Somaesthetics, Education, and the Art of Dance

by Peter J. Arnold

This essay has two related purposes. The first is to explicate what dance as an art form should minimally comprise if it is to be taught as a distinctive aspect of education in the school curriculum. The second and main purpose is to argue that dance, if taught in accordance with what is outlined, is not only an efficacious means in the development, understanding and promotion of somaesthetics, a new term in aesthetic theory, but an example of its very embodiment. Put differently it will be upheld that the practice of dance is not only an excellent vehicle in the promotion of somaesthetics but a paradigm case of what it is.