| Chapter 2: | Legacy for Dance as a Discipline: 1917–1967 |
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In June of 1926, she submitted a design for a specialized major in dancing within the women’s physical education major. On October 13, 1926, the Department of Physical Education–Women’s Division and School of Education forwarded the specialized major in dancing to the faculty of the College of Letters and Science for their consideration. The College and Faculty Senate approved the new plan and the first dance majors started their studies in the spring semester of 1927. An M.A. with a specialized major in dancing was accepted later that same year (Physical Education Alumni Association Bulletin 1927, 332).
Margaret H’Doubler’s contributions to establishing a path for dance in the American university were foundational. She articulated the scope of the subject area, setting the initial standard for dance major curricula––including course work in anatomy and kinesiology, fundamental movement skills (technique), historical perspectives (dance history), creative movement (composition, taught as a separate course in the first dance curriculum), understanding relationships between movement and rhythm (rhythmic analysis), teaching the body to move (teaching methods), and developing an understanding of classic and contemporary thinking on the moving body (dance philosophy). H’Doubler also articulated purposes for dance in education: to lead the individual to kinesthetic awareness, to develop the student’s understanding of movement’s expressive capacities, and to stimulate the creative use of movement in the expression of individually inspired art ideas; “There should be no imitation or memory, as far as set movements and gestures are concerned” (H’Doubler 1921, 11). In these contexts, dance education was entirely nonprofessional.
After the creation of the major in dancing, H’Doubler spent her remaining years in academia reiterating these points of view. She had a great influence over the development of dance in the American university. Her argument against professional values in dance education, however, did not stand the tests of time. Dance in the academy did not evolve in a cultural vacuum. Developments in the university dance studio mirrored those in the professional world. In April of 1926, Martha Graham presented her first solo concert. H’Doubler submitted her major curriculum to Wisconsin’s faculty in June of the same year.