Sharing dance: a participatory action research project in online community dance education

"As a dance and movement workshop leader for over five years I have seen the benefits that dance education offers students first hand. While on tour across Northern Ontario with the Cree language opera Pimooteewin: The Journey, I had the opportunity to share creative dance workshops with students living in remote locations. These students had limited access to dance education and most schools I visited had no integrated dance curriculum. I found this surprising since the inclusion of dance in Ontario public schools is a requirement. Dance was incorporated into the 1993 Common Curriculum and the 1998 Ontario Curriculum (Ministry of Education). Many teachers I spoke with while on tour mentioned they did not have access to high quality, free dance education materials, and did not feel comfortable teaching the subject. This experience drew me to develop an applied research project with Canada's National Ballet School's (CNBS) community outreach initiative, Sharing Dance. Unlike other online dance education organizations, such as the Council for Ontario Dance and Drama Educators (CODE) that works on a subscription model, Sharing Dance offers teachers easy access to dance education materials for free, potentially overcoming location and socioeconomic obstacles"--From introduction, page 1-2.