Paper Title
Ruptured Silence: Exploring the Intersections of Dance Performance, Choreography, and Education to Promote Social Change
Location
Room 219, West Center
Keywords
Dance, performance, choreography, dance education, social change, arts-based research, integrative learning
Start Date
April 2016
End Date
April 2016
Abstract
Ruptured Silence: Exploring the Intersections of Dance Performance, Choreography, and Education to Promote Social Change is an ongoing artistic, and educational response to the mass murders at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the heated discussions regarding the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina respectively. In response to these tragic events, this collaboration aims to illuminate and challenge discriminatory behavior through artistic and educational practices using dance as a vehicle for social change. Occurring in several interconnected stages, this project commenced with the creation of a dance work, Ruptured Silence: Racist Symbolism and Signs, which provided a subsequent point of entry into creating K-12 dance education curricula for implementation in local classrooms. Through arts-based research and integrative learning models, the presenters hoped that this collaboration between professional dance artists, university faculty, and university and K-12 students and teachers would invoke discourse on racial equality and oppression within our current cultural landscape in the classroom and community and illustrate the connections between dance content, social issues, and the power of empathy and compassion.
Ruptured Silence: Exploring the Intersections of Dance Performance, Choreography, and Education to Promote Social Change
Room 219, West Center
Ruptured Silence: Exploring the Intersections of Dance Performance, Choreography, and Education to Promote Social Change is an ongoing artistic, and educational response to the mass murders at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and the heated discussions regarding the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds in Charleston and Columbia, South Carolina respectively. In response to these tragic events, this collaboration aims to illuminate and challenge discriminatory behavior through artistic and educational practices using dance as a vehicle for social change. Occurring in several interconnected stages, this project commenced with the creation of a dance work, Ruptured Silence: Racist Symbolism and Signs, which provided a subsequent point of entry into creating K-12 dance education curricula for implementation in local classrooms. Through arts-based research and integrative learning models, the presenters hoped that this collaboration between professional dance artists, university faculty, and university and K-12 students and teachers would invoke discourse on racial equality and oppression within our current cultural landscape in the classroom and community and illustrate the connections between dance content, social issues, and the power of empathy and compassion.
