Taking on the Challenges of Our Present: Dance Education for Children and Youth

Children and youth are undoubtedly the future of dance education. And, while the future is always unknown, little did I know or even fathom four years ago when I began thinking about the topic for this 2022 Special Issue, that this future issue would land at such a tumultuous and cataclysmic time for our children and youth. Finding authors to write about their work with children and youth in dance education already comes with inherent challenges since many involved in teaching this age group do not have publishing as part of their job descriptions. Amid a global pandemic going on its 3 year, in-person teaching and research, in many instances, had to stop and were slow to resume due to health protocols and increased demands on educators. Getting by day-to-day, particularly in school and classroom settings, has been a challenge for most educators and researchers. Therefore, putting out a call for envisioning a future for dance education for children and youth presented a complex challenge. Then, we add to the complexity the confluence of political and social factions and unrest, economic tension, censorship in schools, increasing stress on the teaching workforce, gun violence (particularly in US schools and communities), and continued social inequality and oppression spurring ongoing racial, gender, and LGBTQ+ justice movements onto the present landscape of education for children and youth. The compounding impacts of the multitude of crises facing children and youth make the future of dance education seem rather grim, not to mention the ever increasing digital and technological shifts and barrage of social media that further complicate this landscape. When we look to the teaching and learning of dance for children and youth in PK-12 schools, private studios, dance organizations, and communities, we cannot overlook this current social, political, economic, and public health context globally. While this Special Issue was never intended to be specifically about the global COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on dance education, the pandemic has undoubtedly shaped all our lives, as well as research, scholarship, teaching, and learning in dance education. Dance education, while similar in context to other arts disciplines, has also come with unique challenges and technological conundrums during the pandemic (Tariao and Yang 2021; Rugh et al. 2022). Continually, we have had to question how we teach dance, an inherently embodied and social discipline, when we cannot physically be together, or when being physically together puts us at risk. How can digital technologies be utilized creatively and effectively, while also being accessible and inclusive? The resulting and accumulated stress and fatigue of seeking to answer these questions in practice for educators has been significant (Jotkoff 2022). Classrooms and studios where children and youth experience dance education also remain spaces where social, political, and cultural norms and identities are lived, practiced, and contested. Pronounced and publicized attacks and pushbacks on gains in diversity, equity, and inclusion from the public, in the media, and prompted by legislative moves continue to persist in not only the United States but globally (Lopéz et al. 2021; Mabingo et al. 2022; Sawchuk 2022). Calls to action, movements, and the need to make educational spaces more inclusive, equitable, and accessible for all have always existed but recently have been intensifying. We continually experience a constant push and pull of calls for change and resistance to change that play out in the landscape of educational spaces, making education of late feel like a pressure cooker, in many ways. Although on one hand educational landscapes seem to be filled with crisis narratives, on the other hand, or maybe more aptly, hand-in-hand with these struggles, we also have an opportunity and duty to examine these educational systems, acknowledge what does not work, and challenge what continually reproduces injustices. Thus, our charge in dance education is to act on what we can and continue as a field to be engaged in making responsible, equitable, and inclusive changes, creatively navigating our struggles. The next National Dance