Critical Pedagogy in Dance Education

As a dance teacher, I ground my pedagogy with progressive systems of knowledge production, particularly through a critical pedagogy, which insists that social justice issues are not distinct from teaching and learning. I rely on pedagogical theoreticians bell hooks, Paulo Freire, Susan Baglieri, Arthur Shapiro, Sarah Whatley, and Kate Marsh to develop inclusive teaching methods which embrace diversity in education. I aim to create an educational culture inclusive of disability, race, sex, and gender and foreground an embodied social justice as an engine for creativity and dance practice. The above theorists' progressive pedagogical approaches honor the possibility of learning exchange between student and teacher rather than the hierarchical supposition that the instructor alone disseminates information. In particular, bell hooks' notion of the "freedom of education" transgressively invites students into the action of their own knowledge production. This kind of liberated education allows a teacher to be in a constant state of co-motion and co-learning with their students. As such, a critical pedagogy enables me to learn alongside students mutually and supports methods which position me, the teacher, as a facilitator of student-centered embodied learning.

Accessible and Inclusive Teaching Practices

Improving and ensuring the accessibility and inclusivity of my classes is essential to my teaching. I create an inclusive and diverse classroom through consistent assessment and modification of my syllabi and lesson plans. As a disability dance scholar this means welcoming non-normativity and difference into the classroom. My teaching draws in differences and recognizes various learning and personhoods within education systems. I vary my teaching modalities to include fluid iterations of contextual materials (video, written, audio) and individualized assignments prioritizing multi-perspective learning. I propose that students examine various sources as the impetus for movement, including but not limited to narrative, language, indigeneity, inscription, biomechanics, environment, restriction, abstraction, and improvisational technologies. Consideration of research methodologies plays an integral role in my teaching. In my courses I teach specific units on methodologies and methods of dance practice, students can examine qualitative and experiential data as outcomes of their authorship.

As a mode of teaching toward a critical and community-based creative discourse, I teach the practice and procedures of the Critical Response Process. The Critical Response Process (CRP), developed by choreographer Liz Lerman, is a facilitated discussion template that supports critical dialogue around dance, choreography, or any work-in-progress. This structured process provides students with a framework for giving and receiving articulate feedback from their peers about their artworks. The process encourages students to think and speak critically and, in doing so, activates students to both facilitate and advocate for their art form. Having studied with choreographer Liz Lerman, my teaching integrates the Critical Response Process as a tool for students to develop critical and analytical skills of observation and articulation.

My teaching approach in practice and theory courses is designed to help students explore and shape their identity as artists. In a collaborative and constructive laboratory environment, my coursework encourages students to interrogate their developing (or existing) dance practice and expand their interests within a contemporary dance framework. Considering creativity through an emphasis on community and individual/collaborative generation, weekly questions, tasks, and assignments encourage students to interrogate the shifting roles of a dancer. Through a range of encounters, and provocations, my teaching aims to provide students with tools and resources to progress the versatility of their education.