Many graduate dance programmes require a pedagogy course to ensure that graduate students, who are future faculty, have the capacity to successfully educate the next generation of dance practitioners. The majority of graduate dance programmes in the United States prioritise Western theatrical forms, yet increasingly there is a call to decolonise…

Commercial dance forms, specifically musical theater dance, remain highly marginalized within higher education research. This article presents the need to establish more scholarly research in musical theater dance and points out the ethnographic identity of the genre in our global society. Ethnographic study can be useful in validating musical…

Using an autoethnographic approach, this article focuses on the experiences of two male dance educators/researchers living with/through terminal cancer. Autoethnographers analyze their 'unique life experiences in the context of the social and cultural institutions that have shaped the world the researcher inhabits.' Drawn from a larger research…

Peers influence each other and learning can be shaped by shared processes. The purpose of this article is to pedagogically explore collective effort in the dance technique studio in a conservatoire setting. This practice-based research flows from the studio and has relevance for all higher arts education contexts. It is developed from the…

In this paper, I examine the re-contextualisation of particular versions of solo traditional set dances from the region of North Kerry, Ireland, by teachers and step dancers of competitive step dancing for competition. These set dances, namely the Blackbird and Saint Patrick's Day, were choreographed by Jeremiah Molyneaux, the last of the…

Rhythmic virtuosity or moving with "percussive attack" is an ultimate performance quality for Black/African dance. The practice of musicality is a window into a dynamic system of intersubjective communal creativity. Drumming, for example, provides percussive sensorial information that directs a dancer's somatic and choreographic…

This study draws on ethnographic research from three co-ethnic community-based, arts programs serving immigrant youth to examine the ways in which immigrant educators serve as "curriculum texts" for youth. It illustrates the curricular nature of the experiences, being and interactions of immigrant educators who share with youth the same…

This paper illuminates kinesthesia's role in ballet training by revealing findings of a study regarding non-tactile corporeal communication termed kinesthetic dialogue. Even before the novel Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) heightened awareness of physical distancing, physical interaction between teacher and student was already increasingly…

This real-life story can be rationalised as an auto-ethnographic appreciation of the journey of Diane and I. The journey is new to us when it was once known and planned. The path has veered with new challenges realised since the "death sentence" was passed. This longitudinal research, is original and unique, drawing initially upon the…

In contexts where dancing proves a relevant daily practice, dancing with children may provide an extremely interesting strategic option for education ethnographers. Drawing from my empirical material, I describe how dancing was accidentally introduced as a role in the field (dance teacher) before later becoming an unexpectedly great ethnographic…

This retrospective case study investigated how learners in a transformative autoethnographic dance course engaged in and navigated self-reflexive identity work and corresponding learning outcomes. Data were drawn from 15 diverse undergraduate students enrolled in a course for credit at an urban community college. Findings indicated that learners…

The following paper seeks to show how Somatic Education is a usual practice in the classes researched and, at the same time, how it places the body in places of dispute at schools. Notions present in the classes studied such as, for example, the relationship between surveillance and silence and between the latter and listening are thus analysed,…

This paper examines how rituals contribute to developing pedagogical relationships among Asian American youth and their teacher in a kathak dance program. The research draws from ethnographic data collected at a community-based organization. It is driven by the following research question: How do pedagogical relationships with immigrant youth in a…

This article explores the dynamics of Gaga, a contemporary movement practice developed by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, as an emergent methodology for embodied research. Deploying Gaga as a case study, this article argues for the relevance of knowledge generated through lived, felt experience as well as ways of knowing grounded on bodily…

One of the most contested areas of arts practice research concerns the nature and role of writing. For many artist-scholars, research predicated on artistic practice does not require written contextualization. For those who engage in writing, questions as to the nature, mode, register, and purpose of writing abound. The growing body of…