Margaret H`Doubler(1882-1982), who is widely regarded as a dance pioneer in the American University, was not a dancer. However, she arranged dance as a part of the college curriculum, organized the first campus performing group which was called ``orch...
Margaret H`Doubler(1882-1982), who is widely regarded as a dance pioneer in the American University, was not a dancer. However, she arranged dance as a part of the college curriculum, organized the first campus performing group which was called ``orchesis``. Also, she set up the first college degree program in dance. She elaborated long to bridge the gap that developed between dance and physical education, but finally each discipline turned away from the other. She majored in biology as a student and she developed a method of pedagogy which was based on a knowledge of anatomy, physiology and physics as applied to movement and the human body. H`Doubler brought in her most famous prop from her experience in the sciences-a human skeleton. And she used it in all of her classes to demonstrate how the various pats of the body moved. A dance major at the University, in addition to dancing, takes courses ranging from anatomy to zoology, including physiology, physics, psychology, philosophy, as well as art, music, history. She also kept a strict divide between those who performed dance professionally and those who taught dance in academia. The purpose of this study is the examination of Margaret H`Doubler and the first dance major. This study focuses on three areas of concern; the first is about the background of Margaret H`Doubler. The second is the first dance major in America and the third is H`Doubler`s teaching method.