When students understand the mechanical principles involved in skills, they should be better able to improve their own performance and also to help their peers improve theirs. The use of a variety of teaching methods can accommodate all three domains and seek to produce skilled performers who move with meaning and understanding. Dance in Physical Education compared to Dance in Arts Education Dance, as taught in physical education, is concerned with rhythmics. Games and gymnastics are taught thematically, using the basic movement patterns. In physical education students are encouraged to develop an appreciation of the role culture plays in dance and rhythmics and also to see how dance and rhythmics contribute to personal fitness.
Dance is also one of the four strands of the arts education curriculum.
Arts education has a more extensive treatment of dance and rhythmics, relating them to societies and cultures past and present and to other art forms and daily life. The treatment of dance in the arts education curriculum is more comprehensive than in physical education and may be integrated with other subjects and strands. If arts education and physical education are being taught by different teachers in the same school, they should plan rhythmics and dance activities together to avoid unnecessary duplication and to reinforce themes and skills.