Articulating and Performing the Bodily Character of the Dance Teacher’s Practical-Pedagogical Knowledge

In the on-going research project ”The dance teacher’s bodily knowledge”, I have accompanied two dance teachers-choreographers through one year each in a mixed-ability, contemporary dance project based on improvisation in Norway. The focus in the research project is on articulating how bodily sensations and experience in the teaching situation plays a part when the dance teacher dialogues with herself, acts and makes choices. As a premise for the study I understand the body – including the teaching body - as a spatiality of situation (Gallagher&Zahavi, 2008; Merleau-Ponty, 1962). The dance teacher is, relates and acts in class as a body subject. Through introspection (Anttila, 2007; Vermersch, 1999) the dance teachers wrote personal logs during the year, focusing on the areas “Sensing and experiencing”, “Thinking and observing” and “Connecting and dialoguing”. A preliminary analysis of the logs shows that the bodily knowledge, mental reflections and actions by the teachers seem to be deeply intertwined. Still in the process of analysing, I have until now generated the following central themes through qualitative categorisation: Body tunes, The breathing body, The working body, The body as supervisor, The body as leader, Participating bodily, Language working with or against the body, The body and power. The methodological approach to the study is phenomenological including a component that maybe could be called “performed phenomenology”. The central themes defined will be the starting point for two parallel processes. The two dance teachers – understood as research subjects –will create a short chorography each. In the choreographies the central themes are elaborated. Parallel to this, as the researcher I will create narratives, analyse and discuss the central themes in dialogue with relevant literature. As part of the paper presentation, the dance teachers will perform their choreographies, thus performing some central themes of their lived experiences as teachers in the project.