For the third year in a row, a dance education student from Teachers College has won the Graduate Student Literary Award from the National Dance Association (NDA).

Marlene Kandall Glasheen, a master's student in the Dance Education Program, won the award for her essay, "From Dewey to H'Doubler: Progressive Education as Envisioned in Dance."

Speaking about how she feels about receiving the award, Glasheen says, "Personally it is gratifying to be recognized by a respected body like the National Dance Association. It has a long tradition of encouraging both scholarly work and performance."

The award is based on the content and quality of a literary paper submitted by a student.

The National Dance Association is dedicated to promoting the development and implementation "of sound philosophies and policies in all forms of dance and in dance education at all levels."

Glasheen's paper, written for her curriculum design course, taught by Assistant Professor Susan Koff, reveals how Margaret H'Doubler's philosophy in dance education paralleled Dewey's in general education.

As a student of Dewey's at TC, according to Glasheen, H'Doubler "brought Dewey's ideology to a new arena." H'Doubler's ideas, writes Glasheen, coincided with the movements toward more progressive education as well as the emergence of modern American dance.

"Emphasizing a child-centered, whole-person, democratic learning experience in the dance studio, H'Doubler's teaching philosophies are a strong interpretation of the ideas put forth by Dewey."

The NDA will be publishing the paper in its periodical, Spotlight.

Glasheen had a professional dance career with the Joffrey II Dancers and the Atlanta Ballet before completing her undergraduate career at Harvard University.

Before entering TC's Dance Education Program, she taught high school social studies and dance in Massachusetts and California.

In 1996, Barbara Bashaw, a teaching artist at TC's Creative Arts Laboratory at P.S. 261 in Brooklyn, won the National Dance Association award for her essay. Bashaw's essay was entitled "Dance Education: Reflecting on John Dewey." In 1997, Margaret Plaza, a dance education student, received the award for a paper that outlined her philosophy and curriculum design for teaching dance to the deaf and the hard of hearing in a mainstreamed dance education program.

Published Friday, Jun. 7, 2002