Dancing Mind, Minding Dance (PDF)

Doug Risner (PhD, MFA) is a distinguished faculty fellow and professor of Dance and directs the MA in Theatre and Dance: Teaching Artistry program in the Maggie Allesee Department of Theatre and Dance at Wayne State University, Detroit, USA. He conducts research in the sociology of dance training and education, gender in dance, curriculum theory and policy, social foundations of dance pedagogy, online learning, and web-based curriculum design. His books include Stigma and Perseverance in the Lives of Boys Who Dance (2009); Hybrid Lives of Teaching Artists in Dance and Theatre Arts: A Critical Reader (2014); Gender, Sexuality and Identity: Critical Issues in Dance Education (2015): Dance and Gender: An Evidence-Based Approach (2017); Dance, Professional Practice, and the Workplace (2020); and Ethical Dilemmas in Dance Education: Case Studies on Humanizing Dance Pedagogy (2020), which received the 2021 NDEO Ruth Lovell Murray Award for Dance Education and the 2021 Susan W. Stinson Book Award. His most recent edited volumes include Dancing Across the Lifespan: Negotiating Age, Place and Purpose (2022) with Pam Musil and Karen Schupp and Masculinity, Intersectionality and Identity: Why Boys (Don't) Dance (2022) with Beccy Watson.

Jennifer McNamara (MFA) is an assistant professor of Dance at Mercyhurst University, Erie, USA. Following a twenty-year career as a ballet dancer, she was an adjunct professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, USA, and taught for New Dialect, Metro (Nashville) Parks and Recreation Dance Division, and the School of Nashville Ballet. A certified Pilates instructor, Jennifer explores the relationships between foundational and aesthetic movement choices; she is also an advocate for justice in dance education. She is a past recipient of the Individual Artist Fellowship (Dance) from the Tennessee Arts Commission, has designed and built costumes, and has been published in Arts Education Policy Review and