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This chapter looks at the impact of community engagement through dance on adolescent and young adult dancers, particularly in relation to self-esteem, empathy, artistic understanding, and career aspirations of the participants, and whether dance differs from other kinds of civic engagement for them. The research investigates dancers ages 16–21, including both private studio trained dancers and dancers in an undergraduate dance program that volunteer on an ongoing basis in these types of community settings. The specific projects include teaching dance and developing choreography with low-income teens in an urban community center and a wheelchair dance class at a residential school for 16–21 year olds with cerebral palsy, both in Philadelphia. In this mixed method study, quantitative results from self-esteem and empathy surveys were triangulated with qualitative data collected through interviews. While statistical results were insignificant, three areas of impact were illuminated through qualitative analysis: (1) definitions of dance, (2) differences between dance based and other volunteer or community work, and (3) career aspirations.

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