People Dancing

The NOS can be broken down under five broad headings:

A: Know and communicate your experience of leading dance to potential customers
B: Develop working relationships with communities and supporting organisations
C: Deliver effective dance leadership and engagement
D: Evaluate your practice and develop an awareness of achievement in participants
E: Reflect on and share evaluation findings to develop your own practice and role.

Each of the five categories contains more detailed descriptions of the skills and knowledge the dance leaders need. Not all practitioners will need to be proficient in all of the skills outlined in the Standards, however learning to become a reflective practitioner and having an overview of all the skills outlined in the Standards should help us plan what we need to learn in the future. Also, being able to describe our skills and knowledge to prospective employers will increase our chances of employment in the sector.

You can explore each individual Standard by following the links below and these are identified as * essential and + desirable:

In 2005, People Dancing, on behalf of its members, took the lead on the process of research and development to provide the community dance profession with a strategy to address its current and future development needs. It did this by articulating professional standards, supporting professional development and validating professional status in community dance.

The process began with extensive consultation with individuals and organisations across the dance and arts sectors. This took the form of face to face meetings and an online survey.

Making a Move was the resulting strategy, launched in 2006 and completed in 2008. After 2008, People Dancing joined with the Dance Training and Accreditation Partnership to realise the strategy in a collective way.

You can read the executive summaries for Making a Move below: