Body/Language: Incorporating Movement and Dance into World Language Classes

Dance is an essential cultural product often overlooked in curriculum and lesson design in favor of sports, literature, visual arts, music, and other products from the target language culture. Given the similarities between the national standards for dance and for learning languages, movement and dance activities merit a greater role in world language classes. The author, a high school Spanish teacher and professional dancer, presents a continuum of approaches for incorporating movement-based activities into the classroom and describes specific activities that teachers can adapt for their classes, even without formal dance training or professional dance experience.