Karen Schupp

Arizona State University | ASU · School of Music, Dance and Theatre

Many graduate dance programmes require a pedagogy course to ensure that graduate students, who are future faculty, have the capacity to successfully educate the next generation of dance practitioners. The majority of graduate dance programmes in the United States prioritise Western theatrical forms, yet increasingly there is a call to decolonise da...

This book critically examines matters of age and aging in relation to dance. As a novel collection of diverse authors’ voices, this edited book traverses the human lifespan from early childhood to death as it negotiates a breadth of dance experiences and contexts. The conversations ignited within each chapter invite readers to interrogate current d...

Since its beginnings in the late 1970s and early 1980s, dance competition culture has featured youth as competitors, situating dance competition culture as an important dance training venue for youth. Like any cultural phenomenon, dance competition culture is shaped by societal norms, which are dynamic. Of particular note in dance competition cultu...

Parenting while dancing, and dancing while parenting, require personal and highly individual choices that vary widely in terms of when and how dance professionals navigate becoming parents. Making the choice to parent can coincide with a significant portion of parents’ dance lifespans, commencing as early as late teens and twenties or later in midd...

Many college campuses across the United States are home to numerous extracurricular dance clubs that embrace a broad range of dance styles and cultural contexts that welcome all students to engage with dance. These extracurricular clubs often exist in stark contrast to dance major programs in the US which have conventionally centred embodied Whiten...

This article seeks to reveal and problematize the multi-layered construction of whiteness in dance competition culture by illuminating assumptions about technique embedded in ‘all styles’ competition dancers perform on stage. The phrase ‘dance all styles’ is a shorthand of sorts for those in dance competition culture, as what they really mean is th...

The first of its kind, this volume presents research-based fictionalized case studies from experts in the field of dance education, examining theory and practice developed from real-world scenarios that call for ethical decision-making. Dilemmas faced by dance educators in the studio, on stage, in recreation centers and correctional facilities, and...

This article provides an introductory contextualization to dance competition culture’s evolution since the early 1980s in relationship to serious leisure. Dance competition culture (which includes the for-profit regional and national competition events focused on jazz, contemporary or lyrical dance, hip hop, tap, and ballet and the dance studios th...

Originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Dance Education, this collection brings together a number of insightful chapters which explore themes relating to responsible citizenship within dance education. Presenting research, scholarship, experiences, and pedagogical approaches from national and international contexts, and diverse ed...

In the United States dance competition culture and commercial dance are both highly visible. Although connections between the two distinct dance worlds are implicitly present, they remain largely unexamined. To begin a conversation about how commercial dance and dance competition culture relate and their influence on dance education, this article p...

Dance competitions–events where local dance studios that are focused on contemporary, jazz, ballet, hip hop and tap compete in regional and national events for awards–are not simply venues for entertainment; they are a microcosm of the social and cultural values in the United States. Competitors need to persevere despite personal challenges, the op...

In response to changing demographics in the United States, there has been a call from dance education scholars to reconsider what a college dance education should include in relation to cultural diversity and the shifting role of dance in contemporary society. Although research about cultural diversity in postsecondary dance major programs exists,...

In this article, the author reflects on how somatic values, which are interrelated to yet distinct from somatic principles, direct her pedagogical approach to and the content of an eight-week module for postsecondary dance major students in the United States titled Applied Personal Movement Practices I. The prioritization of somatic values (the bel...

Through participating in dance competitions, adolescent dancers can potentially learn valuable lessons about responsibility, teamwork, dealing with criticism, and performing under pressure. At the same time, dance competitions can convey strong messages about how participants should look, move, act, and how gender should be performed. This chapter...

Long before So You Think You Can Dance and Dance Moms , dance competitions focused on tap, jazz, contemporary, and ballet were alive and well throughout the U.S. Since the 1970s, dance competitions have served as venues for dance students to display their skills as both a team and as individuals, and as a means of profit for the individuals and cor...

This article examines students' choices in a postsecondary dance major curriculum where students selected to study one or more of five dance practices (African and Diaspora Movement Practices, Contemporary Ballet, Movement Language Sources, Postmodern Contemporary Dance, and Urban Movement Practices) each semester along with required coursework cen...

Collaboration is inherently part of many dance pedagogies, dance practices, and dance careers, which is why dance students are frequently required to work and learn together in the dance studio and classroom. Outside of dance, in a variety of disciplines, the ability to collaborate is prized as a highly valuable competency, and the facility to coll...

Studying Dance: A Guide for Campus and Beyond is a comprehensive bridge for students transitioning into the first year of a college dance program. Through this text, students will understand dance in new and exciting ways, embrace it as an academic discipline, navigate and take charge of their dance education, and visualize potential careers after...

This article examines a constructivist approach to integrating responsible citizenship and dance improvisation for dance majors. Essential to both is the ability to make and act on informed decisions. Through participating in improvisational and sociopolitical tasks and comprehensive written reflection, students new to improvisation were better abl...