Melanie discusses her experiences as a 18-year old dance student and assistant teacher. She has studied various dance styles for over 11 years and helped teach dance classes to elementary students for the past 5 years. Melanie describes how different ways of knowing, such as language, perception, and emotion, have impacted her learning in dance. She notes challenges with using vague dance terminology and with selectively perceiving dance movements. Melanie also explains how balancing stress levels impacts dance performance based on Yerkes-Dodson's theory. She reflects on applying what she has learned about ways of knowing to continue growing as a learner in college and dance.

1. Introduction
Melanie: Hello my name is Melanie Bunker. I’m eighteen years old and I have attended
ISB for about 11 years. Senior Seminar explores the different theories of knowledge and
how we can apply them to our everyday life. We have gone in depth about the basic four
WoK: reason, perception, language and emotion. We have also studied other areas of
knowledge such as mathematics, arts, sciences, history, ethics, and religion. The aim of
this class is to try to find explanations for ‘how do we know what we know’? With the
Wok and the AoK I mentioned, as a class we have come closer to finding answers to that
basic question than we were before the semester started. Today I will be talking about
how different ways of knowing have affected my learning experiences in the dancing
field and helped me grow both as an individual and as a dance student.
Interviewer: What is a specific example of your learning experiences as a dancer that
has affected you as a dance student?
Overview of my Learning Experience
Melanie: A specific example of my learning experiences from my dance career would
be: my student dance assistant job I have had for the past 5 years and my dance classes
that I attend. Over the past 5 years I have helped taught jazz and ballet classes to
elementary students from the ages of 10 to the age of 4. As a dance assistant I have
had the pleasure of going week after week, day after day to a room full of energetic
elementary kids to teach them something that I love. I have studied different dance styles
since I started dancing; jazz, ballet, and pointe. I have participated in IASAS dance for
the past two years along with taking IB Dance class. I have had the privilege to have
amazing teachers for all the dance styles that I have taken.
Taking dance classes itself has basically taught me self-discipline and how much love I
must have for doing dance for me to do it for about 15 hours a week.
Interviewer: Therefore, in reflecting and giving us an overall introduction about your
experience as a dance assistant, how has different ways of knowledge affect your learning
both as a dance assistant and a dancer specifically?
WoK #1: Language
Melanie: Now that I have introduced what it has meant to me to be a dance assistant and
as a dancer, we can link this to the different Ways of Knowing to how dance it taught in
and of itself.
When you teach dance you don’t always have to use the spoken language, we use our

2. body language to communicate different dance moves so that collectively as a whole
the group can perform their best. The dance terms are specific and you have to know the
meanings in order to do the steps that your teacher is asking you to do.
Interviewer: What theory from the Language WaysofKnowing does this apply to?
meaning as know how which is I learned the meaning of the word when I knew how to
use it-- For example, I know what a chasse is from not only the dictionary definition of
the translation is “to chase”, so in my mind whenever I hear ‘chasse’ I know that my
feet have to ‘chase’ each other in the air. When you teach children the terms you have to
make sure that you know it so that you don’t confuse them. Many times I have seen girls
calling steps the wrong names and I have to correct them.
After years of ballet and jazz I have a small repertoire of French words. I don’t have to be
fluent in French—or even take French class to know what my teachers are telling me to
do but since I have heard the name of the step and my teacher showed me that step, I can
associate the step with that word.
Interviewer: Can this be applied to any other theories of meaning?
Dance is not only about the definition theory- like the meaning of the terms but image
theory as well and how I interpret the steps that my teacher tells me to do. This form of
language is entirely creative and open-ended. Myself and other dancers are able to use
the language used to create dozens of different combinations if we are given as little as 5
dance terms.
Interviewer: What are some problems you have encountered as a dancer with language?
Melanie: Some problems, just like in language, that when my teacher says a dance
term it is still a matter of know-how. Unless I have heard the term before and have
actually tried the step, chances are that I will know what my teacher is asking us to do.
But if I have only heard that term once, then chances are I will be clueless as to what
I am supposed to do. I have had experiences where my teacher says “Alright we are
doing a combo across the floor, I want you to do tambe, padubare, chasse, grand jete”,
and sometimes I wont know what to do because it is too vague. Not only do I have to
remember the combo that I was told, not shown, I also have to put it to music that either
has a fast or slow tempo, so sometimes its too vague. Language in dance has helped
served as a medium between the choreographer and the dancers and can help the dancers
express language through movement. We are always using body movement to express
language even if the movement is holding a pose on stage.

3. WoK #2: Perception
Perception is also another very important Way of Knowing that affects my learning
experience as a dance assistant as well as a dancer. Perception allows use to interpret
what we have observed through our five senses. It enables us to structure our reality.
Dance is an art form that allows us to see the world through different eyes. We are able
to create movements that allow us to express ourselves and we are given opportunities
to watch professional dance companies and when they dance you can see that in every
movement they are grabbing the world around them and transforming it into art so that
the audience can visually see. There are a lot of flaws with perception because it is so
specific to the individual that it is harder to find true knowledge.
Interviewer: What are some problems you see with perception and dance?
MELANIE: The hardest thing that I have with perception in dance is of the expectations
that I have set for myself and what I think others have set for me. When I dance ballet or
jazz, I picture what the people are watching me are seeing. But sometimes it is entirely
different than when I watch the recording of my dance. For example, when I have
performed in duets or small ensembles in the past, I feel like I am doing my best on stage
but when I watch it, it is nothing like how I imagined the audience saw it.
Interviewr: How does the selectivity of preception come into play with dance?
Melanie: The problem of ‘selectivity of perception’ can be seen in the dancers I teach.
They will listen and see what they want according to how they are feeling. They react to
what they want and how they want. When they dance, they pick out the moves that stands
out to them and it is hard for me as a dance assistant to correct their movements, even
if they are a little bit off because it has become a habit for them. The most evident age
group that this problem can be seen at is between the ages of 4-6. I can name at least two
girls in my classes that that this affects them the most. If they are in a good mood, they
will do their best to impress myself and the teacher, but if the teacher or myself gently
scolds them, they feel offended and their mood shifts and they don’t feel like dancing
anymore.
As a performer and choreographer, selectivty of perception is always something to think
about. I dont want to have a group of 5 plus dancers on the stage and all doing something
different or else the audience wont be able to see the big picture and they start picking out
the things they like and focus on a particular person instead of the group.
As a choreographer, I have images in my head of what dance steps I want to do but you
don’t want to make it too literal or else the audience will get bored and wont use their
imagination. For example, if I had a dance around the theme of ‘gestures’ I wouldnt want
to put in movements like waving my hands, i would want to come up with something

4. more abstract so that the audience will think out of the box and try to figure out what the
movement is.
WoK #3: Emotion
Whether you are choreographing your own dance or you’re taught, it
is your responsibility to put emotion in it. For every dance, there is a
choreographer’s intent where they have themes that they want to express
through different emotions. Dancers use the primary emotions- happiness,
sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust- as well as the dancers experiment
with other social emotions. The music itself has a mood that sets the tone
for the dance. The tone of the music plays off of the choreographer’s intent.
I know that when I choreograph a dance I pick my emotion first then I
find a song that sounds like that emotion so that the audience will get the
message behind the dance.
Interviewer: As a dancer, are there times when emotions negatively
impact performance?
MELANIE: There are instances where emotions of the students do affect
their performance. You can tell who the teacher’s favorites are in the
class and when we do critiques, the teacher mentions only a few mistakes
that they did, but when it comes to me (and other dancers) we are given
a laundry list of what we need to work on. It’s not a problem to have
corrections but this is an example of emotional coloring.
When the girls that I teach are not quiet and don’t listen to me, I do use
emotive language, but not to the extent that will make them cry but enough
to get them to sit still and listen instead of doing cartwheels across the
floor.
Interviewer: How does Yerkes-Dodson’s theory work? And how does it
ties in with dancing?
MElanie: This is a performance theory where the more stress that is placed
in a situation, the worse you perform. On the contrary it can be negative
when you have low stress levels you also perform poorly. Your optimal
performance is when you have a perfect balance between stress and
performance. Before performances, backstage all the dancers wish each

5. other good luck which helps us to be excited and anxious. Also the fact that
there is an audience, is nerve wrecking but when you are backstage with
a team before a performance, it is comforting and helps us all perform at
our best. I do have embarassing moments when my stress was too high for
a performance, i totally froze on stage and it was really embarassig. But it
just teaches me to learn how to balance and control my stress before I go
on stage.
Emotion in dance is a key factor in not only performing but also your own
attitude in a dance class.
Interviewer: What do you know about yourself that will change how you approach
learning in the future?
Analysis of my approach to learning in the future
After going in depth into about the different studies of Theory of Knowledge I am able to
apply the Ways of Knowing (language, perception, reason, and emotion) into how I learn
dance and how I teach dance. I can take what I have learned and expand it to more areas
of my life, not just dance.
In the future, I will be more aware of the limitations that come with life experiences.
There will be times when I will need to judge a decision based on my emotions rather
than my language and there will be times where my emotions are not a reliable source of
knowledge to confirm my decisions or opinions. This class has given me new insights on
how to base my knowledge off of, do I always follow the strict, Plato’s theory of K=JTB
or will I be able to be a little more lenient on my decisions that maybe they don’t always
have to be a belief to make it knowledge, even if it’s a decision based on do I continue
dancing in the future?
With starting college next semester, I am able to be more cautious about the choices that I
will make, especially since I will be on my own. The Yerkes-Dodson performance curve
is probably what I will use most in my future as I continue to take dance classes as well
as learning how to balance my everyday life.