Prof. Melonie B. Murray Presented at National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education

Professor Melonie B. Murray presented Dance Science: the Interdisciplinary Connection of Dance and Kinesiology at the National Association for Kinesiology in Higher Education's annual conference in January 2025, in collaboration with research partner Steven R. Murray (Professor, University of California, Berkeley).

ABSTRACT: 

Kinesiology and dance have a long, and at times, complicated history. This presentation traces the development of the academic discipline of dance from its beginnings in women’s departments of physical education to its current state as a mature discipline and how dance science is a catalyst for a closer bond between dance and kinesiology. Dance’s origin as an academic discipline can be traced to the early 20th century in American colleges and universities, especially within women’s departments of physical education. In the mid 1920s at the University of Wisconsin, Margaret H’Doubler launched the first baccalaureate degree in dance, with anatomy as key component of the curriculum. Over time, dance curricula in American universities expanded. By the 1960s, the trending focus of dance in American academe began to shift away from movement education for all to a mission more focused on professional level training with the goal of producing elite dancers. This shift caused most dance programming to transfer from departments of physical education – the term used to describe the discipline at the time – to schools or colleges of the fine arts. During the 1980s, dance science began to flourish as its own sub-discipline, complete with its own professional conferences and publications. With dance science’s rise in scholarly productivity and academic standing, dance and kinesiology began to rejoin. A more intricate relationship is possible and realized in various programs across the US. These programs will be discussed as examples of a meaningful interdisciplinary approach connecting dance and kinesiology.