Rosemary Martin

Pushing Boundaries: Reflections on Teaching and Learning Contemporary Dance in Amman

ABSTRACT This study reflects on teaching and learning contemporary dance in Amman, Jordan, focusing on the experiences of three contemporary dance students. Through the three case studies, various issues regarding teaching and learning contemporary dance in a Jordanian context are raised, revealing that contemporary dance can be perceived as a taboo and also an activity that evokes belonging and artistic freedom. The study illuminates how family, friends, social values, and religion influence perspectives of dance. The three dance students’ responses to learning contemporary dance taught by a teacher from a Western cultural context provide further insight into the pedagogical concerns and challenges in cross-cultural arts education and cultural interventions. It is hoped that through the analysis and dissemination of these issues, the possibilities for developing future dance education programs and reflection on current dance pedagogy within Jordan, and the wider Middle Eastern region, can be better assessed.

Alienation and transformation: an international education in contemporary dance

This research investigates experiences of an international education in dance. Through the narratives of seven female dance practitioners from the southern Mediterranean region, who have trained in contemporary dance in Western cultural contexts, a multiplicity of encounters are illustrated. Two key findings emerged from the dancers’ experiences. The first being the feelings of alienation felt in the new learning environment, and the second was the variety of transformative dance experiences the women expressed when recalling their dance experiences abroad.

Bursting bubbles between sand and sea: teaching dance on the edge of the Mediterranean

In July 2010, on the crest of ‘The Arab Spring,’ 28 independent dance teachers from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, gathered in Bodrum, Turkey, for the Symposium on Dance Education in Arabic Speaking Countries. This article reflects on the symposium experience, examining the sociopolitical environment and cultural history in which the event took place, while also revisiting the philosophical tensions behind the design and implementation of this dance teaching and learning event. The experiences and voices of the participating teachers are shared, and the opportunities and threats that continue to face dance education in the region are considered. From the symposium, strong questioning of dominant models and meanings of teaching and learning dance emerged, along with a demand for tolerance towards different ideas and approaches. The pedagogical philosophies and challenges expressed by many of the participating dance educators appeared to be parallel wider political discourses on how society might be organized, and how speaking up about these visions can enhance pride and engender solidarity within a diverse dance community.

Streams of Writing From a Fluid City

What is the relationship between qualitative research and environmental activism? At a time when the effects of environmental damage are becoming increasingly more visible and flooding our daily lives in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways, how do qualitative methods of research and writing respond to current environmental challenges? This article discusses an arts-science-education collaboration titled fluid city, which disseminates critical research on water ecology to the wider public of Auckland City, New Zealand, through creative and performative means. An experimental approach to narrative washes through the style of this article in an attempt to have the encounter of reading flow with the logic of ecological thinking and liquid perception.

The gaze or the groove? Emerging themes from the New Meanings and Pathways: Community Dance and Dance Education Symposium in Beijing

Established in 1954 and drawing heavily on dance conservatory models from Russia, the Beijing Dance Academy (BDA) has become a predominant influence on dance education in East Asia. As it addresses the artistic, cultural and educational needs of China into the twenty-first century, the BDA is now negotiating a new terrain and seeking new pedagogical strategies. Investigating similar issues, the Dance Studies Programme at the University of Auckland has become a research hub for applied uses of dance in community and educational contexts. This article critically reflects on a dialogue held between these two institutions, on the meanings, functions and future directions for dance in education and the community. This includes a historical analysis of the term ‘community’ in English and Mandarin, a political analysis of possible relationships between dance and a community (drawn from different UNESCO mandates), and a pedagogical analysis of educational strategies employed within dance in community contexts. Queries emerge regarding the potential challenges and opportunities of intercultural education in dance education. Through historicizing the cultural, political and pedagogic environments of the two institutions, the authors hope to provide some clarity around differences and commonalities, and consider how this institutional dialogue might provide a platform for further intercultural collaboration.