Stronger Together.
Inspiring
Dance
Education.
DSANZ is the national subject association for dance education in Aotearoa New Zealand.
We support teachers with knowledge, resources, and professional development, fostering a collaborative and inclusive community. Through advocacy and guidance, DSANZ empowers dance educators to grow their practice, in turn growing their ākonga.
Advocate
We champion dance education in Aotearoa.
Connect
Join a network of passionate educators
Support
Access resources and expert guidance
Grow
Professional learning that inspires
What is Dance Education?
Dance education is the study of movement as an art form, and the opportunity to learn through movement. Students create choreography, perform with intent, and interpret dance works. They engage with a wide range of genres and explore diverse cultural perspectives.
Through this process, they express ideas, identities, and stories, while developing creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking. Dance develops problem-solving, and the ability to explore multiple solutions.
Through dance, students build transferable skills such as discipline, perseverance, teamwork, communication, empathy, and emotional awareness.
Dance education supports cognitive, physical, personal, and social development.
Meet our Kaiārahi
Our Kaiārahi, Chloe Davison and Patrice O’Brien support dance teachers in schools throughout the country working with teachers from years 1 – 13.
They provide teaching, learning and assessment support through online forums, resource sharing, inquiry clusters, workshops and face to face collaboration. They take a ‘for teachers, by teachers’ approach – encouraging peer to peer collaboration and sharing of expertise.
Services for teachers and kaiako are funded by the Ministry of Education through their Networks of Expertise (NEX) agreement with DSANZ
Chole Davison
Kaiārahi
Patrice O’Brien
Kaiārahi
Upcoming Event
DSANZ Annual Conference 2026
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25th – 30th September
Wellington, NZ
Resources
LEARNING AREA
Year 0 – 6
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LEARNING AREA
Year 7 – 10
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LEARNING AREA
Year 11 – 13
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