Stories We Dance / Stories We Tell

Higher education continually mediates long standing traditions while seeking new ways of thinking. This navigation exists as a quiet tension, as institutions respond to shifting and multiple socio-cultural values in their local, national, and international communities. Dance in higher education is not immune from this pressure; programs need to consider intersecting obligations to build a more equitable curriculum, meet the needs of an increasingly diverse population, and prepare students for a wider array of dance-based careers. Dance faculty are on the front lines of these recalibrations. Because of their critical role in stewarding the next generation of dance artists-educators-scholars-leaders and change in higher education, more attention must be given to learning from the experiences of those committed to dance in higher education.
This collection articulates and considers these lived experiences, revealing the inner workings of how dance exists in higher education. The autoethnographic essays within this text vary in style and scope, yet each distinctly illuminates the overt and unspoken pressures encountered across one’s career trajectories. By unearthing and contextualizing hidden challenges, expectations, and opportunities, the authors speak to possibilities for how proactive change for dance in higher education can occur.

Karen Schupp is a professor of dance at Arizona State University. Her research commitments include ethics and equity in dance education, postsecondary dance education, and dance competition culture. She is the recipient of the National Dance Education Organization’s Outstanding Dance Education Researcher Award, NDEO’s Ruth Lovell Murray Book Award, and the Susan W. Stinson Book Award for Dance Education. Sherrie Barr, professor of dance, taught in a range of dance programs in postsecondary institutions, including as a Fulbright Lecturer in Portugal, for over 40 years before retiring. Her scholarship examines the juncture of dance pedagogy, somatics, and critical pedagogies, an intersection that now leads her to research the shifting terrain of higher education dance programs in the U.S. She lives in Corvallis, Oregon.

Edited by Karen Schupp and Sherrie Barr
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages:
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9332-3
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5542-0
Imprint: McFarland

• “I wish this book existed when I began my journey into higher education. Many of the stories felt validating because they echoed my experiences. Others were a helpful glimpse of possible turns to take in my career. Others still gave me an opportunity to learn about someone’s experience outside my own. This book could have easily used all the expensive academic words to make its point, and I am so thankful it did not. The book’s tone is engaging, welcoming the reader into the conversation.”—Nicole Y. McClam, CMA, MFA, Queensborough Community College

• “These rich, authentic, often poetic and embodied stories allow the reader to witness the storytellers’ courage, pain, and perseverance as they negotiated their paths through systems which have not been inclusive, nor just. This book sparks discussions about the issues currently in play in dance programs and greater academia.”—Jan Erkert, professor emerita and former head of the department of dance, University of Illinois