The Dance TEKS are standards that identify what dance students in Texas high schools should know and be able to do.  They do not constitute curricula nor do they prescribe methodologies or strategies for TEKS implementation. Texas dance educators develop the local curricula and instructional strategies required to enable their students to demonstrate the TEKS.

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for dance outline the basics for building knowledge and developing skills in dance. Effectively implemented, they are the foundation of student success in dance. Ideally, they are the basis of student success in dance beyond their education in Texas schools and in other areas of their lives.

How are the Dance TEKS organized?

The TEKS organize dance education into the following four strands of learning. Within each course level, the strands function interdependently, minimizing the need for allotting equal time to each strand. The strands make up the components of all dance classes and are most effectively taught when they are woven together in lessons and activities. The four strands are:

• Perception, developing an awareness of the body's movements and using sensory information while dancing. The knowledge and skills of Perception are useful in everyday life by promoting understanding of self and others and effective interactions in the community.
• Creative expression/performance, applying body sciences and fitness principles to dance and developing knowledge and skills of dance elements and choreographic process and forms in a variety of dance styles. Creative expression/performance develops self-discipline and healthy bodies that move expressively, efficiently, and safely through space and time with controlled energy.
• Historical and cultural heritage, demonstrating an understanding of cultural, historical, and artistic diversity and building skills to participate in a diverse society.
• Response/evaluation, making informed judgments about dance's form, meaning, and role in society to strengthen students' decision-making skills and develop their thinking and reasoning abilities.

The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills in dance are also organized by content area and course level. For example, "Dance, Level I" is the first set of Dance TEKS. After a brief introduction explaining the overall goals of dance education, dance content is listed for each course. For each broad category of knowledge and skills, several student expectations for demonstration of knowledge and skills are provided. The content and student expectations statements of the TEKS give sequence and structure to dance education.

The design of the Dance TEKS scaffolds knowledge and skills, creating both horizontal and vertical alignment of learning. The breadth and depth of knowledge and skills can be evaluated on the basis of the following:

• Scope of knowledge and skills
• Depth of understanding in students’ response and evaluation
• Sophistication of understanding, i.e., how a student acquires, applies, and demonstrates dance knowledge and skills.

Effective dance programs, based on the TEKS, emphasize critical and creative thinking and problem solving at all course levels. Student understanding and skills in dance expand, grow more complex, specific, and inclusive of abstract ideas as students progress through each level.