Systematic in its approach, Experiencing Dance: From Student to Dance Artist places teachers in the roles of facilitators who encourage critical thinking and student involvement in the learning process. This text is designed for students who have had some dance experience and are interested in exploring the art of dance.

With movement experiences and written assignments, more than 45 self-paced lessons, and complete guidelines for building a portfolio, the book provides a complete curriculum progression that can also be used to supplement an existing curriculum covering the following elements:

• Understanding dance as an art form • Creating and performing dances • Understanding how cultural diversity influences dance • Evaluating and critiquing dance

The book’s 15 chapters outline for students the steps involved in the making of a dance artist: how to identify movement potential, express ideas through dance, develop choreography, connect to the community and tradition, showcase student work through a formal production, train to become a dancer, refine the art form, and develop a portfolio.

Each chapter includes chapter objectives, a list of lessons, introductory text, three or four lessons, portfolio items, and an end-of-chapter review quiz.

The self-paced lessons allow students to work independently and allow teachers to address students of various abilities within a class. Each lesson features the following elements:

• Move It! is a student’s first experience with the content of the lesson. • Vocabulary section presents selected definitions of key terms. • Curtain Up presents background information that students need to do the work. • Take the Stage features student work produced and shared. • Take a Bow covers student response, evaluation, aesthetics, criticism, and revision. • Spotlight features highlights of prominent dancers and dance companies. • Did You Know? presents further information relating to the lesson, including historical and cultural facts. Whether you use the textbook for one semester or two, you’ll find there’s nothing like Experiencing Dance for instilling in your students a fresh, new appreciation of dance.