Barbara Bashaw
Office Location:
44 D Horace Mann HallEducational Background
Ed.D. Art & Art Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
M.A., Dance Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
C.M.A., Laban Bartentieff Institute of Movement Studies
B.S. Interdisciplinary Arts for Children and Dance Performance, Summa Cum Laude, SUNY Brockport
Scholarly Interests
My interests are at the intersection of human development and embodied cognition in artistic development, with expertise in minoritized dance education histories, dance leadership research, teacher education, PK-12 dance certification and teacher preparation, STEAM, interdisciplinary social-justice learning, collaborative choreo-educative practice, embodied pedagogies, and embodied research methods.
Selected Publications
Bashaw, B., Grundstrom, J., Houston, C., & Warburton, E.C. (2023). Mapping leadership studies in dance and dance education. In Dance leadership in the era of innovation and inclusion. Proceedings of the Korean Society of Dance. Seoul, South Korea.
Bashaw, B., Henley, M., & Warburton, E.C. (2022). Pioneering visions for access and equity in dance education: Inaugural symposium of the Arnhold Institute. Research in Dance Education, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/14647893.2022.2062318
Bashaw, B. & Nesbit, M. (2020). Whistleblowing adolescent Sexual Abuse. In D. Risner & K. Schupp (Eds), Ethical dilemmas in dance education: Case studies on humanizing dance pedagogy (pp. 188-196). Jefferson: McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers.
Bashaw B. (2019). A historical exposition of dance education in the U.S.: The emergence of creative dance learning at Teachers College. In New paradigm of dance education: Creativity, innovation and advocacy, Proceedings of the International Symposium of the Korean Society of Dance (pp. 97-108). Seoul, South Korea: The Korean Society of Dance, Hanyang University.
Bashaw, B. (2016). Dance as core content in U.S. education: New standards for a new century. The Korean Journal of Dance Studies. V60, 3 pp., 1-14.
Bashaw, B., Contributor, Chapter 5: Service in Overby, L. (2016). Public scholarship in dance: Teaching, Choreography, Research, Service, and Assessment for Community Engagement. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Bashaw, B. (2015.) Thinking skills writing prompts for dance: Negotiating common core instruction. Dance Education in Practice, 1 (1). 23.
State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. (2014). National core arts standards: Dance. Dover, DE: State Education Agency Directors of Arts Education. [Writing team member.]
Giguere, M., & Bashaw, B. (2013). Book review: Close encounters: Dance partners for creativity K. Chappell, L. Rolfe, A. Craft, V. Jobbins. Trentham books, Stoke on Trent, UK (2011). Thinking Skills and Creativity, 10 (December 2013), 99.
Bashaw, B. (2011). Young choreographers: An ethno-phenomenological study of developmental and socio-cultural influences during untutored dance making. (Ed.D., Teachers College, Columbia University). , 369. (3484341). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, (prod.academic MSTAR 903803056).
Bashaw, B., & Brennan, M. A. (2011). Book Review: Creative dance for learning: The kinesthetic link. Journal of Dance Education, 11(3), 105-106.
Bashaw, B. (2009). A hidden world of dance making. In Dance, Dance Education in Human Life, Proceedings of the Korean Association of Dance International Congress, Seoul, South Korea.
Biographical Information
Dr. Barbara Bashaw is the Arnhold Professor of Practice, Program Director of the Ed.D. Dance Education Program, and the Executive Director of the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education Research, Policy & Leadership. With extensive teaching and leadership experience in university settings as a graduate director, program director, and as a department chair, she is a recognized expert in dance teacher education. She founded and pioneered three of the leading graduate programs in dance education: Rutgers University (Ed.M. Dance Education with Teacher Certification) and New York University (M.A. Dance Education with Teacher Certification and M.A. Ballet Pedagogy). As a chair, she has also led a top-ranked conservatory department within Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, which awards B.A., B.F.A., Ed.M., and M.F.A. dance degrees. She has also served on the faculties of the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers (2010-2017) and the Dance Education Laboratory (1997-2008).
Dr. Bashaw serves as the Program Director, Major Degree Advisor, Dissertation Advisor, and the Executive Director of the Arnhold Institute. Her primary leadership responsibilities at TC include daily administration and program/institute operations, including admissions, recruitment, scholarship administration, budgeting, course scheduling, staff hiring, program planning, curriculum design, policy development, degree advisement and tracking, studio oversight, events and symposium planning, marketing, and the onboarding and mentoring of faculty and instructors. Dr. Bashaw also develops cross-TC and external partnerships, including the existing partnership MOUs with Ballet Hispanico and Kookmin University in South Korea. As the co-founder and Executive Director of the Arnhold Institute, she leads a team of fifteen colleagues, including professional Research Associates, staff members, and student research assistants, to accomplish multiple research and scholarly projects. As the founding faculty member for the doctoral program, she was also responsible for leading the development, design, and construction of programmatic space, including program offices in 44 HM and the new Arnhold Dance Education Research Studios. As an alumna of TC, her latest effort is to re-establish Morningside DanceWorks, a recreational community dance program and teaching laboratory led by students. She has developed over $11 million in funding for the program and institute between 2018-2024.
As a researcher and post-secondary educator, Dr. Bashaw's interests include embodied dance meaning-making and cognition, artistic development, educational history, teacher education, curriculum design, program evaluation, dance leadership, and community-based, liberatory, collaborative, and educational practice. Thus, her research and pedagogical work are situated within the shared experience of cultivating artistry to transform, expand, make meaning, and interconnect to a wide array of transdisciplinary epistemologies, living within the intersections of constructivism, advocacy-liberatory, and pragmatist frames. Dr. Bashaw actively engages in a variety of qualitative research approaches, including ethnographic, focus group, interview, embodied, and historical. She has examined the perspectives of choreographers, dance leaders, dance educators, university dancers, children, and adolescent dance learners. She has published articles and book chapters, serves on the editorial boards of Dance Education In Practice journal and the Korean Journal of Dance Studies, and has been a keynote speaker as well as has presented her scholarship at over 50 conferences nationally and internationally. She has been sought out to lead dance education residencies and professional development workshops. Actively involved in public scholarship, she has served on national and NEA-funded projects, including the NCAS National Dance Standards writing team; the NDEO Dance Entry Level Teacher Assessment; the New Jersey VPA Dance Standards writing team; the New Jersey State Teacher Preparation Standards VPA committee; the NJDOE CTE Dance and Theater High School Exam; the NYSED Dance Content Specialty Certification Exam; and the NYCDOE Blueprint for Dance advisory committee, amongst other projects. As a board member, Bashaw was instrumental in re-constituting NYSDEA and has served as president of Dance New Jersey.
With a committed belief that youth have important insights to contribute within a broad spectrum of dance artistry, Dr. Bashaw is committed to advancing equity and access to dance education and challenging historical prejudices in the field. Dr. Bashaw’s scholarship continues to be informed by children as young artists and an appreciation for their lively and profound worldviews. Prior to transitioning to post-secondary education, Dr. Bashaw worked with children and adolescents within community settings and private studios, was co-founder of Bridge for Dance studio, and with the NYC DOE public schools. As a PK-12 certified, tenured, PK-12 dance educator, she was recognized for her work, “Choreographer’s Workshop,” guiding young choreographers using a fusion of interdisciplinary methods, social justice dialogue, and Laban movement analysis approaches, interconnecting with STEAM approaches to literacy, science, math, and social studies. She began her PK-12 career as a teaching artist and master teacher-of-teachers for the Creative Arts Laboratory at TC, ArtsConnection, and the 92Y School Partners program, where she collaborated with and learned from hundreds of classroom and arts teachers. Throughout her PK-12 career, she has worked in a wide variety of urban school contexts, including zoned, SURR, magnet, and gifted elementary, middle, and high schools. With an interest in the intersection between PK-12 and post-secondary education, Dr. Bashaw directed the Rutgers Summer Dance Conservatory (2010-2017), which integrates university faculty, PK-12 faculty, and graduate students to provide pre-college dance education opportunities and outstanding scholarship funding to underserved youth.
Dr. Bashaw has choreographed professionally for theater companies, PK-12 programs, and college programs, where she has also served as Artistic Director for numerous productions. She is a Laban Certified Movement Analyst and has engaged in a wide range of dance and somatic studies, including Afro-Brazilian, Afro-Haitian, Bartenieff Fundamentals, ballet, ballroom, jazz, modern (focus on Limon and Humphrey-Weidman) Raks Sharki, and tap. Some of her notable dance teachers have included Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Alan Danielson, Jaqueline Davis, Robert Ellis Dunn, Garth Fagan, Sandra Fraleigh, Julio Jean, Carol Mezzacappa, Clyde Morgan, Djoniba Mouflet, Susanna Newman, Jim Payton, Janice Pforsich, and Jacqueline Villamil. Dr. Bashaw’s life partner is the lauded choreographer and Guggenheim Fellow Doug Elkins, and she is the proud parent of two children.
Honors and Awards
Special Achievement Award, Korean Society of Dance (2022)
Honorable Mention: Teachers College Faculty Teaching Award (2021)
Cover Story: Cultivating Leaders at Columbia Teachers College, Dance Teacher magazine (2020)
Rutgers Leadership Academy (2017-2019)
Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts, The College at Brockport, State University of New York (2015)
Teaching Excellence Award, NYU Steinhardt (2009)
BAX10 Passing It On Arts Educator Award (2004)
Emerging Visionary Award, National Dance Education Organization (2003)
Featured Teacher: Sparking creativity in kids. Dance Teacher magazine (2003)
Charter Academy Member, New York State Academy for Teaching and Learning (1997)
Professional Experiences
Editorial and Board of Directors
Dance Education in Practice Journal, Taylor & Francis (2014 - Present)
Board of Directors, Dance New Jersey
- President, 2016-2019
- Executive Committee, 2015 – 2016
- Board Member, 2009-2015
Board of Directors, New York State Dance Educators Association (2005-2009)
Selected Public Scholarship
Dance and Blended Learning Advisory Committee (2020-2022)
Office of Arts and Special Projects, NYC DOE
New Jersey Core Arts Standards, Dance Task Force Writing Team (2014-2015)
Visual and Performing Arts, Office of Curriculum and Instruction
New Jersey Department of Education, Trenton, New Jersey
Dance Entry Level Teacher Assessment Exam, Co-Editor (2013-2018)
National Dance Education Organization, Silver Spring, Maryland
National Core Arts Standards, Dance Task Force Writing Team (2011-2015)
National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, Reston, Virginia
Rutgers Pre-College Summer Dance Conservatory, Director (2010-2017)
Mason Gross School of the Arts, Extension Division
Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey
NJDOE CTE Dance and Theater Exams, Site Coordinator & Data Analyst (2009-2012)
Office of Career and Technical Education
New Jersey Department of Education, Trenton, New Jersey
Blueprint for Teaching & Learning in Dance, Advisory Team (2003-2006)
Office of Arts and Special Projects
New York City Department of Education, New York, New York
NYS Dance Content Specialty Exam, Advisory Committee (2003-2005)
New York State Education Department
Albany, New York
Selected Artistic Direction
DancePlus Concert (2018)
Works by Stefanie Batten-Bland, Maxine Doyle, John Evans, Paul Ocampo, Laurel Snyder, Pam Tanowitz and Chien Ying Wang
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
F.A. Senior Concert (2018)
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Student Concert (2018)
Loree Dance Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Motion: New Dance Works (2017)
Co-Produced with Dan Swern, coLab Arts
Featuring works by Kiri Avelar, Jessica Featherson, Camille Moten, Esther Baker-Tarpaga, Stephanie Beauchamp and Hillary Marie
Loree Dance Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Rutgers in New York: Dance at the Joyce (2017)
Works by Darrell Grand Moultrie, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris and Reggie Wilson
The Joyce Theater, New York, New York
DancePlus Concert (Fall 2017)
Featuring works by John Evans, Lar Lubovitch, Mark Morris, Darrell Grand Moultrie, Pam Tanowitz and Reggie Wilson
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
BFA Senior Solo and Duet Concert (2017)
Loree Dance Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
From the Horses Mouth: Celebrating Don Redlich (2017)
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Alumni Dance Concert (2017)
Loree Dance Theater
Featuring Joe Monteleone, Shawn Brush, Sara Crayne-Dedrick, Andy Santana and Jennifer Payan
Loree Dance Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Mason Gross Summer Series (2017)
Works by Hi-K Dance, Seoul, Korea
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Dance New Jersey Showcase (2016)
Works by Lauren Connolly, Maureen Glennon, Randy James and Ariel Rivka
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Mason Gross Summer Series (2012-2015)
Works by The BANG Group (2015)
Works by Douglas Dunn and Dancers (2014)
Works by Doug Elkins, Randy James and Manuel Vignoulle (2013)
Works by Monica Bill Barnes (2012)
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey
Rutgers Summer Conservatory Showcases (2011-2017)
Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater, New Brunswick, New Jersey