Stories We Dance / Stories We Tell: Essays on Dance in Higher Education

Higher education continually mediates long standing traditions while seeking new ways of thinking, creating a quiet tension as institutions respond to shifting and multiple socio-cultural values. Dance programs, not immune to these currents, must consider intersecting obligations to build a more equitable curriculum, meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, and prepare students for a wider array of dance-based careers. In view of their critical role in stewarding the next generation of dance artists-educators-scholars-leaders and fostering change in higher education, faculty must give more attention to the experiences of those committed to dance in higher education.

This collection articulates and considers these lived experiences, revealing the inner workings of dance in higher education. Autoethnographic essays varying in style and scope illuminate the pressures encountered across one’s career trajectory. By unearthing and contextualizing hidden challenges, expectations, and opportunities, the authors speak to possibilities for how proactive change in dance education can occur.

Karen Schupp taught in a range of dance programs in postsecondary institutions, including as a Fulbright Lecturer in Portugal, for more than 40 years before retiring. Her scholarship examines the juncture of dance pedagogy, somatics, and critical pedagogies, an intersection that now leads her to research the shifting terrain of higher education dance programs in the United States.