Abstract
This thesis examines the incidence and nature of dance in adult education in the context of arts education in the adult sector, and investigates the characteristics of practitioners in the field and their attitudes towards their dance activities, It includes within its research remit provision offered by both statutory and non-statutory bodies. The thesis supplements previous studies of the arts in adult education and existing studies of dance education in the initial sector. Data for the study was collected by participant-observation and by questionnaires distributed to teachers and students of dance in the adult sector. The questionnaires elicited low returns which prevented the results being used as the basis of a statistical analysis. Instead they have been used as indicators in the formulation of a profile of dance students and teachers in adult education in the mid-nineteen eighties. Dance in adult education was found to have increased significantly in the last two decades in both variety and quantity. However, the findings of the study, which are presented in Part III of the thesis, suggest that dance in adult education has developed in an 'ad hoc' fashion and that, as a result, its educational potential in the adult sector has not been fully realised. Recommendations which, if taken up, would facilitate the development of a coherent dance curriculum in the adult sector are forwarded in the final chapter of the thesis.