategies are proposed.