Karen Schupp

Key words: creative practice; dance pedagogy; creative leadership; interdisciplinary collaboration; dance competition culture   I devise and investigate methodologies as a researcher, creative artist, and educator that situate the study of dance as integral to a comprehensive education and at the forefront of transdisciplinary research. Dance abstractly expresses ideas and inherently values the union of kinesthetic, intellectual, and emotional intelligences, thus serving diverse functions in societies. The integration of dance into liberal arts education provides opportunities to holistically educate students as creative, embodied, empathetic, and self-aware individuals. As a researcher, I examine innovative pedagogical practices and curricula with special attention paid to the connections and disconnections between postsecondary dance education and private-sector, dance competition studio communities. As a creative artist, I employ live and mediated performance to push the boundaries of dance in multiple contexts. As a dance educator, I believe that postsecondary dance education should allow for multiple career and learning outcomes within a collective educational experience; that dance should be studied in a way that highlights its comprehensive existence; that students should learn to critically think, reflect on experiences, and enhance other life skills through creatively engaging with dance; and that a complete dance education is one in which students develop abilities for successfully entering and changing the larger field of dance. These tenets guide all of my creative and scholarly research, teaching, and service.