Teaching Children Dance

Teaching Children Dance is back and better than ever. The fourth edition of this text retains everything dance educators have loved in previous editions while providing significant updates and new material.

What’s New in This Edition?
New material in the text--which contains learning experiences for physical education, dance, and classroom settings and is geared toward K-12 students of all ability levels--includes the following:

• Two new chapters that feature 32 new learning experiences for popular, fitness, and social dances, as well as for folk and cultural dances based on traditional movements and songs from around the globe
• Instructional videos of teaching techniques, movements, and dances from the two new chapters
• Online resources, accessed through HKPropel, that include PowerPoint presentations, gradable assessments, and forms that can be used as is or adapted

Other new material includes suggested answers to chapter-ending reflection questions; updates to discussions on dance and the whole-child education initiative; new material on how 21st-century skills promote creative thinking, collaboration, communication, global awareness, and self-direction; and a description of the link between dance and the 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.

Dance an Inherent Component of Education
＂This latest edition of Teaching Children Dance brings a new perspective focused on dance as an inherent component of a child’s education,＂ says coauthor Susan Flynn. ＂Since our last edition, educational issues have refocused on students gaining knowledge and skills that can be applied to all aspects of their lives. Dance is one mode for learning that involves using the body and the senses to gather information, communicate, and demonstrate conceptual understandings.＂

Book Organization
The text is organized into two parts, with part I’s seven chapters providing the foundation for developing dance learning experiences and offering ideas for planning a yearlong program, a unit, or a single lesson. Part II contains two chapters of creative dance learning experiences and two chapters on choreographed learning experiences. Each learning experience includes learning outcomes; ideas for the introduction and warm-up, development, and culminating dance; variations and adaptations; and assessment suggestions that are directly linked to each outcome.

Fun Learning for All Ability Levels
Teaching Children Dance offers dance instructors insight into designing lessons for students of all skill levels, including those with disabilities, and provides a variety of teaching strategies, assessment tools, and instruction on effective demonstrations--all to make the learning experience fun and motivating for the dancers.

＂We’ve developed learning experiences that encourage creativity, positive social interaction, and motor skill development,＂ says Flynn. ＂Students view dance as a way to have fun. This opens the door for dance to be a welcomed activity in the school curriculum.＂

Note: A code for accessing HKPropel is included with all new print books.

Susan Flynn, MA, teaches in the School of Education, Health, and Human Performance at the College of Charleston, South Carolina, training students in sport pedagogy and preK-5 teacher education. Flynn specializes in the areas of rhythms and dance in the PE curriculum, adapted physical education, and elementary methods. She has also taught at Purdue University and in public schools in Maryland.

Flynn developed the Perceptual Motor Development Clinic at the University of Toledo and was director for 10 years. She also organized Pete’s Pals, a mentoring initiative at Purdue University offering aquatic and motor therapy for children with disabilities. Currently, she conducts a similar program at the College of Charleston called FitCatZ Aquatic and Motor Therapy.

Emily Enloe, EdD, is a dance educator at Oakbrook Middle School in Charleston, South Carolina. In addition to teaching, Enloe was the graduate mentor for the Dancers Connect program housed through the University of South Carolina’s dance education program from August 2010 to May 2014. Work with this program earned Enloe the 2012 Elsa Posey Graduate Student Scholarship from the National Dance Education Organization. She earned her MEd in early childhood education from the University of South Carolina in August 2013, and she continues to present at workshops and both state and national conferences in addition to teaching. Dr. Enloe is past president of the South Carolina Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance as well as the South Carolina Dance Association. She graduated from Charleston Southern University with an EdD in leadership in May 2022.

Stephen L. Cone, PhD, is a professor emeritus in the department of health and exercise science at Rowan University in New Jersey. Dr. Cone is past president of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD; now SHAPE America) and received their Honor Award in 2000. He is also a member of the New Jersey AHPERD, the Alliance for Arts Education New Jersey, and numerous other professional organizations. He has written dozens of articles for physical education publications and was coauthor of Interdisciplinary Teaching Through Physical Education (Human Kinetics, 1998) and the three previous editions of Teaching Children Dance.

Theresa Purcell Cone, PhD (1950-2019), was a physical education and dance teacher at Brunswick Acres Elementary School in Kendall Park, New Jersey, where she also directed a children’s dance company. She was an adjunct professor at Rowan University in New Jersey and a teacher and choreographer at the Princeton Ballet School. Dr. Cone was a past president of the National Dance Association and was named its first Dance Educator of the Year. She was also a member of the National Dance Education Organization, the Alliance for Arts Education New Jersey, and numerous other professional organizations. Dr. Cone was coauthor of Interdisciplinary Teaching Through Physical Education (Human Kinetics, 1998).

In 2004, Dr. Cone was awarded a Presidential Citation by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. She also was awarded the Margie R. Hanson Distinguished Service Award by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education. Dr. Cone received her doctorate in dance from Temple University.