By Shana Habel, Dance Adviser
Dance is alive and well in the Los Angeles Unified School District at both the elementary and secondary levels. Our elementary dance program began in 1999 with 7 dance teachers; today we have 41 full-time elementary dance teachers that service hundreds of elementary schools. Our elementary program is a foundational one that provides standards-based instruction in dance in grades K through 5/6. The students are given the opportunity to experience dance as art in an educational setting --- performing, creating, responding and connecting their dance learning to their own experiences and the world around them. The instruction is based on the skills, knowledge and concepts outlined in our Elementary Arts Instructional Guide (AIG) in Dance. The AIG is constructed using the principle of backward design, and consists of a series of three modules at each grade level, each of which is constructed around an Enduring Understanding distilled from the California State Standards for Dance. You can find the AIG at achieve.lausd.art. (Click on Dance, then Curriculum.)
At the secondary level, we have 64 middle and high school teachers, both full and part-time. Secondary dance programming in LAUSD is designed to meet the needs of our many and varied school dance programs. While we do have several performing arts magnets and arts-focused schools, there are schools which may offer only a couple of dance classes (or none at all). Therefore, to meet the needs of the individual school programs, course offerings include both general dance courses as well as courses in specific styles of dance.
All teachers in LAUSD must be highly qualified to teach in their subject area. Therefore dance teachers, per the California credentialing requirements, should have either a CA single subject PE credential or a Subject Matter Authorization in Dance attached to another credential. We look forward to the day we once again have a dance credential in California!
As the second largest district in the US, we’ve had years of growth, and years of decline in the number of dance teachers in our ranks. Nevertheless, we’ve been able to develop and maintain a strong sense of community and hope to build on it as we move forward.
http://achieve.lausd.net/Page/1062
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Related link:
A Modern Dancer's Guide to Los Angeles: http://blog.lifeasamoderndancer.com/2015/07/a-modern-dancers-guide-tolos-angeles.html
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