Ely Teachers Work with Dance Education Specialist Mary Harding

March 27, 2025

A group of teachers in Ely Public Schools recently worked with Perpich Dance Instructor and Dance Education Specialist, Mary Harding, to incorporate more movement into their lessons. The afternoon went by quickly, as they worked through various interdisciplinary strategies, used jazz choreography to create a dance demonstrating fitness concepts, and tried out an improvisational structure to demonstrate some components of sports. Mary also shared experiences to increase literacy by adding movement to some of her favorite picture books such as “I Am Tree”, “Where We Come From”, and “Mashkiki Road”. The group took a visit to Math teacher Molly Olson’s class where the students created and documented a dance using math symbols. This “field trip” helped the teachers to recognize common misunderstandings when teaching dance. The Ely teachers broke the silos and generated many ideas on using movement to cross disciplines.

Mary Harding (center), Perpich Dance Instructor and Dance Education Specialist, poses with educators from Ely Public Schools

According to Harding, “Movement can be such a great way for students to show their understanding in any number of content areas, and a modality that is often forgotten. I loved working with this amazing group of teachers and look forward to more opportunities in the future!”

The group included physical education teachers, a math and computer science teacher, and Tara (McDunn) Johnson, a Kindergarten teacher who is also a Visual Arts 1999 graduate of Perpich Arts High School. A special thank you to Molly Olson and others who helped make this day possible.

Mary Harding is both the Dance Education Specialist (since 2018) and the Arts High School Dance Instructor (since 1990) at Perpich. In her dance career she has performed professionally with ballet, jazz, and modern companies. While a member of the Zenon Dance Company, Harding taught dance residencies in schools across the nation. In 2002, The National Dance Association and Sportime named her the National Dance Teacher of the Year. In the same year, Mary received the SURDNA Arts Teachers Fellowship. Over the years, she has developed multiple interdisciplinary works with her colleagues and students and has presented this work at national conferences. Mary received her master’s degree in curriculum and instruction from the College of St. Catherine. Her research, “Peer Coaching in the Arts Classroom,” received the Sister Ann Harvey Action Research Award in 2008 and the Arts Schools Network Research Initiative Award in 2009. The research was published in the June 2009 edition of Journal of Dance Education. Her article, “Assessment in the High School Technique Class – Creating Thinking Dancers”, was published in the August 2012 edition of JODE. Harding was a member of the MN Standards writing team in 2008 and 2018. Harding was on the National Core Arts Standards Writing Team in 2012. In 2020, Mary was appointed to a three-year term on the National Dance Education Organization’s Board of Directors. She is currently a writer for National Core Arts Standards as part of the Community for All Learners Lesson Piloting Team. She is also a participant in a national Professional Learning Community through Connected Arts Network. Her interests lie in K-12 dance standards, equity and access in curriculum development, highlighting student voice, and supporting emerging K-12 teachers through professional development.