Dance Teaching and Learning: Shaping Practice: edited by Lorna Sanders

This publication aims to support dance artists, leaders, practitioners and teachers who work with children and young people, to reflect on their practice and learn from others working in dance education, youth dance and wider education and community contexts beyond statutory education.
There is a huge demand by children and young people to dance and an increasing number of dance professionals who wish to progress their skills and knowledge in teaching and leading.
One Dance UK, is building upon the work of Youth Dance England (YDE) to increase access, raise standards and improve progression routes for young people in dance. As such it has published the third edition of Shaping Practice, as part of its work to support the newly revised qualification, Diploma in Dance Teaching and Learning (Trinity College London).
The original qualification; Diploma in Dance Teaching & Learning (Children & Young People) was developed by DTAP which was a consortium of leading national dance organisations in England. It was created as a result of action taken by the sector to address long standing issues concerning standards of teaching / leading – beyond statutory education and the private dance sector. Trinity College London was commissioned by DTAP to produce this new dance teaching qualification, working closely with its members. YDE led on this development on behalf of DTAP and identified the need to create resources to support dance practitioners taking the qualification. One Dance UK is continuing this work and supporting the new broader qualification, which is aimed at teachers working with dancers of all ages.

The publication covers a wide range of areas that are relevant to practitioners. Although it is written for those who mainly work in extra-curricular, youth dance, community, health and recreational contexts in dance, it is also relevant to a wide range of people including: independent dance artists / practitioners; employees in dance organisations; agencies and companies; students enrolled on courses at Higher Education Institutions and other training and education establishments offering undergraduate courses in dance education; postgraduate students training in applied areas such as teaching / dance development; PGCE students; undergraduate and postgraduate students in Europe and elsewhere.

The third edition includes updates on the health and justice contexts in which dance is delivered, safe dance practice, and good practice and models of dance teaching.
The publication provides the following:
 a tool for learning by giving an overview, applied specifically to dance, of key theories, concepts and frameworks that can be applied practically by practitioners as a means to critically analyse their own practice and that of others
 an articulation of the field of enquiry and introduction to its knowledge base and skills to those who may be / will be unfamiliar with it
 information for practitioners on the range of theories, concepts, research in the field to ensure that they know where to seek relevant material to support their study and practice
 illustrations of the range of practice that takes place within various contexts in which practitioners work with young people
 a dance resource that scopes a field of practice that is not represented in other publications.