Embodying Dance: Converging Self, Values and Identity Dance Education as a Personal Journey.

Abstract

Dance education programs represent more than just taking a ballet and modern dance class. It is a learning dance community where the prime motivation is the artistic growth of the student. This research investigates how participation in a high school dance program can foster a student’s dance identity. Through critical arts based inquiry with students, in relationship with my own story of apartheid as a dance teacher and choreographer, this study analyzes dance experiences when exploring movement phrases, learning choreography, and creating and performing dance work. I conducted 2-3 semi-structured interviews with 10 graduates of my dance program over a span of five years to investigate the impact of a high school dance program on student efficacy. Interview questions explored how their participation in a high school dance program influenced their self-perceptions of artistry and dance identity. The arts based methodology of create, rehearse, perform, and reflect is a choreographic process used to guide students in finding their own movement and voice, as components of their own personal dance journeys. Findings of this research revealed that participants defined dance identity as having the freedom to express and communicate their own voice, feeling safe to explore, developing discipline, and never giving up. Dance gave them the confidence and the opportunity to create and innovate. The findings of this research are important to inform, drive, and sustain both current and future dance programs. Dance education programs are an intervention that supports disadvantaged marginalized students in high school. Students execute and perform when they feel they are valued. Dance making is expressed as an epistemological strategy of embodiment of the self and recognizes that each student has a story.