2017 Volume 84 Issue 2 Pages 205-214
The purpose of this paper is to reevaluate Margaret H'Doubler's work by examining the curriculum (course of study) of the dance major that she designed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Although some previous research has clarified H'Doubler's theory of dance education, there is little research that examines how the course of study of the dance major reflected her theory. This paper first describes Margaret H'Doubler's method of dance education. Rather than providing one-sided instruction from teacher to student, H'Doubler gave her students some verbal hints and let them explore their bodies and movements in their own ways. In addition, H'Doubler explored the relationship between physical motion and emotion, and thought that dancers' movements reflected their imaginative or creative power. She was concerned with teaching her students dance “as an experience that contributes to a philosophy and scheme of living.” Not only scientific knowledge such as anatomy, physiology, and biology, but also humanistic knowledge was important for studying dance, she thought.
The paper next examines the course of study that she designed when she established the first dance major in the world in 1926. Looking through the course of study, we can find that it was composed of versatile subjects and quite well-rounded: English, chemistry, anatomy, physiology, history, philosophy, psychology, art history, music, and so on. Compared to the general physical education major at that time, the course of study of the dance major had fewer science-related subjects and more in the humanities. This reflected H'Doubler's theory and approach to dance education. Because H'Doubler thought that dance was more than physical motion, she required her students to take humanistic subjects as well as scientific ones.
Until her retirement in 1954, H'Doubler taught hundreds of students and cultivated a number of dance educators. Her course of study was the first one in the world in the field of dance or dance education, and she was compelled to address the question of what dance as a discipline should be like. H'Doubler, in that sense, succeeded in developing the course of study of dance without impairing its interdisciplinary nature, and in contributing to forming dance as a amalgam of science and humanity. Future research is needed on the differences of courses of study of later dance programs in other universities from that of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and on the changes in the course of study that H'Doubler developed after her retirement.
