the importance and scarcity of dance education (revisited)

a few quotes:

“[Students] should be able to communicate at a basic level in the four arts disciplines-- dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts. This includes knowledge and skills in the use of the basic vocabularies, materials, tools, techniques, and intellectual methods of each arts discipline. They should be able to communicate proficiently in at least one art form, including the ability to define and solve artistic problems with insight, reason, and technical proficiency. ”
-- National Standards for Arts Education: What every young American should know and be able to do in the arts

“The direct physical experience of dancing transforms the dancer into a powerful and expressive being... Choreographing and performing his or her dance requires the student dancer to go beyond known experience to create new forms...”
— California Visual and Performing Arts Framework, p.32

"This study [of English learners in California] confirmed previous research findings... that students generally preferred to learn through a kinesthetic mode."
- Clara C. Park, Crosscultural Differences in Learning Styles of Secondary English Learners

"The evidence shows that… the prime processing mode for Black [students] is kinesthetic."
- Stephen Earl White, Factors That Contribute to Learning Difference among African American and Caucasian Students

 a few statistics:
• 89% of California K-12 schools fail to offer a standards-based course of study in all four [arts]
disciplines—music, visual arts, theatre, and dance—and thus fall short of state goals for arts education.
• More than four in five [of California’s elementary students] are not receiving any standards-aligned instruction in theatre and dance.
• Only 9% of middle school students and only 4% of high school students in California participate in standards-based dance programs in any given year.
• Only 13% of San Francisco Bay Area schools offered a standards-based course of study in dance.
- all statistics from An unfinished canvas. Arts education in California: Taking stock of policies and practices — Summary Report and Bay Area Report