A Sense of Dance – Constance A. Schrader

A Sense of Dance: Exploring Your Movement Potential by Constance A. Schrader is an accessible introduction to dance designed especially for beginning students and anyone exploring movement as an art form.

Through guided movement experiences, observation, and self-assessment, the book introduces the fundamentals of movement, time, space, coordination, style, expression, and dance composition. It also explores why people dance, how dance develops across cultures and communities, and how dancers can discover their own individual ways of moving.

This Second Edition expands the original text with material on the power of dance, personal style, and patterns of coordination. Rather than focusing on one specific dance technique, the book encourages readers to experience movement directly and develop greater awareness, creativity, and confidence through dance.

Contents

Part I – An Invitation to the Dance

1. What Is Dance?
2. The Power of Dance
3. How Do You Learn to Dance?
4. Your Moving Body

Part II – The Laws of (Loco) Motion

5. The Elements of Dance
6. Time
7. Space
8. The Sense of Movement
9. Your Sense of Style
10. Patterns of Coordination and Style

Part III – Making a Statement Through Dance

11. Composition
12. Is This Dance Good?

The book also includes interactive features such as Think About It, Your Turn to Dance, self-assessment activities, guided movement experiments, and an index.