Key Elements to Design a Dance Education Curriculum: An Opportunity for Youth Exposed to Community Violence
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Date
2012-06
Authors
Sanjuan Melendez, Carmen del Rosario
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Abstract
Youth exposed to community violence live in a world in which the probabilities of expressing their feelings with no violence are very low. This
community presents a series of characteristics that affect negatively their
lives, some of them are: financial needs, dysfunctional families, lack of
attachment towards schools, constant exposure to violent situations, time
invested in the streets, stereotyping and discrimination.
Individuals and groups of people from a variety of spheres have
been developing initiatives to help youth exposed to community violence
to channel their feelings, to foster self-esteem and self-confidence. Some of these initiatives have been the result of utilizing dance and movement as a method to provide non-violent mechanisms of self-expression for
these juveniles.
This research is going to identify key elements to design a dance
education curriculum, with the objective to incentivize youth exposed to
community violence to explore creative and engaging methods to not
only express themselves, but also to learn how to establish environments of
dialogue and peace.
Studying different concepts and theories of dance, this research
delves into the concept of dance education and its positive impacts in
youth, positioning dance within an educational realm. Having analyzed
the effects of dance in youth, this research presents three key elements to
take into consideration to design dance education curricula for youth
exposed to community violence: Awareness towards Actions, Mutual
Collaboration in the Teaching/Learning Dance Process and the Development of Integral Human Values.
Description
130 p. Examining committee chair: Lori Hager
Keywords
Dance, Dance education, Community violence, Youth, Collaboration, Motivation, Participation, Integral human values