Evidence: A Report on the Impact of Dance in the K-12 Setting 

Karen Bradley, Jane Bonbright, and Shannon Dooling 

National Dance Education Organization 

This project was supported in part or in whole by an award from the Research: Art Works

program at the National Endowment for the Arts: Grant# 12-3800-7006. 

The opinions expressed in this paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent 

the views of the Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The 

NEA does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in this report 

and is not responsible for any consequence of its use. 
July 2013 

Abstract:

The National Dance Education Organization 

(NDEO) undertook a review of recent studies of 

how dance impacts learning, with particular 

attention to several areas determined to be underresearched in the 2004 Research Priorities for

Dance Education: A Report to the Nation 

(Bonbright and Faber). These areas included: 

Creative Process, Neuroscience/Brain Research, 

Student Achievement, Affective Domain, Student 

Performance, Equity, Cultural and World Dance, 

and Children-at-Risk. A group of researchers 

combed a variety of databases, including recent 

theses, dissertations, and articles within the Dance 

Education Literature and Research descriptive 

index (DELRdi), the Fast Response Survey System 

(FRSS), and a newly discovered collection of 

reports from the U.S Department of Education’s 

Arts-in-Education programs in professional 

development and model programs. The researchers 

prepared evaluations and summaries of each study, 

article, or report that provided insight into the 

evidence of how dance education impacts teaching 

and learning in the first decade-plus of the 21st 

century.

Key Contributors: 

Jane Bonbr ight , National Dance Education Organization

Karen Bradley , University of Maryland

National Dance Education Organization

National Endowment for the Arts

 Evidence:

A Report on the Impact of Dance in the K-12 Setting

Photo by John Spicer. Courtesy of San Francisco Ballet.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 2

 

Evidence:

A Report on the Impact of Dance in the K-12 Setting

Authors:

Jane Bonbright, Ed.D. 

Karen Bradley, M.A. 

Shannon Dooling, M.F.A.

Reviewer of Unpublished Reports: 

Valerie Durham, M.F.A.

Editors:

Sherrie Barr, M.F.A.

Lori Provost, M.A.

Senior Advisor:

James Catterall, Ph.D. 

Grant Administrator:

Susan McGreevy-Nichols

Executive Director, NDEO

Funding Provided By:

National Dance Education Organization

National Endowment for the Arts
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction....................................................................................5

Evidence from the DELRdi.....................................................................5

Overview Reports.......................................................................6

Ruppert, 2006.................................................................................7

Longley, 1999...............................................................8

Catterall, 2012................................................................8

Reports on Kinesthetic Learning, Student Achievement, and Children-atRisk....................................................................................9

Boykin and Cunningham, 2001..........................................10

Reports on Dance, Overall Student Achievement, and the Affective 

Domain...............................................................................10

Sevilla, 2003..................................................................10

Carter, 2004................................................................10

Soto, 2001.....................................................................10

Lynch, 2007.................................................................11

Mohn, 2004.................................................................11

Reports on Dance and Brain Research...........................................12

Posner, 2003................................................................12

Paulson, 2012..............................................................12

Seidel, 2009................................................................12

Reports on Instrumental Studies: How Dance Affects Student Achievement 

in Other Subject Areas.............................................................13

Overview...................................................................13

Fineberg, 1992.....................................................13

Leonard, 2012 ......................................................14

Dance and Language Arts.................................................15

McMahon, 2003..................................................15

MacBean, 2001....................................................15

Dance and Math..............................................................16

Moore and Linder, 2012.........................................16

Westreich, 2000......................................................16

Dance and Science.............................................................18

Faber, 2011........................................................18

Burke, 2009.........................................................18

Reports on the Additional Benefits of Dance and Arts........................18

Attendance..................................................................18

Sevilla, 2003.......................................................18

Teacher Impact.............................................................19

Werner, 2001........................................................19

Special Education..........................................................20

Stratton-Gonzalez, 2008.........................................20

Evidence from the Arts-in-Education Projects............................................20
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 4

Introduction.........................................................................20

Jefferson County School Board, 2005-2007....................................22

District 75, 2005-2008..............................................................23

PS 70, 2005-2008...................................................................23

Learning Without Borders, 2005-2008.............................................24

Professional Development for the Arts, 2005-2008...............................25

Michigan Art Project, 2005-2009.................................................26

The Art of Teaching, 2005-2008..................................................27

BCCLA, 2005-2008................................................................27

Arts and Arts Integration Project, 2007-2009...................................28

DELLTA, 2005-2008..................................................................28

Evidence from the FRSS Reports..........................................................34

Implications of the FRSS Research...............................................36

Evidence from the Field of Neuroscience................................................37

Embodied Cognition...............................................................45

Dance, Brain, and Machine Interface............................................46

Research Recommendations................................................................48

Conclusion.......................................................................................56

Appendices

Appendix 1: Evidence Review Form............................................57

Appendix 2: Definitions of Categories..........................................58

References....................................................................................61
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 5

INTRODUCTION

The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) undertook a review 

of recent studies of how dance impacts learning, with particular attention to several 

areas determined to be under-researched in the 2004 Research Priorities for Dance 

Education: A Report to the Nation (Bonbright and Faber). These areas included: 

Creative Process, Neuroscience/Brain Research, Student Achievement, Affective 

Domain, Student Performance, Equity, Cultural and World Dance, and Childrenat-Risk. 

A group of researchers combed a variety of databases, including recent 

theses, dissertations, and articles within the Dance Education Literature and 

Research descriptive index (DELRdi), the Fast Response Survey System (FRSS), 

and a newly discovered collection of reports from the U.S. Department of 

Education’s Arts-in-Education programs in professional development and model 

programs. The researchers prepared evaluations and summaries of each study, 

article, and report that provided insight into the evidence of how dance education 

impacts teaching and learning in the first decade-plus of the 21st century.

Approximately 200 documents were perused, and evaluation reports were 

prepared on 82 of them. Refer to Appendix 1 for more details about the Evidence 

Review Forms. Refer to Appendix 2 for the definitions of the categories used 

within this report.

EVIDENCE FROM THE DELRdi

Throughout this report, evidence of the value of dance in and as education 

from the areas of Creative Process, Neuroscience/Brain Research, Student 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 6

Achievement, Affective Domain, Student Performance, Equity, Cultural and 

World Dance, and Children-at-Risk will be presented. However, it is evident that 

more research is still needed, particularly within the areas of Neuroscience/Brain 

Research, Equity, Cultural and World Dance, Affective Domain, and Children-atRisk.

Much of the current and most promising research on the neuroscience of 

movement learning is coming from the field of neuroscience itself, and databases 

of neuroscience research were also mined for this report. More recently, this 

research has been done in partnership with dancers, choreographers and dance 

educators, in part because neuroscientists intuitively understand that both elite and 

student dancers represent an area of neuroscience where the motor functions meet 

the communicative and expressive aspects of the human body/mind on very high 

ground. The authors of this report are aware that as neuroscience literature has 

been focusing more and more on movement as cognition, that the curiosity of these 

researchers drives a plethora of promising studies. This neuroscience research

impacts all of the under researched issues, but especially children-at-risk. 

Therefore, the report will also address some of the more promising research 

now coming out regarding dance and neuroscience.

OVERVIEW REPORTS ON THE BENEFITS OF ARTS IN EDUCATION

(Derived from Arts Education Partnership, The National Assembly of State Arts 

Agencies, and The National Endowment for the Arts)

A good amount of summative evidence of the value of and evidence for 

potent arts learning has been developed by both the Arts Education Partnership 

(Longley, 1999) and the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (Ruppert, 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 7

2006). Both of these reports take a look across research data to highlight specific 

benefits and results of learning in all of the arts.

The conclusions include that the arts build capacities that develop 21st

century skills in students and provide constructivist learning experiences for them. 

Longley concludes: (1) The arts improve the school climate; (2) The arts' 

comprehensive tasks challenge students; (3) The arts turn schools into 

communities (1999, p. 16).

In the document Critical Evidence (Ruppert, 2006) many benefits of arts 

education are listed, including:

In a well-documented national study using a federal database of over 

25,000 middle and high school students, researchers from the University of 

California at Los Angeles found students with high arts involvement 

performed better on standardized achievement tests than students with low 

arts involvement.

The high arts-involved students also watched fewer hours of TV, 

participated in more community service, and reported less boredom in 

school.

Multiple independent studies have shown increased years of enrollment in 

arts courses are positively correlated with higher SAT verbal and math 

scores. High school students who take arts classes have higher math and 

verbal SAT scores than students who take no arts classes. ... Arts 

participation and SAT scores co-vary—that is, they tend to increase 

linearly: the more arts classes, the higher the scores. (pp. 8-9)

Based on these findings, the compendium has identified six major types of 

benefits associated with study of the arts and student achievement:

a. Reading and Language Skills 

b. Mathematics Skills

c. Thinking Skills

d. Social Skills

e. Motivation to Learn

f. Positive School Environment (p. 14)

In an experimental research study of high school age students, those who 

studied dance scored higher than nondancers on measures of creative 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 8

thinking, especially in the categories of fluency, originality and abstract 

thought.

Dance also can affect the way juvenile offenders and other disenfranchised 

youth feel about themselves. One study demonstrated that when a group of 

60 such adolescents, ages 13 to 17, participated in jazz and hip hop dance 

classes twice weekly for 10 weeks, they reported significant gains in 

confidence, tolerance and persistence related to the dance experience. (pp.

13-14)

In a general sense, both the documents by Longley and Ruppert note the 

role of necessary community involvement in successful arts programs. As Longley 

summarizes,

It is clear that the presence and quality of arts education in public 

schools today require an exceptional degree of involvement by 

influential segments of the community which value the arts in the 

total affairs of the school district: in governance, funding, and 

program delivery. (1999, p. 4)

In 2012, the National Endowment for the Arts posted the results of James 

Catterall’s (2012) decades of research on how the arts impact student learning

instrumentally. The key findings of this study include:

Eighth graders who had high levels of arts engagement from kindergarten through 

elementary school showed higher test scores in science and writing than did 

students who had lower levels of arts engagement over the same period.

Students who had arts-rich experiences in high school were more likely than 

students without those experiences to complete a calculus course. Also, students

who took arts courses in high school achieved a slightly higher grade-point 

average (GPA) in math than did other students.

In two separate databases, students who had arts-rich experiences in high school 

showed higher overall GPAs than did students who lacked those experiences.

High school students who earned few or no arts credits were five times more 

likely not to have graduated than students who earned many arts credits.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 9

Both 8th-grade and high school students who had high levels of arts engagement 

were more likely to aspire to college than were students with less arts 

engagement.

Arts-engaged high school students enrolled in competitive colleges—and in fouryear colleges in general—at higher rates than did low arts-engaged students.

Students who had intensive arts experiences in high school were three times more 

likely than students who lacked those experiences to earn a bachelor’s degree. 

They also were more likely to earn “mostly A’s” in college. (pp. 12-16)

Lastly, the study notes that students from arts-rich backgrounds were also more civically 

engaged than those with low-arts backgrounds. 

A key point to note is that Catterall took into consideration the students’ 

socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds when analyzing this research. His results show 

specifically that children-at-risk (those with lower socioeconomic statuses, less family 

stability, etc.) benefit from arts-rich experiences in that they earn higher grades, are more 

likely to graduate from high school and further their education, and become engaged 

learners and citizens. The arts make education more equitable for all, regardless of 

external circumstances. 

These studies include dance, but do not report separately on dance. And yet, 

promising evidence continues to be reported in other literature that points to the specific 

and discrete value of dance in schools and the habits of mind that come from dance-based 

habits of bodily practice as well as the contributions dance makes as one of the arts 

disciplines.

Kinesthetic Learning, Student Achievement, and Children-at-Risk

A number of reports have shown evidence of a connection between 

kinesthetic learning and student achievement, particularly for minority students 

who are underserved in traditional academic settings. Earlier studies (Park C. C., 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 10

1997a; Park C. C., 1997b; Park C. C., 2000) showed evidence that non-white 

children in urban areas are primarily kinesthetic learners (i.e. they learn by 

moving). Child development research has shown that all children are kinesthetic 

learners as infants and toddlers; movement is how they navigate and find their way 

into and through the world of objects. But some children clearly remain kinesthetic 

learners.

Boykin and Cunningham (2001) found the same data. African American 

children's overall performance was significantly better under a High Movement 

Expression than a Low Movement Expression learning context. The research community 

needs to verify and validate this tantalizing data. If non-white children learn best through 

kinesthetic experiences, as all of these studies indicate, then they will be “left behind” in

a world of seat-based and passive learning.

Further research is still needed to determine the impact of kinesthetic learning on 

long-term student performance, as well as more specific connections between children-atrisk (both non-white and white students) and kinesthetic learning.

Dance, Overall Student Achievement, and the Affective Domain

In an arts-integration school in New Jersey, John-Mario Sevilla (2003)

found consistently higher test scores. The principal of the school stated,

Our fourth graders, since New Jersey has been doing mandated 

state tests, have consistently been among the highest in the state, I 

mean higher than some of the affluent areas where they have the 

big bucks to support their education. We have been 100% [in 

passing] across the board on the language arts, math, science, 

social studies. (pp. 36-37)

Higher GPAs were found in dancers as compared to non-dancers in a 

dissertation by Carmen Carter (2004). Cindy Soto’s (2001) thesis indicated that 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 11

students who participated in dance demonstrated more persistence, and had higher 

grades than those involved in non-dance (and non-academic, such as math club) 

activities.

However, dance integration activities are not only about higher grades and 

test scores. Dance activities provide deeper comprehension and more visible 

engagement in the learning process itself.

All arts integration activities provide for multiple perspectives and have 

been described as helping to create a safe atmosphere for taking risks. As one 

student put it in Patricia Lynch’s 2007 study, "You don't have to make your 

drawing look real... it's great as long as you like it” (p. 36). But dance offers a 

special opportunity to go beyond visualization and representation into full 

embodiment of and discursive experiences with new information. Katherine Mohn 

(2004) describes the depth of her third-grade students’ experiences with dancing 

rocks. 

Together the classroom teachers and I have explored what the 

children already know about rocks. Students have made a KWL 

chart. K is what they know already and W is what they would 

like to learn. Later we will fill in L – what they did learn in the 

unit. Our warm-up was about different kinds of rocks. For 

‘igneous’ rock, students got into groups of three (to reinforce that 

ig-ne-ous is a three syllable word) and made a shape with spaces 

in it because igneous rock like lava can have air

pockets. For ‘metamorphic,’ they formed groups of four and 

made a strong pressing shape because metamorphic rocks result 

from intense heat and pressure. For ‘sedimentary,’ groups of five 

and a shape with layers, the way sediment accumulates and then 

becomes stone.

We have been exploring dance elements of shape and force. We 

are halfway through the Create Process that began with imagine, 

plan, explore. Now we will select, rehearse, perform, and reflect. 

We have created a rubric for what a proficient dance based on 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 12

this assignment would look like. The foundation has been laid.

‘Now, dancers, create an ABA dance study based on the rock 

cycle. Be ready to show your rough draft in 10 minutes. Any 

questions? Okay. Go to work.’ (p. 123)

The students learned, created, evaluated, and reflected on their work, in the 

moment of their learning. Assessment of learning is through observations and in 

querying the reflections. But perhaps most importantly, the children in this third 

grade class were pervasively engaged, and they had fun in the learning process.

Dance and Brain Research

The Dana Foundation has been a leader in providing links from 

neuroscience to learning in and through the arts. Michael Posner (2003) speculates

that through the mechanism of sustained attention, the arts provide children with 

the ability to make connections and stay engaged in tasks for a longer period. 

They conclude that “appreciation of art relates to pleasure in producing that art,” 

“appreciation of an art form relates to general aesthetic interest,” “high interest is 

linked to high motivation,” “motivation sustains attention,” “high sustained 

attention on conflict tasks improves cognition.” (2003, n.pp.)

Pamela Paulson (2012) goes further, pointing out that a strong kinetic 

(dance) arts program will activate multiple systems in students’ brains. She 

outlines the connections between emotion and learning, stating, “Emotions are 

processed all the time and whether positive or negative will stay linked to the 

learning... Emotional impact helps students learn” (p. 82). Paulson’s findings are 

corroborated by Steve Seidel (2009) in the report, The Qualities of quality: 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 13

Understanding excellence in arts education. Seidel found that the arts foster a 

drive for quality that is “personal, passionate, and persistent (p. iii).”

Instrumental Studies: How Dance Effects Student Achievement in Other Subject 

Areas

Instrumental studies demonstrating that dance can impact and even facilitate 

learning in other subject areas (math, reading, science, social studies) abound. Most of 

these studies are qualitative, if not simply anecdotal, primarily because quantitative 

studies of the instrumental value of dance are difficult to validate. Children who dance in 

school may also dance after school, or in family celebrations, making the dance variable 

difficult to isolate. Often, children need a teacher’s insight and direction in order to point 

out connections between dance skills and other disciplines, especially given a siloed 

curriculum in which each subject is both taught and tested discretely. But a serious 

challenge to the research on the instrumental value of dance is certainly, in part, due to 

questionable research methods (N.B. see Research Recommendations). And yet, there is 

evidence of evidence and there is enough evidence that replication, validation, and robust 

follow-up studies ought to be of great interest to educators and policymakers, 

administrators and parents.

In her dissertation, Carol Fineberg (1992) provided compelling anecdotal 

evidence from observations in New York City schools that showed how specific arts 

activities and pedagogical practices helped students meet learning objectives related to 

critical thinking in literature, science, mathematics, and social studies. The program she 

reviewed in her dissertation, Arts Partners, focused on the creation of metaphoric 

statements in response to concepts learned in the above areas. Reading scores improved 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 14

in the Arts Partners students over those of the non-participants. Fineberg did provide a 

critique of the dance component of the program, pointing out that much of the work she 

observed involved merely following the teacher’s modeling and sequence of movement, 

but she also noted that, as the classes progressed, the students were encouraged to add 

their own phrases and to express the qualities of the characters they were dancing.

More recent anecdotal evidence of how dance impacts higher order thinking skills 

comes from Alison Leonard (2012). Leonard conducted a qualitative case study of a 

dance artist-in-residence at a diverse and inclusive K-5 school in an urban district, 

integrating science, social studies, physical education, music, and visual arts school 

curriculum and culminating in two public performances. The study focused on how 

students made meaning through the dance experiences and how education might be 

improved through dance and movement.

Leonard noted the positive impact on student engagement, knowledge, and 

collaboration within the school community. The dance residency was an intervention, one 

that caused a positive disruption of the normative school context in a way that created 

new opportunities.

By the same token, according to Leonard,

The students in the program integrated curricular concepts in sophisticated and 

intellectual ways, exhibiting complex, higher order thinking skills. For example, the 

students exhibited complex representations of ideas such as creating new 

movement, demonstrating originality, fluency, and problem-solving skills versus 

repeating what was modeled. (2012, p. 67)

She goes on,

The arts, in this case, dance, serve as a form of assessment that is not simply 

a regurgitation of content material, but is a reproduction and reshaping of 

content. When the students danced their abstracted phrases, they were taking 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 15

content, using knowledge and not only applying it to dance, they were 

creating new knowledge through the dance. (pp. 158-159)

Dance and Language Arts

Two studies provide seminal evidence of how dance can impact learning to 

read and write, one study at the first-grade level and one focused on high school 

students.

The Basic Reading Through Dance study (McMahon, 2003) is indicative of 

the ways in which dance, with defined and specific movement activities, can 

impact early reading skills, with equally well-defined variables for those language 

arts skills. Moving letter shapes and sounds, creating name dances, and practicing 

flow from one shape to the next produced significant gains in consonant 

recognition, vowel recognition, and phoneme segmentation in the experimental 

group of first-graders in Chicago, as compared with a control group of first-graders 

who did not participate in the ten-week program. 

At the high school level, Arianne MacBean (2001) showed how moving 

their writing helps students express and clarify their ideas, develop a strong sense 

of identity, and learn to articulate observations by viewing and talking about their 

peers’ work.

The two studies demonstrate that authentic dance study can impact learning 

in and about written language and text, despite being an entirely different 

modality. As neuroscience begins to unpack the ways in which our brains and our 

bodies organize cognition from experiences, similar research studies can provide 

evidence of the ways in which embodied experiences not only clarify our 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 16

understanding of the world of words, but actually foster the ways in which 

language evolves in each young learner.

Dance and Math

The studies found in which dance activities specifically impacted learning 

in mathematics revealed that increased engagement and student interactions were 

both a result of and a galvanizer for deeper understandings of math concepts.

Candice Moore and Sandra M. Linder (2012) found it encouraging to note how 

students refined their understandings of a number of math concepts required for 

the dance activities in the study. 

Overhearing a couple of discussions, I realized that the students are 

essentially scaffolding each other to bring their [dance] poses to a 

level that is accurate and acceptable by the standards of everyone in 

the group. I don’t think you get this type of interaction among peers 

when students are involved in more traditional, paper–pencil 

instruction and assessment. (p. 107)

Galeet Westreich (2000) studied kinesthetic learners using dance to 

understand math concepts. As she writes,

The overall findings of this study are that kinesthetic activities, in this case 

dance, facilitate the kinesthetic learners’ exploration of abstract geometrical 

concepts, enhance their problem solving skills, and enable them to develop 

a mathematical-thinking process that can be verbally communicated. (p.

103)

Students who were initially experiencing difficulty processing oral or 

written information by the end showed eagerness to understand information 

presented orally or in writing. This indicates that the kinesthetic activities 

assisted learners in overcoming the problems processing information they 

experienced in the early phases of the study. (p. 65)

Improvements in kinesthetic learners’ communication skills were evident 

in instances where they were able to specifically state their thoughts and 

intentions, as well as respond in a manner that was closely correlated to the 

given instructions. (p. 82)
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 17

Analysis of the behaviors (related to communication) suggests that during 

the course of the study the kinesthetic learners developed reflective 

thinking, i.e., the ability to engage in productive verbal communication, 

understand what was asked of them, identify what they needed to do to 

solve a mathematical problem, communicate their questions, and express 

their thought process as they worked towards a solution. (pp. 89-90)

The kinesthetic activities incorporated in this study helped the kinesthetic 

learners improve their fine motor skills, which in turn enhanced their 

confidence in exploring mathematics through written activities. By 

improving their physical writing skills, the kinesthetic learners were better 

able to explore mathematical problems in writing. (p. 92)

Westreich describes movement phenomenon, which she calls free shaking 

(a removal from the class activities and vigorous movement of the limbs) and 

voluntary movement (using movement to work through a problem without the 

direct guidance to do so by the researcher). She states, “After both activities ... the 

kinesthetic learners were able to return to work with renewed focus and attention” 

(p. 86). She also lists several examples of how one of the three observed students 

benefited positively on a personal level. In particular, one student who had been 

suspected to be on the autism spectrum, experienced drastic changes in behavior 

during the course of study, to the point that he no longer demonstrated his previous 

symptoms. 

The studies are not in any way quantitative, but are tantalizing peeks into 

the ways in which dance activities concretize the math concepts for both typical 

and challenged learners. Enacting geometry by using spatial configurations, 

computing number functions through rhythms and patterns, and finding algorithms 

through movement are ways of going beyond visual representation of functions, 

and engaging the learning body in experiencing the processes directly.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 18

Dance and Science

As in math and language arts, the exemplary studies in dance and science 

indicate engagement, retention, and comprehension in students who dance the 

concepts in science. Rima Faber (2011) conducted a comparative study of science 

students in Baltimore County schools and found that the classes with students who 

experienced kinesthetic activities performed better and retained knowledge 30 days 

later than the students who were not exposed to a kinesthetic, dance-based 

approach. Similarly, Jane Burke (2009) wrote about a program in which students 

learned chemistry through dance experiences. As evidenced from the website on 

which Burke’s research was published:

Students reported that the dance helped them answer questions on 

the state chemistry achievement exam. They closed their eyes and 

visualized their dance to retrieve information about chemical 

reactions. 

Besides enhancing the students' understanding of concepts, dance 

helped reveal their unrecognized talents. One boy had been 

withdrawn and unresponsive, never entering into class discussions. 

But when asked to show, through movement, the chemical reaction 

known as a single replacement, he grabbed two of his classmates 

to form the covalent bonds of the ion and whirled around the room

to find a ‘metal.’ Evaluating the day's lesson later, he said, 

‘Dancing helped clear up chemistry ideas that had been hard for 

me to understand.’ (n.p.)

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS OF DANCE AND ARTS IN EDUCATION

Attendance

One utterly obvious statistic, repeated again and again in the literature, is 

that when the arts are a major part of the school experience, students’ attendance 

rates rise dramatically, and so, too, that of the teachers. In John-Mario Sevilla’s 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 19

study (2003) he reports, “Better than-average rates of student attendance, mobility 

and suspension, and teacher attendance than the rest of New Jersey” (p. 30).

Teacher Impact 

Linnette Werner (2001) reported on a program in Minnesota in which 

teachers were working in partnership with artists to find new approaches to 

teaching and learning, in this case, the effects of dance on math learning. The 

teachers’ perspectives on the classroom itself changed, specifically, they thought 

differently about how education can take place in the classroom, they made room 

for integration, and they were interested in actualizing a school-wide change.

In addition, teachers were more likely to believe in the effectiveness of 

value and arts integration after taking part in the program. Some also expressed an 

attitudinal change about movement and noise in the classroom, leading to a shift in 

classroom management that allowed for more kinesthetic experiences. Many 

teachers seemed to have a renewed commitment to their teaching, coming to enjoy 

and relish the extra time collaborating, reflecting, and planning new lessons with 

their artist partner. They spoke of incorporating similar ideas and interventions into 

non-math content areas as well. School-wide changes, including increased interest 

in co-teaching and other deep forms of integration, the creation of original 

curricula, the allocation of funds for such projects, and new and deepened 

relationships among teachers were also indicated. Dance/math teachers seemed to 

display high levels of authentic instruction, including focusing on higher order 

thinking (especially for ELL students), transference, deep knowledge, connections 

to the world beyond the classroom, and social support for learning, “high 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 20

expectations, challenging work, strong effort, mutual respect, and assistance in 

achievement for all students” (Werner, 2001, p. 132).

Special Education

Sandra Stratton-Gonzalez (2008) looked at students with special needs with 

Individual Education Programs (IEPs) involved in an after-school dance club at an 

inclusive school in New York City. Of particular interest and value in this study 

are the comparison of dance tasks to students with special needs, IEP goals, and 

her advocacy for the use of dance as a way to reach these goals. StrattonGonzalez’s support for, and evidence of, the use of dance as a means of cognitive 

growth is also noteworthy. The detail of the class activities, types and purpose of 

movement taught, and pedagogical practices of the researcher within the class are 

useful in order to know exactly how dance was used in the pursuit of the students’ 

personal, social, and cognitive growth. 

EVIDENCE FROM THE ARTS-IN-EDUCATION PROJECTS (Funded by

the U.S. Department of Education)

Introduction

In the summer of 2012, the National Dance Education Organization began 

a review of documents related to grants, reports, and projects that had been 

maintained by the Department of Education and stored at the Americans for the 

Arts offices in Washington, DC. These reports are considered under a separate 

heading in this paper because of their notable connection to governmental 

agencies. As Jane Bonbright suggests in Research Priorities for Dance Education: 

A Report to the Nation (2004), many studies on dance in education (including the 

majority of those described above) are conducted through colleges and 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 21

universities, usually as part of the thesis or dissertation. These studies are 

necessarily limited in scope and duration. With the support of non-academic 

institutions, such as government organizations and advocacy groups, larger-scale, 

longitudinal studies may be conducted. Many of the studies described below were 

conducted over a period of several years, and occasionally across several schools. 

The reviewer for these reports was Valerie Durham; her citations are from 

unpublished reports. 

Some of these studies examined schools participating in the Arts in 

Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant Program, which

supports the enhancement, expansion, documentation, evaluation, and 

dissemination of innovative, cohesive models that demonstrate 

effectiveness in:

1. Integrating into and strengthening arts in the core 

elementary and middle school curricula;

2. Strengthening arts instruction in those grades; and

3. Improving students' academic performance, including 

their skills in creating, performing, and responding to the 

arts. (n.d., n.p.)

 

The following schools received grants from the U.S. Department of Education in 

order to:

1. Further the development of programs designed to improve 

or expand the integration of arts education in elementary 

or middle school curricula;

2. Develop materials designed to help replicate or adapt arts 

programs;

3. Document and assess the results and benefits of arts 

programs; and 

4. Develop products and services that can be used to 

replicate arts programs in other settings. (n.d., n.p.)
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 22

Jefferson County School Board, Monticello, FL.

One such grantee was the Jefferson County School Board in Monticello, 

Florida (Arts in Education Model Development and Dissemination Grant, 2005-7). 

Participants in the district’s model program “outperformed the comparison 

students relative to individual change in the FCAT Reading scores, FCAT Math 

scores, Norm Reference Reading Test Scores, and Norm Referenced Math Test 

scores” (n.p.). As opposed to many programs which seek to integrate the arts into 

the academic curriculum, students in Jefferson County “took time ‘away’ from 

instruction in writing and language arts for visual, dance and dramatic arts instead, 

which actually increased test scores overall” (n.p.).

Additionally, “teachers and school administrators report dramatic personal 

changes in the participating students that cannot be quantified in the improved test 

scores,” and “students reported feeling a dramatic change in their self-perception” 

(n.p.). These benefits persisted in spite of several challenges faced during the 

duration of the program, including “changes in school staffing, school organization 

(merging with a failing high school in the final year, getting a new, stricter 

principal after the baseline year), and lack of cooperation from parents and 

comparison schools for surveys on empathy and social skills” (n.p.). Though dance 

is indicated as being the most difficult of the arts to incorporate into the program, it 

was included. “To truly include dance in the curriculum as something more than a 

set of standards written alongside that of drama, visual arts, and music may require 

the inclusion of an actual dance teacher on staff, on par with the physical 

education, music, fine arts or other specialist teachers on staff at a K-8, or even K-
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 23

12, public school” (n.p.). However, “dance specifically seems to lag behind the 

other art strands in availability of proper facility, appropriate teacher training or 

confidence, and even student comfort or enthusiasm levels, as compared to other 

art strands” (Durham, 2012, n.p.).

What becomes apparent in this study, and many others, is that today’s 

students are responding to a multi-disciplinary, cross-disciplinary approach to 

expression and learning, manifesting their knowledge through audio-visual 

productions, in this case, which encompasses writing and language arts, music and 

sound, dance and drama, ultimately resulting in public performances and selfaffirming experiences that promote a dramatic increase in feelings of self-worth 

and appreciation of learning (Durham, 2012).

District 75, New York City

As previously mentioned studies have shown, such benefits of arts in 

education have been noted for children-at-risk and underserved populations, 

including students with special needs. This is further evidenced in a report that 

looks at the Creative and Integrative Arts Educators (CIAE) (2005-8), a project of

District 75 in the New York City Department of Education that focused on

students with special needs. As a result of this program, students showed overall 

improvement in arts knowledge and proficiency in all the arts disciplines, 

improvement in English language arts, improvement in engagement, motivation, 

collaboration, expressiveness, confidence and risk-taking.

PS 70, Bronx

A large number of studies found in the Department of Education reports at
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 24

the Americans for the Arts focused on professional development programs for 

teachers. One such project was the Professional Development Initiative between 

PS 70, Flamenco Vivo, and Carlota Santana (2005-8) in Bronx, NY. Consistent 

with previously described reports, this project found that incorporating arts into the 

school environment benefited the students, teachers, and entire school community 

in a number of ways. Specially, one hundred percent of teachers reported that 

students showed increased proficiency in dance, growth in other art forms, 

increased motivation and engagement in school, and improvement in academic 

skills. Moreover, one hundred percent of teachers reported that they gained insight 

into student capabilities through the arts, they were able to teach academic subjects 

in new and productive ways, and the program helped them increase their ability to 

integrate the arts into their teaching.

Additionally, project administrators reported a change in the school culture 

in that school administrators will create an arts/literacy traveling teacher position, 

to help in various classrooms and grades at the school. Teachers also reported 

looking forward to the professional development sessions with flamenco dance, 

which was apparently a different attitude from other/previous professional 

development sessions.

Learning Without Boarders, San Francisco

The East Bay Center in the San Francisco region’s Learning Without 

Borders (2005-8) provides some lessons for dance education in the schools. For 

one, professional development sessions should occur after school, rather than 

during the day, which requires substitutes and makes teachers hesitant to leave 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 25

students. A summer institute would be valuable to prepare teachers when they are 

less pressured by the demands of the school year. Additionally, the report 

indicates that having artist educators in the classroom greatly enhanced the 

learning experience of the teachers as they were able to see an expert using what 

they had been taught.

Valerie Durham (2012) points out that teachers seem to need more in-depth 

and ongoing training in dance and movement forms, possibly due to the challenge 

of overcoming their own physical insecurities or inexperience. Lack of space or 

classroom crowding seem to limit teachers’ enthusiasm for using dance and 

movement, and instead tend to favor music, visual arts, and theater.

Professional Development for the Arts, Lancaster County, SC

The Professional Development for the Arts (2005-9) project in Lancaster 

County, South Carolina was focused and comprehensive enough to make a clear 

difference in student test scores and grades. The professional development focused 

on all four art strands, and the project then included the implementation of learning 

through developing arts communities for teachers, increasing the amount of art 

supplies and resources at the schools, allowing for teaching artists to come into the 

schools, and having teachers create arts focused and arts integrated lesson plans in 

all subjects.

The project report included materials on various workshop agendas, as well 

as some feedback from teachers on the effectiveness of the sessions in the 

workshops. In all cases, dance was included in the agenda and was mentioned in 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 26

the feedback. However, dance was represented at a much lower rate than music or 

visual arts which “dominated” the opportunities at the workshops.

For example, at the Professional Development Conference held October 17, 

2007 entitled Arts Work, three dance sessions were offered in the conference, 

which had 50 sessions total. By comparison, there were 14 sessions relating to 

music, 16 sessions on visual art, 5 sessions relating to theater/drama, and 8 

sessions on arts integration techniques. Additionally, in the list of feedback and 

teacher comments, dance is infrequently mentioned, and when it is, the teachers 

are generally requesting more specific demonstrations of dance, rather than 

discussion.

While dance has parity as an art strand in the state and national arts 

standards, in practice, it seems to be at a significant disadvantage in terms of 

usage, training, confidence/comfort-level, applicability, and implementation

(Durham, 2012).

Michigan Art Project, Lansing, MI

In Lansing, Michigan, the Michigan Art Project (2005-9) provided multiple 

levels of professional development opportunities, as well as depth of experiences 

(full immersion weeks, lengthy summer institutes, regular supportive professional 

development workshops, and collaborative sharing meetings), tied with the 

partnership with very high level arts organizations (such as the Lincoln Center for 

the Performing Arts) and seemed to provide the rigorous structure, content and 

opportunity for the teachers to really become knowledgeable and skilled in arts 

education and its practice.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 27

A strong lesson unit around a Grand Rapids Ballet Company performance 

of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are, complete with pre and post 

activities and instruction around ballet, including ballet history and movement 

exercises, as well as other ELA and creative activities around the book and the 

performance, was highlighted in the report as a significantly successful 

implementation of the arts integration techniques explored and offered in the 

professional development program (Durham, 2012).

The Art of Teaching: Promoting Professional Growth of Arts Specialists, New 

York City

In New York City, a project entitled The Art of Teaching: Promoting 

Professional Growth of Arts Specialists (New York City Department of Education, 

2005-8) demonstrated that in terms of a broader application, the results of this 

program could be used to indicate that arts teachers can benefit from extensive and 

consistent professional development. There is clear support in the form of 

established protocols, processes, curriculum templates and knowledge of feedback, 

evaluation and review techniques (Durham, 2012).

Building Curriculum, Community and Leadership through the Arts, Chicago 

Building Curriculum, Community and Leadership through the Arts 

(BCCLA), a project of the Chicago public schools operated from a foundational 

curricular theory of the “Big Idea” as well as a comprehensive approach to units of 

study. The project consisted of moving beyond the covering of facts to a multidisciplinary, cross-genre approach to learning literature/reading/writing, creative 

drama, world dance forms, visual art, and music – both as an objective of study of 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 28

existing content, and a product of study of new content generated by the students.

Based on the examples briefly given in the evaluator’s report, it seems dance was 

effectively used in this approach to lesson planning in a specific unit of study

(Durham, 2012).

Arts and Arts Integration Project, Beaufort, SC

Beaufort, South Carolina’s Arts and Arts Integration Project’s (2007-9)

findings point to the need to clarify the positive impacts of arts in the educational 

curriculum and the goals for arts integration in the classroom (that the arts are 

more pertinent perhaps to life skills, personal behavior and concept, group 

dynamics, critical and creating thinking and learning ability than specific academic 

content). The effectiveness of dance needs to be more clearly tested based on 

application of specific genres of dance, for example creative movement versus 

ballet versus hip hop versus European folk dances versus West African, etc. Lastly, 

this study indicated that teachers need more accessibility to, knowledge of and 

training in dance to allow them to be more comfortable in using movement and 

dance in arts integrated lesson plans (Durham, 2012).

Developing English Language Learners Through the Arts, New York City

The most rigorous of the Arts in Education reports focuses on Equity and 

Children-at-Risk. It is from Arts Connection in New York City, Developing 

English Language Learners Through the Arts (DELLTA) (Arts Connection, 2005-

8). The findings and conclusions are significant and substantial. Durham’s

summary below does not include all the substantial findings in this project.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 29

Overall, the evaluation of the project revealed that the first goal of DELLTA

was achieved, as students developed skills, strategies, and knowledge in theater 

and dance across cognitive, personal, and social domains that helped them become 

more literate human beings.

One hundred percent of teachers reported that students gained new skills in 

theater and dance, 92% of teachers reported that students gained a greater sense of 

physical awareness and control. One hundred percent of teachers also reported 

students learned to add expressive qualities into their work, which increased as the 

residency progressed.

The project evaluators identified the following areas of greatest 

achievement (in rank order) from among 20 indicators of learning: (1) motivation, 

(2) perseverance/task-persistence, (3) focus, (4) ownership of learning, (5) spatial 

awareness, (6) self-confidence, and (7) cooperative learning and collaboration.

Teachers and artists also reported students became cognizant of the voice 

and body as tools, learned to use these tools to convey emotion, learned to observe, 

and provide feedback to others. Further, they reported that the authentic use of 

language in a real context (both theater and dance) proved to be integral to 

students' language acquisition. One teacher commented, “dance transcends 

language barriers, and new immigrants were able to let physical expression speak 

for them” (2005-2008, n.p.).

One hundred percent of teachers reported that students incorporated 

vocabulary from arts workshops in their speaking in other school subjects, and that 

the DELLTA program helped their students improve their understanding and use of 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 30

English. Eighty-six percent of teachers reported use of arts vocabulary in students’ 

writing, with increased risk-taking in their use of language. Said one teacher, 

“when reading and writing, it’s just a bunch of words to you, but to act it out and 

feel it, to learn the idioms, language becomes more internalized” (2005-2008, n.p.).

Eighty-six percent of teachers reported that the theater and dance activities 

reflected the students’ personal experience, which promoted ownership of learning.

Through its itinerary of a wide variety of evaluation methods, the DELLTA

project showed achievement in all of its stated sub-goals. A few of those goals are 

summarized in the following paragraphs.

One goal was that students will develop skills in theater and dance that will 

help them achieve the rigorous standards of the NYC Blueprint for Teaching and 

Learning in the Arts. Students achieved this by learning to use a character’s 

movement to tell a story, recalling and performing choreographed dance 

sequences, making original, creative choices in dance, learning to understand text, 

subtext, and the meaning of dialogue, and learning the historical and cultural 

significance of dances.

A second goal was that students will learn personal, social, and cognitive 

skills that are intrinsic to the arts such as creative expression, physical awareness 

and control, and working cooperatively with others. Students achieved this by 

becoming more confident with speaking and moving, demonstrating selfregulation and self-control, and learning to recognize the strengths of their peers 

and to interact with them with mutual respect and interest.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 31

A third goal was that classroom teachers will experiment with and 

document ways in which they can extend the arts education experiences into the 

classroom to increase students’ fluency in English. To this point, 87% of teachers 

reported seeing their students differently because of the arts residencies, 94% of 

teachers reported they observed different abilities in their students, and 94% of 

teachers reported they observed students who struggle with reading and writing 

succeed in other ways.

As it affects learning a second language, the findings of this project are less 

direct. The evaluators did not feel they could observe second language learning 

within the seven areas of learning, but they did feel that the arts residencies 

affected behaviors essential to second language acquisition. For example, learning 

in the arts lowers the affective filter students bring with them from home, allowing

immigrant, non-English speaking or newly arrived students to express themselves 

non-verbally and to incorporate aspects of self not supported in the new culture 

and language. 

A number of conclusions were surmised from the report. First, while there 

was a correlation between learning in the arts and second language acquisition, the 

findings cannot establish a cause. However, the project did find that learning in the 

arts offers students the opportunity to use English in an authentic context in which 

they’re fully engaged and that is meaningful to them.

Secondly, it takes time to build a shared knowledge base from which to be 

able to co-construct multidisciplinary units of study. After extensive experience in 

the program, teachers were asked to answer the fundamental inquiry, which
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 32

allowed them to take ownership of the program. Further, the report recommends 

the engagement of teachers in the examination of student learning/exploration of 

complex ideas; the honoring of contributions of all adult participants; the 

formulation of inquiry questions that require input of multiple points of view in 

order to truly understand the question/formulate a response; the focus on 

acquisition of specific skills over time (not a single workshop); the allotment space 

for each individual’s expertise; offer support; and listen.

Thirdly, it was not enough to explore and examine the nature of teaching 

and learning in dance and theater. The project also needed more extensive 

questioning and examining in the nature of teaching and learning of ELLs. This 

was a blind spot before the program started, which had to be addressed as the 

project progressed. The report recommends trying to explore potential blind spots

in the planning stage: What do you know? What do you know you don’t know? 

Who can help you?

Fourth, things will not go as planned, most often due to external changes 

(like the restructuring of the New York City Department of Education) or 

unforeseen blind spots. Expect the unexpected and don’t squander the 

opportunities offered under an AEMDD (or other) grant.

Lastly, students learn important concepts and skills because artists and 

teachers give them the opportunity to learn them. Context matters. This project 

was extremely strong and effective because of the following elements:
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 33

1. Strength of the tools (expertise and experience of the teaching arts and 

project administrators at ArtsConnection, variety and integrity of the 

evaluation tools, and analysis methods).

2. Clarity and focus of the project structure (defined inquiry question, targeted 

only two, main project objectives, systematic program implementation in 

terms of number of sessions, subject areas, school locations, evaluation, 

and assessment tools).

3. Appropriateness of measured outcomes to the inquiry question, project 

goals, and purpose of the project (the project was about learning concepts 

and skills in dance and theater in order to have opportunities to learn 

English language skills for ELLs and that is what was measured: concepts 

and skills that related to dance and theater, changes in usage in English for 

ELLs, and the relationships between these two areas).

4. Because the program was so well constructed and so narrowly and clearly 

targeted on specific objectives, the project was able to navigate surprise 

changes in school location and public school system organization and 

unforeseen blind spots in a way that was able to still offer significant and 

relevant findings based on their defined research questions and inquiry. The 

use of high-quality arts instruction in dance and theater, regular and 

multiple proven evaluation and assessment methods, as well as a focus on 

communication and collaboration for all project participants, gave the 

project an overall effectiveness not only for project findings, but for the 

students themselves. The students learned and grew as people.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 34

The project authors were also extremely clear in their reporting of what 

specifically was being taught in each genre of the art and in the English Language 

Arts for ELLs, as well as what was being measured (Durham 2012). For example, 

according to the report, the dance residencies taught African, Afro-Caribbean, 

Chinese folk, and modern dance. The dance residencies were integrated with 

lessons in spelling, sentence construction, word meaning, and personal expression. 

The assessments clearly pointed to a subsequent increase in risk-taking in English 

Language writing and speaking by ELLs, as well as increased arts vocabulary 

usage in English Language Arts classes/lessons.

The arts residencies in dance and theater also led to specific, measurable 

improvements in cognitive, social and personal behaviors, and skills such as 

motivation, perseverance/task-persistence, focus, ownership of learning, spatial 

awareness, self-confidence, and cooperative learning/collaboration. The 

ArtsConnection DELLTA program is a model of construction and execution for arts 

integration projects (Durham, 2012).

EVIDENCE FROM THE FRSS REPORTS

Perhaps one of the most significant Fast Response Survey System (FRSS)

data sources realized for dance was gleaned over the past 18 years comes from the 

FRSS-II (1995) and NAEP (1997) surveys. Both cite that 57% of elementary 

students do not have access to dance education and that, of the 43% of students 

who do, 36% receive dance training from teachers in physical education and 7% 

receive their training from dance specialists. These statistics have not changed 

much in 18 years (1995-2013) and even current NDEO data from membership 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 35

records, K-12 databases, and those of independent state surveys generally support 

these findings: 7% of U.S. elementary school children and 12-13% of high school 

children receive dance training during school hours as part of regular school 

curriculum. 

Additional data were gleaned from the Fall 2009 FRSS data in which 

principals reported that 16% of high school students received dance training; 14% 

of schools followed the Local Education Agency (LEA) curriculum; and 10% had 

dedicated studio dance space and 7% used gym facilities. High school principals 

also reported that 30% of schools taught after-school dance programs. Statistics on 

professional development indicated that 9% of LEAs offered professional seminars 

with artists and arts’ groups, 7% of teachers attended in-school seminars and 

workshops, and that 12% attended off-site conferences and seminars. Data 

revealed that 7% of teachers received instructional and curricular support, and 7% 

of teachers received instructional resources and equipment support. Only 5% of 

high schools reported having received financial support from outside sources. 

In the FRSS 2009 Elementary School survey, data reported that 44% of 

schools taught dance as part of the physical education program; that 36% of 

schools included dance as part of the music curriculum; and that 29% of schools 

integrated dance instruction into other areas of the curriculum. In elementary 

school, only 3% of schools taught dance as a separate subject; 5% taught dance in 

other ways, and 12% offered dance classes or team in after school programs. In 

relation to professional development, approximately 10% of teachers received 

Professional Development from artists or arts’ groups while 6% obtained 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 36

Professional Development on-site, and 10% obtained Professional Development

off-site. Approximately 7% of teachers received curricular or instructional support 

in dance, and 4% received materials, supplies, and equipment from outside 

sources. Approximately 1-4% of schools surveyed received external funding. 

Implications of the FRSS Research 

On the positive side, all four art forms have been included in the reports

completed by school principals that provide sparse general data, as cited above. 

However, on the negative side, dance and theatre have never been included in 

surveys completed by arts specialists and, thus, no substantive data exist on dance 

education. As a result, we have little understanding of the discipline in education 

and no trend analyses that can provide direction to a developing field. 

The most significant consequence of the FRSS gathering data on only two 

art forms (music and visual arts) instead of four art forms (dance, music, theatre, 

and visual arts) has sent the message for decades that there are only two art forms 

in American schools – music and visual arts. The ramifications over decades have 

allowed states to rationalize that they meet state mandates for arts education if they 

provide students opportunity to study either music or visual arts. There is no need 

to expand the arts programming to include dance or theatre especially when 

budgets are tight, personnel are reduced, and facilities remain status quo. Such 

messaging is dangerous and unacceptable. FRSS and U.S. Department of 

Education must support new ways of thinking and doing, expansion, and 

improvement in the arts. 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 37

Secondly, by not including dance in the FRSS arts’ specialist surveys, 

dance has little or no national contextual data on dance in US education. Who 

teaches dance? What are their credentials? What is the curriculum? Is it standardsbased? What about assessments? How often is dance offered? What is the 

frequency or duration of dance instruction? What professional development is 

available to teachers, and what is being taught? How often is it available, to whom, 

and taught by whom? What is student enrollment in dance classes or programs inschool, or after school? What percentages of schools provide dedicated space for 

dance? What instructional resources are available to students and teachers? The 

questions go on and on; and, after several decades, we still have no federal support 

to understand dance as a discipline or as an art form U.S. public education. 

In twenty-four years of discussing this with the federal agencies, 

specifically National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and U.S. Department 

of Education, their prime deterrent is the research methodology they use (generally 

stratified sample groups) to gather and generalize data across populations. 

However, excellent and useful data could be gleaned if NCES and USDOE 

executed targeted surveys in dance and theatre. Critical data would be collected 

and analyzed; and federal dollars would support the inclusion of four arts forms in 

American education.

EVIDENCE FROM THE FIELD OF NEUROSCIENCE

Svetlana Nikitina, in her work Movement Class as an Integrative 

Experience: Academic, Cognitive, and Social Effects (2003), provides the
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 38

following introduction to some of the pedagogical implications of the intersections 

between dance and neuroscience, writing,

I would like to propose that what lies at the core of integrative capacity of a 

performing arts course, like the one Claire Mallardi teaches at Harvard, is 

the inherent tendency of the arts to transcend the boundary of body with the 

mind, and to seek unity of self as both the subject and the object. In a 

dance, in the words of Margaret H'Doubler, the body is seen "as the outer 

aspect of personality, for it is the agent through which we receive 

impressions from the external world and by which we communicate our 

meaning." This basic translation between body and mind, mental and 

physical, artistic and academic that went on in Mallardi's class, resulted in 

integrative and transformational experiences for her students. "I never until 

this class” — comments one student — “equated emotions with movement 

or saw them in a reciprocal relationship, where a movement could create an 

emotion or you could be so precise in your mind that movement flows! 

That's a new idea, that I like and am very compelled by." Mallardi's course 

places students in the space of seeking connections and balance between 

mental intent and physical action, and thus makes the experience of dance 

spill over and become meaningful on a great many levels — psychological, 

academic, and social. (p. 55)

Nikitina (2003) locates Mallardi’s classes at the juncture of cognition and the 

movement arts.

Neuroscience proceeds from the belief in the inherent unity of mind and 

body and attempts to discover the nature of the relationship between them. 

In a different way and with a different goal than arts courses, neurosciences 

also try to cross the boundary of subjective and objective experience, mind 

and body, physical technique and personal interpretation, which are at the 

heart of teaching and learning in the performing arts. (p. 55)

In How the Arts Develop the Young Brain, David A. Sousa (2006) also 

addresses the connections between neuroscience and the arts, with an emphasis on 

how the arts can impact the young person’s brain and overall cognitive, emotional, 

and social growth. He explains, 

During the brain's early years, neural connections are being made at a rapid 

rate. Much of what young children do as play -- singing, drawing, dancing -

- are natural forms of art. These activities engage all the senses and wire the 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 39

brain for successful learning. When children enter school, these art 

activities need to be continued and enhanced. Brain areas are developed as 

the child learns songs and rhymes and creates drawings and finger 

paintings. The dancing and movements during play develop gross motor 

skills, and the sum of these activities enhances emotional well-being. And 

sharing their artwork enhances social skills. The arts are not just expressive 

and affective, they are deeply cognitive. They develop essential thinking 

tools -- pattern recognition and development; mental representations of 

what is observed or imagined; symbolic, allegorical and metaphorical 

representations; careful observation of the world; and abstraction from 

complexity. (n.p.)

When it comes specifically to the neurological benefits of dance and movement in 

schools, Sousa (2006) writes,

Even short, moderate physical exercise improves brain performance. 

Studies indicate that regular physical activity increases the number of 

capillaries in the brain, thus facilitating blood transport. It also increases the 

amount of oxygen in the blood, which significantly enhances cognitive 

performance. ... Not only does the movement increase cognitive function, 

but it uses up some kinesthetic energy so students can settle down and 

concentrate better later. ... Dance techniques help students become more 

aware of their physical presence, spatial relationships, breathing, and of 

timing and rhythm in movement. Movement activities are also effective 

because they involve more sensory input, hold the students' attention for 

longer periods of time, help them make connections between new and past 

learnings and improve long-term recall. (n.p.)

Finally, Sousa hints at an area of neuroscience and brain research that has 

major implications for the benefits of dance in schools. This area concerns the 

capacity for dance and other arts to change the way people think about and 

experience the world around them. As he writes, “The arts also contribute to the 

education of young children by helping them realize the breadth of human 

experience, see the different ways humans express sentiments and convey 

meaning, and develop subtle and complex forms of thinking” (2006, n.p.).

There is increasing evidence that these kinds of changes may actually be 

happening at the neurological level. A promising avenue of brain research 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 40

involving mirror neurons shows that the same neurological changes happen when a 

person performs an action and when he or she observes another person performing 

the action. Dr. Emily Cross and her team (Cross, Hamilton, & Grafton, 2006), 

summarize,

When dancers observed and simulated another dancer's movements [via 

fMRI], brain regions classically associated with both action simulation and 

action observation were active, including inferior parietal lobule, cingulate 

and supplementary motor areas, ventral premotor cortex, superior temporal 

sulcus and primary motor cortex. Critically, inferior parietal lobule and 

ventral premotor activity was modulated as a function of dancers' ratings of 

their own ability to perform the observed movements and their motor 

experience. These data demonstrate that a complex motor resonance can be 

built de novo over 5 weeks of rehearsal. Furthermore, activity in premotor 

and parietal areas during action simulation is enhanced by the ability to 

execute a learned action irrespective of stimulus familiarity or semantic 

label. (n.p.)

The implication for dance here is that when the trained dancer observes 

complex dance movement that has been rehearsed, mirror neuron centers are 

activated and therefore, movement learning is faster and more effective. This study 

reinforces the idea that physical learning increases cognitive recollection, and the 

increased activation of the mirror neuron brain centers can lead to greater 

recognition and conceptual “chunking” of information.

Furthermore, some researchers believe that there is a link between these 

mirror neurons and the development of empathy in humans. As Cynthia Berrol 

(2006) wrote,

Various researchers posit that because of the trans-modal nature of the 

mirror neuron system, not only can the actions of others be understood and 

embodied, but likewise their intentions. [Paul] Ekman points out that all 

humans share common emotional feelings and empathize with those with 

whom they feel a strong identity. (p. 8)
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 41

The development of empathy is an important part of a child’s development, 

and working with students on this goal has benefits for the entire school 

community. Mirroring involves the dance/movement therapist imitating the 

movement of the client, but similar activities can be adopted in the K-12 dance 

classroom. The teacher can mirror the students as they express themselves through 

movement, and the students can mirror one another. This allows them to “step into 

the shoes” of their peers, and to feel accepted and validated as their own 

movements are followed by the group. While this will benefit all students, it 

would be particularly beneficial for children-at-risk, especially for children on the 

autism spectrum or with other cognitive and emotional challenges, and in dealing 

with conflict resolution, school violence, and diverse populations where students 

may not fully be able to understand the situations of the other students in their 

learning group.

Kalila B. Homann (2010) continues the discussion in the following quote 

from her paper,

Dance/movement therapy provides compelling resources for both the 

clinician and the patient, and neurobiology helps us understand both its 

value and potential more deeply. As we learn more about how the mind 

functions, it is clear that consciousness cannot be severed from the body, but 

is itself an integration of the functioning of the mind and body. Vagal 

regulation affects basic perception of experience. Mirror neurons track 

nonverbal body communication and are part of the complex system that 

allows us to understand each other’s intentions. Intentions, memory, and 

emotions are thus integrated through sensory processing. (p. 95)

Though she writes specifically about dance in a therapeutic setting, her ideas 

can be applied to the importance of well-mediated dance sessions in K-12 schools 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 42

to benefit children in terms of emotional health, school readiness, conflict 

resolution, multicultural education, inclusion classrooms, and the affective domain.

Homann’s work is just one of several recent papers focusing on the 

relationship between neuroscience, movement, and emotional health. This 

research can be directly related to the affective potential of dance on students’ 

school readiness and preparedness to learn. Recent reports in the media, such as a 

special episode of the Public Radio International program This American Life in 

September 2012 and a May 2013 story on the transformation of a Massachusetts 

elementary school by NBC Nightly News have highlighted the fact that many 

students, particularly children-at-risk, come to school from home lives that are 

ravished by fear, abuse, poverty, and violence. These issues are not left behind 

when the morning bell rings. Some students, like Kewauna Lerma, the subject of 

one of the This American Life stories, spend their entire school day in a heightened 

“fight or flight” mode, a natural response to the stresses of their after school lives. 

As a result, they are often more likely than their peers to be disruptive, violent, and 

unable to concentrate and learn. 

Additional research from the field of dance-movement therapy highlights 

the positive impact movement, particularly dance, can have on a person’s 

emotional well-being, even at the neural level. Young-Ja Jeong (2005) writes,

The literature suggests that DMT (Dance Movement Therapy) produces 

both subjective and objective improvements including redefining and 

strengthening body image; clarifying ego boundaries; providing an outlet for 

relief of physical tension, anxiety, and aggression; reducing cognitive and 

kinesthetic disorientation; increasing the capacity for communication, 

pleasure, fun, and spontaneity; and support for therapeutic medical goals. (p.

1713)
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 43

Jeong and research team tested these theories in a study which examined the 

impact of DMT on teenage girls in Korea who reported symptoms of depression. 

They wanted to determine if DMT works at the neurological level to cure 

depression, or if the results are purely physical and psychological. The subjects 

were divided into two groups, with one receiving DMT treatment, while a control 

group received traditional psychotherapy treatment. The DMT treatment was 

provided in three 45-minute sessions a week for twelve weeks and focused on

“awareness of the body, the room, and the group; movement expressions and 

symbolic quality of movement; movement, feeling, images, and words; and 

differentiation and integration of feelings” (p. 1715).

Specifically, they measured plasma serotonin and dopamine in the research 

subjects pre- and post-treatment. Jeong’s research team (2005) describes their 

results.

This study was designed to measure the effects of DMT on the 

psychological symptoms and plasma concentrations of neurohormones in 

adolescent female students with mild depression. It was found that the 

negative psychological symptoms were improved by 12 weeks of DMT, 

but not in the control group. Furthermore, there were significant changes in 

the levels of serotonin and dopamine. The DMT group showed significant 

improvements in negative psychological symptoms such as somatization, 

obsessive–compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, 

hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid ideation, and psychoticism. These 

results are consistent with previous reports showing that DMT reduces 

emotional disturbance, relieves tension, and improves self-esteem. (p.

1717)

While leading students through dance-movement therapy sessions inschool is impractical and beyond the scope of educators, there are implications in 

this study that may be used to argue for the inclusion of movement in the school 

setting. A well-designed movement session, considering the foci of body, space 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 44

and group awareness, movement expression and symbolism, and the relationship 

between emotion and movement may work at a neurological level to help improve 

students’ emotional health so that they are more prepared to learn.

Lily Thom (2010) demonstrated how principles of dance-movement 

therapy can be used in the classroom. Though Thom’s work deals mostly with 

children in the pre-kindergarten age range, her ideas would be applicable to older 

students as well. As she writes, 

Cognition and emotion are often viewed as a dichotomy, fulfilling the 

Western concept of a divide between mind and body...However, many 

psychologists challenge the dichotomy and assert that emotion plays an 

integral role in processing information and making rational decisions. Such 

findings help explain why the developmental-interaction approach is an 

effective way to address children’s development. According to this 

approach, a child cannot begin to meet the cognitive challenges of school 

without also meeting social and emotional demands... (p. 103)

Movement can serve as a way to meet those social and emotional demands 

of the students, as Thom (2010) explains in citing the 1998 work of R. Thomas 

Boone.

Because the body is such a crucial part of emotional expression, movement 

is a powerful way to represent emotions and to help connect the conscious 

appraisal system to the autonomic aspects of emotion (Boone, 1998). 

However, a carefully designed movement program, drawing from the 

principles of dance-movement therapy, could engage the student 

cognitively as well as emotionally and socially. (Thom, 2010, p. 104)

The idea of employing dance-movement therapy practices may seem 

daunting, even to school dance specialists. However, Thom (2010) assures us that 

even simple movement activities may prove beneficial.

In dance/movement therapy, the therapist helps to expand the patient’s 

bodily and emotional repertoire using rhythmic structure, repetition, and 

consistency ...Within the classroom, certain practices can be used to mark 

transitions, such as a slow arm-stretch accompanied by a song that signals 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 45

the start of morning meeting. Over time, the stretch can be altered in speed, 

level, or movement quality and can be led by students in the class, who 

may further expand on it. This expansion gives one the sense of flexibility, 

relaxation, and resilience in responding to the unfamiliar, but depends upon 

the student’s increasing ability to attend to somatic cues from the body. 

With recognition of internal feelings and needs, the student can respond to 

and regulate emotional experiences. He feels he can depend upon his own 

body to meet new challenges, to heal, to take care, and know limits. (pp.

105-106)

Embodied Cognition

The abundance of literature on embodied cognition spans the fields of 

artificial intelligence, robotics, psychology, and learning theory. Perhaps the most 

influential writer on the topic is the neuroscientist, Antonio D’Amasio, author of 

such books as The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of 

Consciousness (Harcourt, 1999), Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the 

Feeling Brain (Harcourt, 2003), and Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the 

Conscious Brain (Pantheon, 2010). D’Amasio lends support to the notion that what 

we think of as a localized brain that is both in charge of, as well as separate from, 

the moving body, is an error in perception, or, as he called it in the title of an 

earlier book, Descartes’ Error (Putnam, 1994; revised Penguin edition, 2005). He 

proposes that emotions and behaviors are at the center of how we learn and think, 

and these need to be accounted for in our schools.

Therefore, the notion that all cognition is embodied, and that the brain lives 

in and with a complex, thinking and feeling organism that sweats, feels, moves, 

and learns should lead all educators to understand the value of dance education.

But, to understand embodied cognition in dance, researchers in 

neuroscience have turned to functional MRI (fMRI) studies of elite dancers 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 46

observing remembered and novel dance movements. Scott Grafton and Emily S. 

Cross (Grafton & Cross, 2008) use the term action observation network to describe 

all of the brain regions involved in observing, remembering, and replicating 

complex movement patterns. 

Behavioral research on action learning conducted during the past 

half-century suggests that the final option, learning from observing 

and simultaneously reproducing another individual’s movements, 

results in the quickest and most accurate learning ...

This past research has demonstrated that not only is observation of 

a model helpful for learning, but also that physical practice is more

beneficial than mere observation of new movements... 

...Overall, our results indicate that at the neural level, learning by 

observing and physical learning lead to the same action resonance 

and prediction. This strong link between learning by doing and by 

observing suggests that early exposure to dance might enhance this 

link. (n.p.)

Action resonance and prediction are key to active learning in many ways. If 

children-at-risk are primarily kinesthetic learners, their ability to move in an 

organized, refined, and predictive way might be the key to engagement, retention, 

and perseverance at task.

Dance, Brain and Machine Interface: Using the machine to choreograph, 

choreographing the machine

More recently, neuroscientists, engineers, brain-machine interface and 

human-computer interaction designers, and others have become interested in 

learning from and working with dancers in order to understand exactly how elite 

movement skills impact and are impacted by cognitive and communicative 

processes. 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 47

Perhaps one of the earliest projects, and one that impacted both the dance 

field and dance education significantly, was the development of the computer 

program called LIFEFORMS (T.W, Welman, Gaudet, Schiphorst, & Lee, 1991). 

The figure could be moved and designed, and was based on the movement of 

dancers, but not on a particular form or style of dance. Many programs followed, 

most of which were based on a bank of dance steps that were specific to a 

particular style or genre of dance. One of those authors, Thecla Schiphorst, went 

on to work with the choreographer, Merce Cunningham, on his motion-captured 

dancers (Schiphorst, 1997), developing the means whereby the essence and 

traceforms of his dancers were captured and replicated onstage as ghostly figures. 

The LIFEFORMS project has evolved into DANCEFORMS, with the figure able 

to execute more complex movement patterns, and most recently, into IDanceforms. 

The analysis has impacted the fields of animation design, robotics, and humancomputer interaction by providing a machine-based language for movement 

analysis.

One of those projects is a Montreal-based project called “The Dancing 

Genome Project” (LaPointe & Crump, 2005). Sub-titled “Generation of a HumanComputer Choreography Using Genetic Algorithm”, it references the Merce 

Cunningham-generated technology, but does not build on it. The “genetic 

algorithms” are the basic locomotor movements of run, jump, turn, and fall. The 

program developed from this basic structure is called LIFEanimation.

One concern about all of the current programs purporting to “capture” 

dance movements for the general purpose of creating proprietary programs to 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 48

generate choreography is that, like the dance education research in general, it does 

not build on prior knowledge. Thus the challenges of capturing all of the elements 

of dance, especially the subtleties of expression and interactions, weight-sharing,

and other nonverbal relationships, are not solved.1

Why is this important to dance education, and what are the implications of 

this early research for the evidence of how dance impacts learning?

As stated above, children-at-risk can learn to engage, predict, retain, and 

persevere if they move to learn. In terms of the world of technology, as 

neuroscientists and engineers look to elite movers in order to understand human 

interactions and expression, children and young adults who dance will use that 

technology to create movement for avatars that is not limited by anatomical 

constraints, will design new interactive machines, will allow students who cannot 

physically express themselves to “move” and respond, and, in general, will help 

them to be designers of new technology rather than simply consumers of such.

Research Recommendations

As has been shown throughout this report, there is evidence of evidence of 

the value of learning in and through the arts, specifically dance. This evidence 

shows that incorporating dance into the curriculum can, among other benefits, 

 1 A project currently addressing these challenges is a pilot project called 

“Your Brain on Dance: the neural symphony of expressive movement”, being 

conducted at the University of Houston in partnership with the University of 

Maryland, for which one of the authors of this paper is a Principal Investigator. It 

is offered here as an indication that the fields of neuroscience, computer 

engineering, and dance are on to the challenges of how to capture the practices of 

and learn from elite dancers. The implications for the primacy of movement as 

intelligence and as a fundamental aspect of human interaction and communication 

are important for the future of dance education as a core subject area.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 49

improve student test scores, lower drop-out rates, facilitate knowledge transfer, 

foster teacher morale, and support the learning of underserved populations such as 

kinesthetic learners, special education students, and minorities. While the 

currently available evidence is promising, as a field, dance education research can 

take several steps to further improve up on its validity and robustness. The field 

needs further research in the categories of Creative Process, Neuroscience/Brain 

Research, Student Achievement, Affective Domain, Student Performance, Equity, 

Cultural and World Dance, and Children-at-Risk, particularly within 

Neuroscience/Brain Research, Equity, Cultural and World Dance, Affective 

Domain, and Children-at-Risk. Additionally, the kinds of robust research needed 

to further argue for dance in K-12 education would contain the following elements:

1. Mixed quantitative and qualitative research designs should be considered 

whenever possible, both to more fully capture the many and diverse benefits 

of dance in education and to help validate the research in fields outside of our 

own.

2. Research should consult available literature about the current state of dance 

education research, such as the Research Priorities for Dance Education: A

Report to the Nation, for guidance on what kinds of research are most needed 

in the field, and consider accepted “best practices” for designing a research 

projects, collecting and analyzing data, and authentic assessment based on the 

research questions. In many cases pulled from the U.S. Department of 

Education Arts in Education reports, projects were implemented without 

proper design and planning, data was not properly collected or accurately 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 50

reported, and students were assessed in areas that were not addressed in the 

treatment (Ex: testing reading and math when lessons integrated dance and 

social studies.).

3. Researchers should also consider checking the National Dance Education 

Organization’s citation index, the Dance Education Literature Research 

descriptive index (DELRdi) for projects that relate to their research interests, 

and consider replicating or expanding on existing studies or at least 

referencing them within their own work. We should work on building a 

collection of evidence that supports our common cause, as well as a strong 

network of connected researchers who are contributing to it. 

4. In planning, implementation, and reporting, the researcher must be clear and 

detailed about what “movement” is being used, how it is being used, who is 

teaching it, and why it is being used. 

5. Researchers must be clear about the connections between dance and learning 

that are being tested within their study. These must be made apparent to the 

teachers implementing the lessons and the students participating in them, as 

well as in the reporting of the research.

6. Researchers should also look beyond the field of dance to find exciting and 

provocative new partners for dance education research, particularly in the 

fields of neuroscience, engineering, and technology design, since those fields 

have already demonstrated a deep interest in dance processes.

This report alludes to the fact that much of the available evidence is 

qualitative, if not purely anecdotal, in nature. While dance research and related 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 51

fields have pushed for the acceptance of qualitative research within the academic 

community, in many fields, including education, quantitative research is still 

privileged. Therefore, in order to best capture both the raw data that is privileged 

by education policy makers today and the deep, meaningful anecdotal evidence 

that more closely describes the immeasurable nature of the lived dance experience, 

mixed quantitative and qualitative research designs are recommended. There is 

certainly great value to the many stories of increased student engagement, teacher 

satisfaction, and school transformation correlated with the inclusion of arts in 

schools. Such evidence gives meaning to statistics, humanity to theory, and 

explains the multitudinous benefits of dance education that cannot be wrapped up 

into figures and charts. However, this information, whenever possible, should be 

backed up by thorough experimental designs which include, when applicable, 

treatment and control groups, pre- and post-testing, surveys, interviews, 

observation, and analysis. These quantitative measures will help us make our case 

for the benefits of dance education in fields beyond our own. A mixed research 

design is supported in the National Dance Education Organization’s 2004

document, Research Priorities for Dance Education (Bonbright and Faber), which 

states,

The National Dance Education Organization supports models of research 

that embrace a continuum of qualitative to quantitative research methods 

and techniques; and, there are aspects of the intrinsic dance experience that 

may be revealed through quantitative inquiry. Recommendations for both 

evaluation and research suggest a multi-perspective assessment involving 

student, teacher, parent, and administrator as well as the observer. There 

are also research designs that provide a triangulation of research 

methodologies in order to substantiate a variety of aspects of the dance 

experience. Quantification becomes part of the total spectrum. (p. 90)
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 52

Another component of dance education research that would be well-served 

by highly structured, mixed quantitative and qualitative research designs is the 

ability to replicate existing research. Many promising studies have been conducted 

on small, highly specific groups of subjects. This is to be expected, in part, 

because many researchers within the field of dance education in K-12 schools are 

graduate students who are limited by the constraints of time, budget, and location 

(Bonbright, 2004, p. 22). While ideally, universities would offer more support for 

longitudinal, large-scale research (Bonbright, 2004, p. 27), the current economic 

and academic climate does not bode well for such developments. What might 

prove to be an acceptable alternative, at least in the near term, would be to 

replicate existing smaller-scale research designs on different populations in 

different communities. The replication of research studies would serve many 

purposes. It could be used to validate the existing research, to find or fix flaws in 

the original design, and to test its relativity across geographic, socioeconomic, and 

cultural divides. 

In order for research to be replicated, however, the published report must 

be written thoroughly and disseminated widely. Many of the studies reviewed for 

this report lacked detail about the research design and implementation, the pool of 

participants, the process of data collection and analysis, and the role of dance 

within the study. This final point is particularly salient. In our effort to make 

visible the evidence of the value of dance in education, we must make certain that 

the dance itself is visible within the research studies we claim as evidence. In a 

surprising number of studies, it was difficult for the researchers to determine what 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 53

kind of dance/movement was used, how it was incorporated into the classroom 

activities, how the lessons were conducted, and what qualifications of the person 

leading the dance/movement activities held. Including details about the type of 

movement and how it was incorporated into the curriculum, the specific dance 

teaching methods and lesson plans used, and the theoretical grounding for those 

choices would be most advantageous in proving the benefits of dance in and as 

academic learning. Such details can clarify the role of dance within the design, 

illuminating the effectiveness of dance for classroom teachers and administrators 

and making the study more easily replicable for other researchers. 

Wide dissemination of the research findings is also necessary. The 

National Dance Education Organization’s Dance Education Literature and 

Research descriptive index is a useful vehicle for the dissemination of theses, 

dissertations, and other unpublished projects. Additionally, the index serves as a 

valuable research tool, where researchers can find citations and abstracts for 

thousands of studies ranging from published articles to conference proceedings. 

By making effective use of the Dance Education Literature and Research 

descriptive index, dance education researchers can find the most up-to-date studies 

in the field. It is vital that researchers be aware of what is currently being 

addressed in the field. Many projects that are similar in nature have been 

conducted across the country in recent years; however, the authors of these studies 

rarely reference one another’s work. More effective referencing of related studies 

and communication between researchers would further strengthen the body of 

evidence and the network of scholars working on it.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 54

With the support of a colloquium of colleges, or under the auspices of 

government agencies or private foundations, smaller, specific research designs 

reviewed for this report could be reimagined more broadly, testing a wide subject 

population in a number of different ways over a significant duration of time. Case 

studies that were limited to a single classroom could be repeated school-wide, 

district-wide, and beyond, looking at the effectiveness of dance in and as education 

beyond the particulars of any one group of students or teacher. Similarly, those 

that were limited to a single semester could be extended into longitudinal studies, 

looking at the long-term benefits beyond the immediacy of test scores. Such largescale, long-term research would particularly benefit from mixed quantitative and 

qualitative research designs as they could measure changes in test scores and other 

easily measurable factors while deeply observing the in-class conditions that lead 

to such changes. This would widen the highly specific body of evidence, many 

pieces of which are being used broadly to speak about the benefits of “art in 

education,” when they in and of themselves do not prove this conclusively. 

In 2004, NDEO published Research Priorities for Dance Education, which 

discussed the development of the then-newly published Dance Education 

Literature and Research descriptive index and its implications for the field of 

dance education research. Of particular interest is the report’s listing of underrepresented Educational Issues, Populations Served, and Areas of Service within 

the indexed literature. While an updated list may be in order as much new 

research has been conducted in the past decade, researchers would do well to 

consult this list in order to develop study designs that would add to the literature in 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 55

these underserved topics. Topics include K-12 related areas such as: Equity, 

National Content Standards, Funding, Student Performance, Children-at-Risk, 

Certification, Teacher Standards, Uncertified Teachers, Brain Research, 

Community and Family, Administrators and Policy Makers, World Cultures, 

Different Abilities, Children-at-Risk, After School and Outreach, Interdisciplinary 

Education, Opportunity-to-learn, Artists-in-schools, Child Development, Critical 

Analysis, Cognitive Development, Higher Order Thinking and Problem Solving, 

Teacher Preparation and Training, Assessments, Program Effectiveness, and 

Certification.

Of particular note, the field of Early Childhood Education is also listed as 

an area in need of further research. With the contemporary political discourse 

surrounding preschools and President Obama’s allocation of funds within the 

FY2014 Budget to make Pre-K education available to all, it would serve our 

interests as a field to publish literature that fits into this discourse and argues for 

the inclusion of dance into preschool curriculum. As Bonbright states in Research 

Priorities for Dance Education, “Research in Early Childhood remains minimal 

considering the important links between motor development and learning in the 

early years of childhood” (Bonbright, 2004, p. 71). Chissom’s (1971) study in 

search of links between motor skill development and academic aptitude and 

achievement further supports the argument for research in this area, and serves as 

an example of a rather narrow, outdated study that could be easily reimagined to 

serve the present needs of our field. 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 56

Conclusion

The evidence has been growing for the ways in which dance impacts 

learning, as a part of the arts, and as a separate and unique discipline. Much of the 

evidence is tantalizing and promising, and should be further developed. Indications 

exist that the instrumental use of dance is powerful and long-lasting, despite the 

fact that the mode used is nonverbal and is seen as an example of far transfer. In 

fact, it would appear that the evidence of the efficacy of embodied learning is 

significant and worthy of further investigation. The impact of the programs 

reviewed on schools and teachers is also significant. In schools where dance 

programs flourish, students’ attendance rises, teachers are more satisfied, and the 

overall sense of community grows.

However, as promising as the research is, it can and must get better: more 

rigorous methods, more clearly defined variables, and more references to existing 

research are necessary. 

For better research to be developed, funding is required. It is the hope of 

the authors of this report that the promising evidence herein will encourage such 

funding to be developed. The National Dance Education Organization stands ready 

to lead this effort.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 57

Appendix 1: Evidence Review Form 

Date:

Evidence Researcher:

Database Name: 

CITATION INFO –title-author- citation specifics- locationEvidence Title:

Author(s):

Journal/Citation info:

Location:

Abstract:

Brief Overview of the Study/Project:

Findings/Conclusions:

Assessment of the value of the EVIDENCE: (This section was an evaluation by 

the researcher of the value of and evidence within the report, article, or study).
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 58

Appendix 2: Definitions of Categories 

For the reports, the following definitions and guidelines were used to 

determine which underrepresented areas of dance education research were being 

addressed by the evidence:

Creative Process ~ the process of teaching and learning using experience, 

information, stimuli, data, and ideas in new and different combinations to 

invent new and different, ideas, products or combinations. 

Key search words include: teaching and learning to find solutions to 

problems or questions; intuitive sensing-feeling-thinking; and scientific 

process, innovation, imagination, HOTS, Bloom’s taxonomy, 

metacognition, dance-making, improvisation, choreography, problemsolving, problem-finding, inquiry, and divergent thinking.

Neuroscience/Brain Research ~ studies that examine changes in structure, 

function or development of the brain in relation to, or stimulated by, bodily 

movement or dance. Key search words include: cognition, kinesthetic 

learning, Brain Dance, mental coordination, synchronization of dance and 

music, mental skills in dance, representation of space, dance aesthetics & 

the brain, perception, sensory, cognitive, and emotional brain processes.

Student Achievement ~ looking at student progress and learning over time 

as defined through set standards/curriculum using samples of student work 

(portfolio, performance, journal entries, self-review, documentation of 

process, etc.); quantitative analyses (GPAs, grades, any test score, state 

testing, developed rubrics, checklists); and/or observation, peer review, 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 59

anecdotal, etc. Key search words include: transfer of learning, student 

reflection, inquiry, increased test scores, SAT scores, assessment, student 

portfolios, and 21st century skills.

Affective Domain ~ changes in preferences, attitudes, and values.

Key search words include: intrinsic motivation, personal values, building 

school culture, group dynamics, socialization, emotional value of dance, 

habits of mind, and self-image.

Student Performance ~ broader concept of measuring student progress 

through indicators beyond student achievement (i.e., socio-economic 

indicators such as dropout rate, college entrance rate, vocational choices, 

employment rate, sick days, etc.) Key search words include: career 

pathways in dance, school attendance, student tardiness, students entering 

higher education dance programs, and dropout prevention.

Equity ~ equal access and opportunity for students to study dance 

regardless of gender, age, size, shape, interest, ability, race, ethnic origin, 

or religious belief. Key search words include: access to dance classes, 

delivery of dance classes, after school programs, interventions, Opportunity 

to Learn (OTL), gender issues, biases and dance, arts integration, extended 

day programs, and culturally responsive pedagogy. 

Cultural and World Dance ~ teaching and learning that embraces more 

than one cultural perspective or view; understanding same or different 

viewpoints or perspectives from two or more cultures; and learning from a 

variety of cultures. Key search words include: Historical & Cultural 
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 60

Contexts, dance of anthropological/ethnographic, world dance, folk dance, 

cultural dance, historical dance, subcultures & dance, and dance genre.

Children-at-Risk ~ students who are identified as children most likely not 

to complete K-12 education. Shared characteristics among at-risk students

include: single parent homes, homeless, drug use, high pregnancy rate, 

qualify for free lunch programs, and students for whom English is a second 

language (ESL). Key search words include: free and reduced lunch, 

dropout prevention, teen pregnancy, social/emotional development, Title I, 

homeless, drug prevention, eating disorders, anti- gang strategies, academic 

interventions, literacy/ESL, and student retention.
EVIDENCE REPORT ON IMPACT OF DANCE 61

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