ABSTRACT
As early as 1909, the traditional, if unaesthetic, location of dance in the physical education department appears to have been settled. When Cecil Sharp's national drive to revive and popularize folk dancing prompted the Board of Education to include it as an appropriate physical training activity in public elementary schools. In 1938 Rudolf von Laban, the most distinguished pioneer of Central European modern dance, arrived in England as a refugee from Germany. Although Laban is today considered a major theoretician and originator of what is currently termed 'community dance', he was also a dancer, choreographer and opera director. Although 'modern educational dance' was skilfully updated to encompass the directive to teach dance as art form, the influence of Laban's work diminished and dance educators turned heavily, somewhat uncritically to the pool of expertise presented by the London Contemporary Dance Theatre and the contemporary American technique of Martha Graham.
