The second joint world congress of Dance and the Child International (daCi) and World Dance Alliance Global Education and Training Network was held 8 – 13 July 2018 in Adelaide, Australia, hosted by the University of South Australia.
The world congress took place in a pre-Covid world in which travel was comparatively easy, unhindered and enabled physical contact due to cheapening flight costs.
For the joint congress, over 900 participants came together from 26 countries to dance and learn with the congress key words: dance, gathering, generations, learning. The program included a variety of activities and presentation formats. Many brought snapshot performances to showcase on the first two evenings with other chances to perform in Pop-Ups and a BigDance. There were opportunities to gather and dance, to network, share and develop knowledge in Creative Gatherings, Young People’s Gatherings and Twinning projects. In addition, Teachers’ Gatherings and Scholarly Gatherings focused on more academic dance study. The congress challenged a widely-held preconception that dance is a soft option for learning or study, reflected in the papers presented here.
Publication process
After the event, authors of papers, panels, and project dialogues were invited to submit their contributions for these proceedings which are published online by Ausdance National with funding support from the University of South Australia. We note that fewer submissions were received in comparison to previous conferences, reflecting changes to publishing requirements by tertiary institutions which are highly competitive and make increasing research demands upon staff.
The following papers were chosen in a double-blind refereeing process followed by a thorough editorial process. Our sincere thanks go to the international review committee for their comprehensive feedback and time spent providing constructive comments. Special thanks also to our editorial committee for their generous work: Anja Ali-Haapala, Kathy Baykitch, Ralph Buck, Stephanie Burridge, Julie Dyson, Clare Hall, Sue Hawksley, Sarah Knox, Gene Moyle, Sue Nichols, Nicholas Rowe, Urmimala Sarkar, Cheryl Stock, Kathy Vlassopoulos. Our appreciation also goes to Ausdance National.
These proceedings were unfortunately delayed due to many mitigating circumstances which included the Covid pandemic and several personal challenges which impacted upon the voluntary work of many individuals working with daCi and the WDA.
So, we express special thanks to the authors for their patience and whose positive engagement with the publication process made editing these proceedings a pleasure. Their papers make an important contribution from 2018 to the field of dance education scholarship and practice.
The papers
This focused publication of 16 papers with authors from 9 countries provides a snapshot representation of themes from the joint dance congress broadly embracing dance, gathering, generations, learning. The papers range from the beginnings of dance in the early years through the different stages of school and to further education – and beyond through the lifespan to the joys and challenges of dancing in later years with lived experiences that bring changing bodies, new insights and wisdom.
The collection begins with three special keynotes from David McAllister, Katie Dawson and Sally Chance that have been carefully changed into written papers.
David McAllister’s (Australia) Keynote ‘A great dancing nation: Australia’s best kept secret’ opened the week and his paper provides the context for the congress, locating the cultural place of dance in Australia. David draws upon his lived experience as his journey took him to his position as Artistic Director of the Australian Ballet who were performing that week as part of the new Adelaide Dance Festival. David’s reflections included his perspective on the benefits of dance to the Australian community and suggests: ‘Maybe we will finally embrace dance, in the same way that our first peoples have and use it as a way of building our identity’.
Katie Dawson and Andrea Beckham (USA) were a resounding success mid-week in meeting the challenge to provide a participatory keynote titled ‘Make Your Move: Bodies Creating Change’ for all ages. They have succeeded too in translating their active presentation into an engaging keynote paper which invites readers, as they did with the world dance congress attendees, to consider the body as a place and tool for positive change. Read on to see how they have captured their presentation in a paper with images and a vimeo link!
Sally Chance (Australia) also reworked her keynote from the final morning of the congress as a paper and provides the prompting title: ‘Tiny forces, twists and folds: Why dance is our first language’. Sally’s paper requires us to consider foundational experiences of movement in the early years of life focusing on how babies and very young children have capacities that are showcased within the heightened space of a live performance.
The first two papers stem directly from the 2018 congress. In ‘Panpapanpalya 2018: Dance, gathering, generations, learning: a reflective report’, Deborah Price, Mahmood Nathie and Jeff Meiners (Australia) provide an overview of the congress. The paper reports on the weeklong event with the authors contemplating successes and challenges from planning and realizing a collaborative joint congress that will inform future plans.
The paper by Cathy Adamek (Australia) ‘Creative learning through dance: Exploring effects on mental wealth across generations’ provides a literature review that supported a University of South Australia research project associated with the Panpapanpalya 2018 global dance congress. Focusing on dance leaders and congress participants a choreographic process titled Creative Gatherings culminated on the final congress day in twelve site-specific dance installations presented as a promenade performance at the new Royal Adelaide Hospital and South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). The documentary Dance Epidemic presents an overview of this research project. Special thanks to Jen Brown PhD, digital artist and designer for the creation and production of the video.
The next paper ‘When the genesis of dance comes from the child’ describes a research project designed and implemented by Clare and Liz Battersby (New Zealand) who explored an aspect of the conference asking: how we can ‘explore innovative ways forward that address UNESCO’s aims for quality, inclusive and lifelong dance teaching and learning'? The authors subsequently worked with a group of 8 to 12-year-old Aotearoa/New Zealand boys, using a Reggio Emilia 'lens’.
Emphasising the theme of generations dancing, daCi 1978 elder Joan Pope’s (Australia) paper ‘Thank you teachers: a personal reflection on, and an account of dance in my childhood’ looks back across her life from her perspective as a grandmother, offering a heartfelt and thoughtful expression of gratitude to her teachers and their influencers.
Positioning from the perspective of another stage of life, independent artist Sarah Neville (Australia) similarly offers a paper with an intergenerational theme ‘Dancing with my family’. This introduces readers to a Family in Residence model that frames her artistic research over three separate case studies from Port Adelaide to The Flinders Ranges in South Australia and further abroad to Belgium and Croatia. Neville’s contemplative writing provides insight into the shift she made that expanded her practice to ‘connect better with the world’, by keeping her present and immediately responsive to her family and the people around her.
Focusing on ballet in Japan, Ebe Daigo & Seiichi Sakuno (Japan) present a study titled ‘Comparative study of audience attitudes and behavioural intentions to engage with ballet in university’. Their paper explains research which aimed to determine whether experiencing ballet through a workshop/communication program as part of a university physical education class influenced audience attitudes and behavioural intentions towards ballet. Their main finding demonstrates that the effect of such a learning event can be shown using statistical analysis, providing a potential design for future research studies.
Next, the paper ‘Culturally responsive dance pedagogy – taking the project Global Dance Education to a third level’ builds upon previous daCi research undertaken since 2012 by Ann Kipling Brown, Susan Koff, Jeff Meiners and Charlotte Svendler Nielsen (Canada, USA, Australia, Denmark). A summary of the earlier work is provided which focused on learning contexts. Research tools and curriculum considerations are identified along with increasing awareness of the need for culturally responsive teaching with young people. Examples of culturally responsive pedagogy are provided including a report on the initiative titled ‘Teachers’ Gatherings’ at the Panpapanpalya 2018 congress which facilitated further opportunities to gain insight from a range of contexts across the world into dance educators’ ideas and practices along with challenges and solutions.
Subsequently, the paper ‘The influence of dance for disabled young adults’ by Ruth-Anne J Andrew, Nicole J Reinders & Joseph FX DeSouza (Canada), provides considerable detail of a research study that focused on a pilot project dance class over five weeks. Drawing upon a disability rights model, the study empowered individuals and focused on abilities rather than diagnoses and impairments. Preliminary results indicated positive learning outcomes for the young participants with recommendations for future studies using this model.
Deborah Dodd Macedo’s paper ‘Kinaesthetic pedagogy and getting to know in movement: Experiential perspectives for dance teacher’s education’ (Brazil) outlines theories and scholarly writings that underpin kinaesthetic perception within her research. The role of kinaesthetic perceptions in dance teacher education is addressed, linking the dancer’s kinaesthetic information to sensorial and creative learning processes, arguing that the sensation of one’s movement is the core of the dance teacher’s education process.
Alfdaniels Mabingo’s paper ‘“Interhuman pedagogy”: Ubuntu as a guiding principle in teaching and learning of Ugandan Indigenous dance’ (Uganda) explains ‘interhuman pedagogy’ as developing from the philosophy of Ubuntu. Specific questions invite teachers of Indigenous dances from African cultures to reflect on how to develop and apply pedagogy that might honour and value the epistemological and ontological philosophies in the communities from where the dances emanate. The dominance of Anglo-Saxon and Eurocentric traditions are considered, positioning pedagogies of Indigenous African dances and their underpinning philosophies as significant for diversity in contemporary multicultural and cross-cultural contexts.
Two papers relate to school curriculum as a focus for learning. Juliette O’Brien’s paper ‘Teaching history and English through dance and dance through English and history’ (Australia) looks at the various approaches used in teaching a high school cross-curricular unit titled “African American Culture from Slavery to the Present”. Activities and outcomes, along with student testimonies relating to schemes of work are explained with the uses of dance in teaching units dealing with a multitude of cultures as the focus here.
Shifting to the school curriculum for primary students, the paper by Kerrin Rowlands (Australia) titled ‘Investigating teacher’s experiences implementing the Australian dance curriculum in a primary school’, draws upon a research study that focused on key experiences teachers perceived as significant for their planning and implementation of the Australian Dance Curriculum (ADC). One finding asserts that new approaches to school dance teaching require constructivist, student-centred pedagogies to intersect with the ADC as policy and with dance education theory.
The selection of papers concludes with Adrienne Sansom’s and Sandy Farquhar’s (New Zealand) title: ‘Embodiment as a pedagogy of peace’. The authors draw on post-feminist theory to argue for a focus on the embodiment of peace in educational research and pedagogy, to recognise and engage with body and emotions. A renewed educational engagement with peace is called for as integrally related to emotions, unknowing, pleasure and fantasy; and for children to be validated as living beings experiencing the world through bodily expression, vital for early learning.
Summary
In summary, these papers provide a snapshot from presentations that addressed the 2018 congress themes of dance, gathering, generations, learning. A wide range of conceptual underpinnings and diverse practices reveal processes, methodologies and pedagogies driving dance education.
We appreciate the support of all those who made the proceedings possible and hope that you enjoy reading these contributions.
Deborah Price, Jeff Meiners and Ann Kipling Brown.
Co-editors