Dance found its first home in K-12 and higher education in physical education programs. The first dance major was approved in the Women's Physical Education Department at the University of Wisconsin / Madison in 1926. Until the 1970s, most school and university dance programs were affiliated with girls' and women's physical education. However, legislation in 1972 (Title IX) and 1974 (Equal Educational Opportunity) caused PE to focus on coeducational sports. Simultaneously, dance artists were encouraged to get degrees in teaching dance. Thus began a thirty year migration of dance into the fine and performing arts. Over the three decades, dance further defined itself as arts-based while physical education became more specialized in the areas of athletics, human kinetics and sports science.

Throughout this transition for dance, from physical education to fine arts, professional preparation and pedagogy in dance changed dramatically. More and more dance educators emerged from colleges and universities trained in creative and artistic processes in dance (creating, performing and analyzing dance) as well as cultural, historical, and artistic contexts of dance.
 
In the course of these three decades, Americans and postsecondary institutions grew to appreciate the artistic, educational and cultural values of dance; and, gradually, the departments of fine and performing arts became the new home for artistic dance. It was a natural home for artistic dance because in the colleges of fine arts aesthetics were understood and taught as intellectual content, skills and knowledge, artistic experimentation and performance were encouraged, and music, visual arts, and theatre resided in postsecondary education.
 

By the early 1990s, dance achieved a national presence when it joined forces with music, visual arts and theatre to support national initiatives in arts education. Major initiatives included the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, national standards and assessments in the arts, opportunity-to-learn standards, teacher guidelines for certification and licensure, national arts surveys in American schools, and national task force committees on a myriad of arts issues (assessments, research, early childhood education, professional development, teacher training, etc.).

For more information, see "The National Agenda for Dance Arts Education: Evolution of Dance as an Art Form Intersects with Evolution of Federal Interest In, and Support of Arts Education," Bonbright, J.M.(2007).