The lens of constructionism has traditionally been focused on the learning of topics such as mathematics, science, and computation. Of the arts, only music has played a significant role in the development of constructionist ideas. In this paper, we present a manifesto based on our belief that dance pedagogy can both exemplify and expand the current views of constructionism, and we contend that choreography and creative movement improvisation can be viewed as constructionist pursuits. The diagram below, for instance—which lays out the cues given and followed by dancers during a piece—is just one example of a constructionist-style representation that has been used to great advantage by dancers and choreographers.

In our work together—as dancer and choreographer, computer scientist, and math educator— we have all stretched our worldviews and forged unanticipated intellectual bonds. Our goal in this paper is to share our excitement and discoveries, by not only examining dance from a constructionist view, but also inviting the traditional constructionist community into the world of creative movement. This expansion of the boundaries of constructionist inquiry, we believe, will provide the constructionist community with new metaphors, new dilemmas, and new collaborative potential.