Investigating children’s learning through dance and drawing-telling, Dance-Play and Drawing-Telling as Semiotic Tools for Young Children’s Learning provides a unique insight into how these activities can help children to critically reflect on their own learning. Promoting the concept of dance and drawing-telling as highly effective semiotic tools for meaning-making, the book enlivens thinking about the extraordinary capacities of young children, and argues for the incorporation of dance and drawing in mainstream early childhood curriculum. Throughout the book, numerous practice examples show how children use movement, sound, images, props and language to imaginatively re-conceptualize their everyday experiences into bodily-kinesthetic and spatial-temporal concepts. These examples illustrate children’s competence when given the opportunity to learn through dance and drawing-telling, as well as the important role that teachers play in scaffolding children’s learning. Based on award-winning research, this insightful and informative book makes a sought after contribution to the field of dance education and seeks to reaffirm dance as a powerful learning modality that supports young children’s expressive non-verbal communication. Encouraging the reader to consider the significance of multi-modal teaching and learning, it is essential reading for researchers in the dance, drawing and education spheres; postgraduate students taking courses in early childhood; play and dance therapists; and all early childhood teachers who have a specific interest in arts education.

Dance and Creativity within Dance Movement Therapy discusses the core work and basic concepts in dance movement therapy (DMT), focusing on the centrality of dance, the creative process and their aesthetic-psychological implications in the practice of the profession for both patients and therapists. Based on interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary inputs from fields such as philosophy, anthropology and dance, contributions examine the issues presented by cultural differences in DMT through the input of practitioners from several diverse countries. Chapters blend theory and case studies with personal, intimate reflections to support critical descriptions of DMT interventions and share methods to help structure practice and facilitate communication between professionals and researchers. The book’s multicultural, multidisciplinary examination of the essence of dance and its countless healing purposes will give readers new insights into the value and functions of dance both in and out of therapy.

This is a handbook for students and teachers of dance, and for everyone interested in body movement as art, education, recreation or therapy. Its purpose is to make creative dance activity easy and enjoyable for anyone who wants it, and to give everyone equal opportunity to develop to the fullest, through dance, his own unique powers of creative expression.-from introduction.

This guidebook is designed to facilitate the use of "Beyond Words" materials. By drawing on their own teaching experiences, the authors offer suggestions for attaining teaching/learning goals, and for overcoming difficulties in using the movement observation and analysis programme. Many of the creative adaptations described come from individuals at different institutions who tested "Beyond Words" while it was being developed. It is not intended, therefore, as a prescriptive document, but rather as a guide which provides many alternative ways of utilizing "Beyond Words", and which leaves the rest to the instructor.

In her new book, A Time to Dance, Margaret Fisk Taylor recreates the exciting religious response her country-wide "symbolic movement" workshops have engendered in children, young people, and adults.First of all, A Time to Dance is a "how to" book. It tells, graphically and step-by-step, how to be a leader of a dance choir, how many members there should be, what kind of robes to wear, and, trickiest of all, how to get men and boys to join the group. There are descriptions of dance dramas, processions, narrative outlines and special programs for religious holidays.A fascinating section on the history of religious dance begins with the biblical "David danced before the Lord with all his might," and continues through the early Christian church and the medieval miracle and mystery plays.A third section brings to life the renaissance of dance movement in twentieth century religious worship.