Public Defender

By Nancy Wozny

One teacher's battle to improve dance education in public schools

Clouds gently float onstage, twisting and turning into a raging rainstorm. Mikhail and Adelaide are busy transforming their bodies into rain while Pilar and Pedro embody the wind with swirling arm gestures. Using storm-inspired movement ideas, an exciting dance is in the making. These young dance artists are hard at work on a piece that will reveal their remarkable fluency in the language of dance. Their teacher, Abigail Agresta-Stratton, a fifth-grade teacher at Muscota New School in upper Manhattan, watches attentively and lets creativity do its work. Friday morning meetings for the staff and student body almost always feature her young choreographers. “They love performing their dances,” Agresta-Stratton says, beaming with pride for her students. What better way to start the school day than with a flurry of creativity?

There are many career paths in dance, but Agresta-Stratton chose to work in the public school system. Insiders say it’s not a choice for the faint of heart. Although she finds the job enormously fulfilling, she is deeply concerned about the state of dance in public schools. Regardless of the job’s drawbacks, this 15-year veteran teacher believes that dance is a necessary component of every young person’s education. Her students’ marvelous creativity keeps her in the classroom, yet she is also dedicated to improving the conditions of her fellow teachers.

She got her start in dance in Stratford, CT, at age 5 from the usual path, a local dance studio that offered gymnastics, ballet, and tap. “I hated it beyond belief,” admits Agresta-Stratton with a smile. At 9, she tried a new studio that offered recitals, but she still wasn’t happy. She loved to dance, but it took some legwork to find her niche. By the time she was 12, she was dancing in a pre-professional school and touring to elementary schools with local ballet companies. She got a glimpse of her future life when she helped out with the younger kids as they prepared for performances. “I liked working with kids and helping to create dances,” she says. The creative component of dance education remains central to her mission.

In her junior year, Agresta-Stratton took one class with modern dance legend Mary Anthony, who would become her mentor and a seminal teacher in her career. Anthony included an improvisation section in each class. When a performing- arts magnet program opened up during her senior year of high school, she left school early for more intensive training. But her dance career took a back seat when she decided to major in theater at Adelphi University. “I really missed dancing and I realized how much it meant to me,” says Agresta-Stratton. When her theater group in college performed in public schools, she discovered that teaching in schools was her calling and began looking for graduate programs in dance education. In retrospect, her theater training has proved enormously useful in working with young children. “I did learn a great deal about Shakespeare, Greek tragedies, and how to deconstruct a character, which actually paid off as a dancer and teacher,” she says.

Of various graduate programs, New York University’s Steinhardt School of Education was a perfect fit for Agresta- Stratton. Plus, Mary Anthony’s studio was right next door. Anthony was well known for her work in public schools during the 1970s, in a landmark program called “Arts in the Schools,” and Agresta-Stratton was able to include her work with Anthony as part of her graduate program. She danced with Anthony’s company and was introduced to Labanotation, which came in handy years later in her work in the schools.

Agresta-Stratton’s entry as a full-fledged in-school dance educator was a gentle one. Her first job was at a private elementary school, Stephens Cooperative, where the rules and the atmosphere were relaxed. In 2005 she moved to her current position at PS 134, a progressive school located in the north end of Harlem. She has been lucky to have a supportive administrator, one with a dance background— a rare find.

Her day begins at 8:30 with the fifth graders, in the gym. She teaches kindergarteners and first-graders in their classrooms; the other students’ classes are held in the gym or cafeteria, or occasionally, the hallway. The lack of a proper facility in which to teach dance is just one of the many challenges public school dance teachers cope with every day.

In response to those challenges, Agresta-Stratton is taking a front-line position in the battle to improve the state of dance in New York’s schools. The problems run deep and wide, stemming from how dance first took hold in the school systems: through the physical education (PE) door. It took colleges and universities a decade to pry their dance departments out of PE and into theater and fine arts departments. “It was a huge task, but they did it, and now everyone else needs to step up,” she says.

Elsa Posey, former president of the National Dance Education Organization (NDEO), points to this dilemma in the NDEO standards. “In previous generations dance was considered part of PE, and this has prevented dance from establishing itself as an arts discipline within the core of arts education,” writes Posey. “New York City schools have almost 300 teachers teaching dance, but only half are certified to teach [it].”

Even though the “No Child Left Behind” policy stipulates that teachers must have expertise in their areas, this mandate is often ignored. Ads for dance teachers with PE certifications routinely appear in local papers, some-times suggesting that dual certification in PE and dance is preferred. Administrators know that PE will always be around, but many of them do not believe dance programs have the same longevity. Agresta-Stratton brought these ads to the attention of Edward S. Marschilok, administrative director of the New York State Summer Schools for the Arts’ Schools of Music, and the contact person for dance at the New York State Education Department. All dance issues fall under his authority. At press time Agresta-Stratton was still waiting for a phone meeting with him. “We need a person, at the state level, who deals solely with dance. If we had a K–12 dance-certified person who worked on the state level, we might have an avenue through which to address these issues,” she says. “Someone needs to monitor that dance is dance and not lumped together with PE. Educators need to understand that dance has an aesthetic, as well kinesthetic, value.”

Also on Agresta-Stratton’s mind is the lack of appropriate space for dance classes in public schools. What message do students receive about the value of dance when classes are taught in a hallway? The standards set by NDEO call for a sprung wood floor, yet few schools possess such a dedicated space, much less the mirrors and barres that Agresta-Stratton would like to see the children have by the time they reach middle school. Gyms and cafeterias are more the norm. A survey conducted by New York City Dance Educators United Federation of Teachers (NYCDE/ UFT) indicates that few schools with dance programs have proper facilities. It’s well documented that years of jumping on cement floors can lead to injuries.

The prevalence of uncredentialed teachers and less than- optimal learning environments for dance points to its devaluation as an art form, which is also reflected in the general culture. Dance is the least supported of the arts. Dance in the schools is somewhat invisible to the public at large and, too often, also to the administrators that oversee such programs.

But Agresta-Stratton is not one to watch her field deteriorate, so advocacy is high on her agenda. As chair of NYCDE/UFT, the professional dance committee within the United Federation of Teachers, she is working hard to get her concerns heard. The organization hosts festivals where dance educators showcase their students’ or their own work and which offer opportunities for professional development. They maintain a united presence at rallies and conducted their first roundtable discussion in April. “We are strong and we are multiplying, but the first step is to verbalize the issues. We need NYCDE/UFT to help move dance education forward in New York City public schools,” says Agresta-Stratton. “Now we need to work together to come up with solutions.”

Agresta-Stratton is also a board member of the New York State Dance Education Association (NYSDEA), an organization formed in 2005 with roots in the 30-year-old New York State Dance Association (NYSDA). In February 2006 NYSDA presented a successful conference, “Your Brain, Your Body, and Dance Education,” at which educators got a chance to learn, network, and renew. Events like this are crucial for people in the sometimes-isolating job of teaching in the schools.   

Agresta-Stratton’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. “She is committed to making changes for the better,” says Posey. “She has the ability to relate problems clearly to those that can solve them. Abigail is not confined to her classroom, her school, or her city; she is aware of dance education as it applies to students and teachers everywhere.”

Why is dance in schools so important? Agresta-Stratton can cite a long list of reasons. “Dance is a powerful vehicle to access and motivate students, addressing each of the multiple intelligences, giving students an opportunity to further develop problem-solving and high-order thinking skills,” she says. For students who cannot afford the tuition at a private studio, it may be their only exposure to the art form. Building dance audiences is also high on Agresta- Stratton’s list. She has seen her own students show up at free performances during the summer months.

The students at PS 314 not only get to choreograph dances, they learn to talk about them as well. Agresta- Stratton falls back on her familiarity with Laban’s work in teaching children a functional dance vocabulary. You don’t hear vague comments such as “I liked it” or “I didn’t like it” in her class. Instead, her students learn to use descriptive language in talking about their fellow students’ dances. She uses a rubric that describes a dance as a seed or a bud, as budding, or as in full bloom. “If kids can talk about dance, it also means that they can ‘see’ dance. What better advocates could we want? We create thinkers, dancers, dance analysts, and dance critics,” she says. “Dance is not an ‘easy’ class. It requires diligent, thoughtful work.”

In the United States, boys tend to have little exposure to dance. Agresta-Stratton gets a fair amount of comments like “Dance is for girls” when she meets a new flock of young men. But once they get some creative control, the tables start to turn. “My boys love making up dances. Right now I have two fifth-grade boys who seem to find a way to come visit me at least once a day,” she says. “Usually they want to discuss their music choices.”

According to Agresta-Stratton, school-based dance programs are good for the local dance studios; they support and supplement the development of students who already study privately. Studio owners may feel that public schools that offer strong technical training cut into their business, but Agresta-Stratton thinks their concern is unwarranted. “When I have students who really show potential, I help them find an appropriate studio,” she says. “Studios and school programs can exist together and help each other out. In my opinion, public school dance programs boost the enrollment in the private studios.” Though it happens only rarely, dancers can be trained entirely through the public school system. Enough strong middle and high school programs exist that can lead students toward college programs.

Agresta-Stratton is strong in her belief that she and her colleagues are making a difference in their students’ lives, the growth of dance audiences, and the survival of this fragile field. Thanks to the leadership of this intrepid advocate for dance, and others like her, the next generation of school-based dance teachers may find improvement in their facilities and more understanding of their art form. The majority of Agresta-Stratton’s students are not going to become dancers; however, the confidence and pride they achieve by creating their own dances may stay with them forever. “There’s so much great dance being created by students in the public schools. And they are doing it without too much technology beyond a boom box,” she says. “We have the opportunity to harness and cultivate that talent.”

Agresta-Stratton’s efforts are fueled by her passion for dance and love for her students. A wealth of creativity bursts forth on the gym floor every Friday at PS 314. She is fighting to keep those dances coming, in her school and in schools across the state. “My students,” she says, “are the amazing ones.”