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OPDI-112: Implementing NCAS Dance Standards
September 07, 2026 - November 29, 2026
This course will delve into the National Core Arts Standards in Dance that were launched in October 2014 as part of a collaborative effort with all the major art forms including dance, music, theater, visual arts, and media arts. The dance standards focus on the 4 artistic processes of creating, performing, responding, and connecting. Participants will go in-depth with the standards and learn how to apply the standards in their own classrooms or studios. During this course, participants will develop curriculum and lesson plans based on the National Core Arts Standards or other locally required standards.
Book required: None
How do OPDI Online Courses for dance teachers work?
Our “online” courses are guided by a professor and include a co-hort of students (other dance teachers) with whom you will collaborate. They also include graded assignments, feedback, final grades, and Professional Development Credits (PDCs). Our OPDI online courses require on average between 6 to 8 hours of work each week, but it all depends on your learning style. It could be less or could be more. You can also register as an Audit student and do as much or as little work as you want and will not receive a grade.
We utilize the Sakai online learning platform to deliver the course materials and instruction. Our courses are asynchronous, so there are no required meeting dates or times but we do have a Course Start and Course End date; however, our courses offer at least 2 optional live Q&A-Feedback zoom sessions during the course to enhance opportunities for connection with other students and the professor. Every week of the course there are assignments that you will need to complete with due dates listed in the course outline / syllabus.
Assignments can be done at any time during the week prior to the due date and may include reading, watching videos, posting answers to prompts on a discussion board, writing an essay, reading and responding to other students' posts on the discussion board, taking a cell phone video of yourself completing a particular movement, taking a quiz, or completing a final project. The professor provides written feedback and grades and you get to connect with other students (who are actually dance teachers) via our discussion board and the optional live Q&A feedback sessions.
Agenda
Speakers
| Name | Organization | Speaking At |
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Marty Sprague
<p><strong>Marty Sprague</strong> has over 45 years of experience in dance education (early childhood through higher education), holds an MA, in Dance Education from Teachers College, Columbia University and a BFA in Dance from Boston Conservatory. She has been involved in program, curriculum, professional, and policy development. She has written and reviewed standards at the district, state and national levels. Marty is co-author, with Helene Scheff and Susan McGreevy-Nichols, of six dance text and resource books (including online content for the textbook). Marty has served on the editorial board for Arts Education Policy Review and JODE. She served on the Dance Writing Team for the NCCAS Dance Standards. Currently, Marty is a course writer and an instructor for NDEO’s OPDI, a Moving For Life Certified Instructor (pending), and is President of Dance Alliance of RI. She has joined the Rhode Island Arts and Health Network Steering Committee to advance the role of Arts in the well-being of all Rhode Islanders. Marty teaches OPDI-112 Implementing the National Core Arts Standards in Dance; OPDI-115: Dance Integration: Re-envisioning the Creative Process; OPDI-M13: Modern Dance Theory and Composition; OPDI-M18: Intro to Choreography in Dance Education: A Process to Teach Students How to Create Dances, and OPDI-M19: Dance Stagecraft and Production.</p>
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Rhode Island Dance Alliance |
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Susan McGreevy-Nichols
<p><strong>Susan McGreevy-Nichols </strong>is the Executive Director of the National Dance Education Organization a non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement and promotion of high quality education in the art of dance. Her service to the field of arts education includes sitting on a number of national committees and task forces, including serving on the leadership team for NCCAS. She has contributed to the development of the National Core Standards in Arts Education; the NAEP Assessments; the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) Model Standards for Beginning Teacher Licensing, Assessment and Development; She has developed numerous online courses for NDEO’s OPDI.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As a teacher at Roger Williams Middle School in Providence, Rhode Island from 1974-2002, Susan founded and developed that institution’s nationally renowned middle school dance program. She is the developer of a cutting-edge reading comprehension strategy that uses text as inspiration for original choreography created by children. This literacy-based methodology combines the creative process with reading instruction.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>She is co-author of five books: <em>Building Dances</em> (1995) (2005), <em>Building More Dances</em> (2001), <em>Experiencing Dance</em> (2004) (2014), <em>Dance about Anything</em> (2006) and <em>Dance Forms and Styles</em> (2010). She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Dance Education (JODE), is a former columnist for Dance Teacher Magazine and has been an invited contributor to the Arts Education Policy Review.</p>
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NDEO |
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