Abstract EN:

Using dance as a vehicle for education, that is, as a quality means of training people in life skills, signifies an education "for life" ("education tout au long de la vie"), open to all, and anchored in popular praxis. The idea is to train as many people as possible in this practice. The objectives of such an educational strategy are numerous: to develop a robust and attractive physicality, to augment leadership skills and teach good posture, to cultivate thoughtfulness, to awaken people's intelligence and to elevate individual creativity. Looking at the history of dance from antiquity to the present in three specific cultures (that of France, China and the USA), this thesis puts forward an analysis of significant historic moments in dance-education, by which contraction, "dance-education" is meant to signify at once: an education about dancing that is realized by dancing, and an education aimed at training people well for life and in a wide array of contexts both temporal and geographic.