Human Rights Education: The 4th R, Human Rights Education
and the Arts, vol. 7 No. 1, Winter 1996.

Dance

Scott Douglas Morrow: Jazz Dance as Medium for Cultural Understanding

How can the arts develop cross-cultural understanding? For Scott Douglas Morrow, a well-known New York City-based choreographer and educator, “The arts offer a culture-sensitive approach to education, a powerful vehicle for students to explore the implications of their cultures and to engage in self-definition.”

Morrow, who currently serves as Chief Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Education in Dance, often presents Jazz Dance: A Multicultural Experience to educational, professional, and community groups. Participants have ranged from public school students to educators at all levels to governmental representatives of the United States and other countries.

Morrow’s workshop combines an overview of the historical development of jazz dance with experiential learning. He states, “The best way to understand a culture is to live it, to feel it.” Jazz dance, which is unique to the United States, provides a mode of exploring, enacting, and living out several cultures in a vibrant form. Its multicultural roots meld African, Caribbean, Latin, and European influences. During the workshop, participants practice basic steps from each cultural tradition and learn how the traditions became jazz dance. They then learn elemental jazz steps and sequences.

Morrow believes that jazz dance as experienced through his workshop models active learning; makes the arts come alive through feeling, movement, and human interaction; and promotes cultural respect—all with the purposes of breaking down barriers and building bridges. His advice for others who want to use the arts to further cultural understanding included these ideas: (1) Select an art form which has different cultural frameworks, but do not force the connections; (2) Research carefully the cultural roots and historical contexts of the art form that you choose; (3) Use primary sources from the cultures so that the cultural, historical, and scholarly viewpoints are authentic; (4) Search for commonalities as well as differences in the artistic traditions; and (5) Use an experiential learning format whenever possible.

Scott Douglas Morrow may be reached at 28-04 33rd Street, Astoria, New York 11102; 718-721-9785.