Empowering Dance: The Soft Skills Teaching and Learning Approach 2020-2023

Knowledge that is specific to dance is often implied or “silent” knowledge, operating in the background and rarely named in detail for its unique impact and potential in diverse settings. Empowering Dance 2 builds on the experiences of earlier projects (Communicating Dance and Empowering Dance: Developing Soft Skills). The new project continues to delve deeper into identifying, collecting, analyzing and articulating the implicit skills developed through dance practice by focusing on examples of select contemporary dance practices involving a community of non-professionals. The project began in December 2020 finishing in May 2023.

The findings of this project are published in a digital handbook to assist dance practitioners to identify and communicate the soft skills they use and generate in their respective practices with non-professional dance communities. The research investigates how soft skills can be developed and transferred, as well as positively impact the confidence of those engaging with dance practice.