A Casting Call for Dance Scholars

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Imagine opening a professional journal with the expectation of reading a dance or dance-related article only to find a blank page. Of course, that will never happen, but it concerns me that dance continues to lag behind other professional fields in scholarly publications. Ironically, most of us (dance professionals and physical education teachers) have valuable, creative, and scholarly contributions to make to our profession. So, why do so few of us publish?

The answer to this question was approached from two perspectives. First, what is the importance of scholarly activity in educational dance? And how do we encourage individuals, whether they are our students, our colleagues, or whomever, to become involved in this process? To help answer these questions, I called on a few past and more recent National Dance Association (NDA) Scholar/Artist Award recipients, who were selected by a committee of peers in recognition of their exceptional work.

The 2010 Scholar/Artist Gayle Kassing wrote that these activities in dance are vital for expanding the field (personal communication, December 8, 2010). Creating such a continuous body of knowledge supports both performance and education. Along these same lines, the 2003 NDA Scholar Artist, Janice LaPointe-Crump expressed her view of the importance of scholarship by saying that it is vital to the advancement of the profession and maintenance of a healthy balance between the status quo and innovative thought (personal communication, …