Teaching Dance as Art in Education Tapa dura - 2006

Brenda Pugh McCutchen, MFA, is a dance education consultant for Dance Curriculum Designs (Columbia, South Carolina) and gives teacher workshops throughout the US using resources she creates for K-12 and university dance classrooms. She was an associate professor of dance at Columbia College, where in 1994 she created and directed South Carolina's first undergraduate teacher certification program in dance education. This program was accredited by the National Association of Schools of Dance (NASD) and National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).

During her 40-year career in arts and education, McCutchen's roles have included professor of dance education, classroom teacher, and K-12 dance specialist. McCutchen's perspective of dance as art in education is also shaped through her experience as a performer, choreographer, artistic director, arts administrator, and dance artist in residence for students in kindergarten through high school. As a leading dance curriculum consultant, McCutchen now helps clients design standards-oriented curricula for college and K-12 dance programs. She leads teacher workshops and institutes across the country.

McCutchen tirelessly works to see that dance plays a significant role in K-12 education and that dance specialists are prepared to realize the potential of dance in that setting. From 1989 to 1994, McCutchen was arts education program director for the South Carolina Arts Commission. She also coauthored the South Carolina Framework for Dance Education K-12, adopted by the state board of education in 1990 as a basis for South Carolina's curriculum development in dance education. She was a committee member for the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) INTASC Teaching Standards in the Arts. She is currently on the board of directors for the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO). She serves NDEO as vice president for programs and services as well as director of publications and resources. She helped draft Professional Teaching Standards for Dance as well as Model Program Guidelines for dance education in the United States.

McCutchen holds an MFA in dance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNC-G) and has received awards for her contributions to the fields of dance and dance education from the South Carolina Dance Association, the National Dance Week Commission (SC Chapter), and UNC-G's School of Health and Human Performance.