National Dance Education Organization

The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) is a non-profit membership organization for dance educators, and its Online Professional Development Institute (OPDI) is the online course program this entry covers. The course page says "OPDI offers online dance education courses featuring pedagogy, teaching methods, history, assessments, research, and much more." NDEO's address is in Silver Spring, Maryland.

OPDI is for people who already teach dance: the page says it "will benefit the vast majority of dance educators, teaching artists, and administrators who are working in private studios and schools of dance, community and cultural centers, higher education, and K-12 education seeking professional development." The entry sits in teacher professional development and in continuing education, because completed courses earn NDEO-endorsed Professional Development Credits that can add up to a certificate.

Who OPDI is for

NDEO welcomes anyone, but the page says "it helps if the student has a few years of dance teaching experience as well as dance training in their specific technique or genre." It is direct about the scope: "OPDI courses do not teach you how to dance. OPDI courses are designed to make you a better teacher and build off your previous experiences."

The page lists the goals the courses serve: dance teachers pursuing "lifelong learning, highly qualified teacher (HQT) status, a pay raise, an endorsement in dance beyond certified K-12 area, or retaining current certification may find that OPDI courses fit their needs." The courses are also designed for those who want to "enhance domains of knowledge, learn new content areas, and strengthen their own teaching and learning skills."

How the courses run

The course page sets out four claims, under the headings accessible, affordable, flexible and prestigious, plus rigorous.

• Format. "All courses are taught online in a 24/7 asynchronous style allowing students to work on their own schedules during the week with due dates for assignments at the end of the week." There are no live sessions to attend, but there is a weekly rhythm with deadlines.
• Flexibility. A student can take as few or as many courses as they want, in any order, and start in any semester: Spring, Summer or Fall.
• Rigor. "Courses are taught by national experts and are rigorous."
• Credits. Students earn NDEO-endorsed Professional Development Credits (PDCs) on successful completion.
• Certificate. "Students may earn a NDEO Certificate in Dance Education (CiDE) upon the successful completion of 33 credits of OPDI coursework."

The site menu includes pages on how courses work, upcoming courses, the course catalog, retired courses, college credits, and the tuition and refund policy, and an "At A Glance" course on dance kinesiology with a member-access version. A Bonbright OPDI Fund is also listed in the menu.

Course examples

The home page lists the Fall 2026 term. Courses starting September 14th:

• Teaching Dance to Students with Disabilities
• Harkness Center for Dance Injuries: Applied Science of Dancer Health and Injury Prevention
• A new course on writing compelling grant proposals
• Using Dance Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK) to Drive Programmatic and Self Growth
• Dance Pedagogy: Learning Styles and Theories

Courses starting October 12th:

• Developmental Domains in Dance
• Dance Stagecraft and Production
• Creating an Ethics and Pedagogy of Teaching With and Without Touch
• Dancing Communities
• Afro-Caribbean Dance History and Choreography

The mix shows the range: inclusive teaching, dancer health and injury, grant writing, pedagogy and theory, child development, production, ethics of touch, community dance and dance history.

Prices and membership

"Course fees range from $215 (4 weeks) to $550 (12 weeks) for NDEO members and slightly higher for non-members." The page recommends that anyone planning "to take more than two courses" sign up for an NDEO membership. The membership menu lists institutional, individual and student memberships, with a page on member types, benefits and dues rates.

Free webinars

Alongside the paid courses, NDEO runs a webinar series. The on-demand page says "Webinars are typically an hour long and FREE, available to Members and Non-Members." Recordings are grouped into collections: Teaching Online; Dance Sector, Ages & Populations; Dance and Disability; and IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access), plus yearly sets.

Recent sessions include Margo Ruark on collage-based approaches to creating original youth dance theater, Nicole Perry on working with consent, boundaries and needs in the dance studio, and Valkyrie Yao on decolonial pedagogy through Chinese Nuo ritual. Earlier webinars covered disability justice in dance education, understanding the neurodivergent dancer, open educational resources for dance, gender inclusivity, teaching strategies for hip hop educators, ungrading in dance classes, Fulbright options for dance educators, and mental wellness in dance education. Members can also propose a webinar.

Conference and community

NDEO's other big program is its National Conference: "Held annually in the fall, a typical in-person NDEO National Conference includes 3 full days of over 250 workshops, master classes, panel and paper presentations, social events and performances." The home page announces SYNERGY: Uniting to Progress the Field of Dance Education, 9/24 to 9/27 in Albuquerque, NM, with pre-conference intensives and student conference scholarships.

NDEO says its members live in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico "and throughout the international community", and work in dance studios, K-12 schools, colleges, performing arts organizations and community centers. Members get online forums, a membership directory, a mentorship program, a jobs board, an events board, journals, a dance education blog and a college dance directory. NDEO also runs the National Honor Society for Dance Arts (NHSDA) for students. Member quotes on the home page praise the network; Alfonso Cervera of The Ohio State University says his favorite thing is "the conversations between educators from different schools and regions."

Who it suits

OPDI suits working dance educators, whether in K-12 schools, private studios, community centers or higher education, who want structured, asynchronous professional development in dance pedagogy, history, health and inclusion, and who can keep up with weekly deadlines. Teachers working toward HQT status, a dance endorsement, recertification or a pay raise will find courses aimed at those goals, and those who keep going can build 33 credits into the CiDE. Teachers who plan several courses will save by joining NDEO first.

It suits less well someone who wants to learn to dance, which the page rules out, or a general classroom teacher with no dance background. The free webinars are the lower-commitment way in. Course creators looking for a platform are not the audience.