Dance Teaching Ideas contains dance lessons and activity ideas for using dance as a teaching tool in the classroom. It was designed to inspire creative thinking and to support the use of dance in an authentic, student-centred classroom.
Dance resources linked to the Australian Curriculum that do the planning work for you!
The practical dance activities suit a range of age groups, teaching contexts and curriculum. Links to other learning areas make these lessons useful for the generalist classroom teacher as well as the home schooler.
New in 2021! Resources by guest educators and teaching artists to support your everyday teaching and Arts Curriculum classes.
About the Author
Kym Stevens is an award winning educator, dance artist, community artist, dance education researcher and arts collaborator.
She was a lecturer in Dance Education at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia for fifteen years and has worked as a dance teacher in schools and studios throughout Australia since 1978. Covering kindergarten, preschool, primary and secondary schools dance teaching, Kym continues to develop creative dance lessons for children of all ages in a wide range of learning communities.
Experienced curriculum dance teacher
Kym has worked as a dance consultant for The Arts Year 1 – 10 Syllabus (Queensland, Australia) and has extensive experience with curriculum design, implementation and dance teaching resource development. These experiences have led to a lasting inquiry into dance teaching in schools and the positive influence of movement for learning.
Kym believes that dance benefits many other learning areas including literacy, maths and science.
Her research into dance teaching in universities, schools and community dance has been published in many international academic journals and books.
Passionate advocate for dance in the community
Kym Stevens has worked as a dance teacher in private studios both here and in the United States as teacher of contemporary dance, classical ballet, jazz and tap. Her passion for community and dance has seen her develop community-based dance projects throughout Australia and Timor Leste.
Her work in Timor Leste began with the development of the Timor Leste Dance Teaching Project while working at QUT and has continued through her continued involvement with Encouragement House, Maliana.
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT ENCOURAGEMENT HOUSE.Kym has an ongoing interest in using dance to teach English as an additional language and to train school teachers to use these methods.
Award winning educator
In 2018 Kym was recognized by the Ausdance Educators Queensland, for her contribution to the development of dance education, with an Osmotherly Award. Qualifications include a Masters of Education (Research), Bachelor of Business Communications and a Graduate Certificate in Dance in Education.
Some publications featuring Kym’s dance research
Stevens, Kym, Pedro, Rachel A & Hanrahan, Stephanie (2020) Building an Authentic Cultural Curriculum through Tertiary Cultural Dance. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education, Sage Publishing https://doi.org/10.1177/1474022219833648
Stevens, Kym & Huddy, Avril (2018) Learning in action: Intersecting approaches to teaching dance in Timor-Leste and Australia. In Burridge, Stephanie & Svendler Nielsen, Charlotte (Eds.) Dance, Access and Inclusion : Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change. Taylor and Francis Group.
Pedro, Rachel A., Stevens, Kym, & Scheu, Courtney (2018) Creating a cultural dance community of practice: building authentic Latin American dance experiences. Research in Dance Education, 19(3), pp. 199-215
Pedro, Rachel A., Stevens, Kym, & Hanrahan, Stephanie J. (2017) Cultural connection: Approaches to cultural education through Latin American dance. Dance Research Aotearoa, 5.
Stevens, Kym & Huddy, Avril (2016) Dance teacher education in the 21st century : Linking cultural and aesthetic practice. In Sæbø, Aud Berggraf (Ed.) At the Crossroads of Arts and Cultural Education: Queries Meet Assumptions [International Yearbook for Research in Arts Education 4/2016]. Waxmann Verlagg GmbH, Munster, Germany; New York, United States of America, pp. 230-237.
Stevens, Kym & Huddy, Avril (2016) The performance in context model: A 21st century tertiary dance teaching pedagogy. Research in Dance Education, 17(2), pp. 67-85.
Stevens, Kym (2016) State of the Arts, MOUS Magazine, Issue 1, pp. 104-107.
Huddy, Avril & Stevens, Kym (2014) Dance teaching and learning in context: activating the head, heart and hands. Brolga, 39, pp. 20-26.
Huddy, Avril & Stevens, Kym (2011) The teaching artist: A model for university dance teacher training. Research in Dance Education: Innovations in Arts Practice, 12(2), pp. 157-171.