<p>This essay is an attempt to portray and explain my work as a dance pedagogue as well as an epistemological overview of the skills and knowledge I use when I teach. The study is phenomenologically oriented and the examples used are from the years when I was teaching at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. The primary objective of the study was to illustrate the practical knowledge of my teaching by examining what lies in the mind and gaze of the dance pedagogue while teaching.</p><p>Having finished my essay I realize that it has come to be primarily about the body. How the knowledge that is imprinted in my body can only be conveyed when I have a student to teach and how I feel that the intermediary of knowledge occurs. Other recurrent themes are the relations of thought and consciousness to the body. The study of how mind, consciousness and body work together in the practices of dance is yet in its infancy and an area of research that I would like to investigate further.</p>

This essay is an attempt to portray and explain my work as a dance pedagogue as well as an epistemological overview of the skills and knowledge I use when I teach. The study is phenomenologically oriented and the examples used are from the years when I was teaching at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. The primary objective of the study was to illustrate the practical knowledge of my teaching by examining what lies in the mind and gaze of the dance pedagogue while teaching. Having finished my essay I realize that it has come to be primarily about the body. How the knowledge that is imprinted in my body can only be conveyed when I have a student to teach and how I feel that the intermediary of knowledge occurs. Other recurrent themes are the relations of thought and consciousness to the body. The study of how mind, consciousness and body work together in the practices of dance is yet in its infancy and an area of research that I would like to investigate further.

Begreppet mästarlära förekommer sällan i den pedagogiska debatten. Med den stundande gymnasiereformen har begreppet åter aktualiserats. Danspedagogik är inte heller ett hett ämne men sedan lpf94 infördes har det funnit som ämne inom gymnasieskolan. Observation och imitation är begrepp som återkommer inom både ämnesområdena. Finns det fler kopplingar mellan mästarlära och dansundervisning? Mästarlära är stark förknippat med utbildning inom hantverksyrkena. Det har en mer praktisk än teoretisk sida. Den praktiska yrkeserfarenheten gynnar en tyst kunskap. Dansens praktiska utövande utvecklar också en tyst kunskap. Dessutom sker den praktiska dansundervisningen ofta framför en spegel, ett outforskat pedagogiskt verktyg. Syftet var att undersöka medvetenheten hos pedagoger och elever om spegelns användning och påverkan samt huruvida begreppet mästarlära är relevant för det danspedagogiska området. Intervjuer med fokusgrupp gjordes och resultatet visar att spegeln för- och nackdelar är bekanta men att mästarlära fortfarande är ett outvecklat område.

Det övergripande syftet med studien är att beskriva en lärares olika former av kommunikation i en dansundervisningssituation inom frivilligverksamheten för vuxna och ungdomar. Hur ser lärarens kommunikation ut, hur kan den förstås och vilka konsekvenser kan den få för elevernas lärande? I uppsatsen används begreppet undervisningsdesign. För att kunna besvara forskningsfrågorna har jag valt att videodokumentera danslektionssekvenser som sedan analyserats och tolkats utifrån ett designteoretiskt perspektiv. Dansundervisning ses i studien som en institution där de historiskt formade traditionerna och normerna sätter ramarna för danspedagogens kommunikation. Drygt två minuters videospelad tid transkriberades av en danslektionssituation, med fokus på danspedagogens handlingar och verbala yttranden. De transkriberade handlingarna och yttrandena analyserades därefter som text, där både tal, ljud, rörelser, mimik och gester var analysobjekt. Analysbegreppen plockades ur Rostvalls och Wests (2001) avhandling Interaktion och kunskapsutveckling: en studie av frivillig musikundervisning, där jag har utvecklat analysbegreppen i relation till området jag studerat i en abduktiv analys. Den vanligaste kommunikationen var instruerande handlingar och yttranden där danspedagogen på olika sätt förevisar och instruerar danseleverna i vad de ska göra. Vid tillfällen då danspedagogen på något sätt vill förvissa sig om att danseleverna hänger med i övningen eller vill skapa kontakt föredras den handlingsmässiga kommunikationen framför den verbala. Ett vanligt kommunikationssätt var alltså prövande/sökande handlingar med social fokus, där bland annat elevernas behov av hjälp uppmärksammas, vilket kan ha positiva effekter på elevernas möjligheter att lära. Ur undersökningsmaterialet framvaskades också strategiskt språk- respektive handlingsbruk som innebär ett bekräftande eller befästande av danspedagogens rollfunktion på danslektionen, ett kommunikationssätt som visar på att det är danspedagogen som alltså bestämmer när, var, hur och vad på lektionen. Analyserande och problematiserande yttranden i form av längre sammanhängande feedback och förklaringar återfanns inte i de studerade sekvenserna. Detta kan påverka elevens verbala reflektion och även förståelse i situationen. Emotionella och expressiva handlingar och yttranden förekom sparsamt. Vidare har de olika dansinriktningarna med olika stil- och teknikskolor eventuellt gjorts till norm för vad som är lämpligt som innehåll i undervisningen vilket alltså kan spegla institutionen dansundervisning. Danspedagogens kommunikation ska förstås med bakgrund av bland annat detta och mästarlärartraditionen.

This study investigates how jazz educators relate their practical dance teaching to the history of the genre and analyses whether or not the history is incorporated in the didactic part of the education for a jazz dancer. This thesis is based on interviews with four active jazz dance teachers. According to the results, the origin and early history of jazz dance is not being incorporated in the practical part of a dancer’s education to the same extent as the succeeding eras. This thesis shows that history is often tought in non-practical classes and is not incorporated in dance practice. It also shows that the teachers often only relate to history as inspiration. Another finding is that time period from the 1940 ́s until today works as the base of history while the origins and early history is neglected. That means that African and African American fundamentals is overlooked while white influence is being recognized. One reason discussed in this thesis is that the educators themselves lacks knowledge of jazz dance history and understanding of its relevance from their own schooling.

SammanfattningMitt syfte med uppsatsen är att utforska om eftergymnasiala danselever upplever att Benesh Movement Notation kan var ett hjälpmedel i den praktiska dansundervisningen. Studiens syfte är även att förtydliga vikten av att koppla teori till det praktiska ut-övandet av danskunskap. Min metod i denna undersökning har varit att intervjua 12 eftergymnasiala danselever om deras upplevelser, det vill säga, fördelar och nackdelar med Benesh Movement Notation i praktisk dansträning, möjligheten att skriva egna anteckningar och i repertoararbete. Resultatet visar att genom att kombinera praktik och studier i Benesh Movement Notation utvecklar eleverna sin analysförmåga i rörelse och självständigt tänkande i den praktiska dansträningen. Eleverna utvecklar vidare sin förmåga att uttrycka sig och formulera sig verbalt i dansträningen, och får en djupare kunskap i förmågan att tolka interpretationen.

The Covid-19 virus has affected dance education in Sweden and created new conditions for dance teaching. The purpose of this study is to investigate how dance teachers communicate dance movements and feedback, when teaching in dance which is conducted in distance learning in Upper Secondary School. Further, the study will discuss challenges and opportunities with dance education in distance learning. Through observations of dance teaching, the study will investigate how three different dance teachers in the genres of Jazz Dance, contemporary and classical ballet communicate dance movements and feedback in distance learning. With a theoretical starting point in social semiotic multimodal communication the study will analyse how semiotic recourses are being used in dance education through distance learning. The result shows that the teachers communicate using both voice and body as two dominant semiotic recourses when communicating dance movements and feedback. The result also shows more challenges than opportunities in dance education through distance learning.

This research examines the potential of polycentrism as artistic methods in contemporary hip-hop and as a socio-political movement in dance to luminate negotiations of relations, power and appropriation. The research questions are: 1. How can the concept of polycentrism as an aesthetic principle in the traditions of hip-hop be used to investigate and develop artistic methods in a contemporary dance context? 2. What scope for action and negotiation of power systems does polycentrism create in contemporary hip-hop? This artistic research is drawn upon Practice as Research with methods of freestyle/improvisation and interactive introspection. It also suggests polycentrism as a research method. The empirical material consists of the experiences of the eleven dance artists that participated in the study through five workshops that was documented via filming and writing. Artistic methods are presented as processes and ideas of polycentric movements inside and outside our bodies, always in relation. Secondly, the study suggests polycentrism with potential to circulate as sociopolitical movement through our bodies and create expanded crosscircular perspectives on aesthetics as multiple, relational centers in constant energy flow. The findings of this project can also be useful in education and teaching of dance.

How can articulating dance in practice, problematize the notion of an expanded concept of choreography at Stockholm University of the Arts? What approaches are needed to make different perceptions of dance as phenomena contribute to the development of the field? These are the questions of the study and they are examined through dancing. The examination builds upon a relation between comprehension and constitution, and the question, if we ever are comprehended? Placing my dancing body in center of the research gave rise to a position which yielded the required perspective. When dancing, the stance of “representing a genre” was assumed, taken and explored concretely, “folkdance”within the context of Stockholm University of the Arts. Researching by dancing allowed for the exposition of the practice so that it could be reflected upon with someone else. Five meetings in the dance studio facilitated the articulation of practices and approaches through the process of learning from an other. Moving in theoretical circles through different realms and allowing these circles to intersect in practice, the work achieves its critical point of view in relation to choreography and the field of dance. The expanded notion of choreography is critiqued using theories which deals with ideas of universal practice and exclusion. The work looks for a constructive way to fill an empty space that is perceived within the epicenter of the expansion. It fills this space with dance and works with choreography as a critical practice that acknowledges the specific and intense physical work which must be invested by any body in order to find a way of being in the world. In maintaining an ambivalent relation to the practice there is an urge, to move on in dance through choreography, to find ways in which agency can constitute the subject within discursive context, and to reflect upon aesthetic, political and pedagogical consequences of the ideas that arise. By searching for further ways to articulate difference in dance, the study contributes to the field of contemporary dance pedagogy.

The Relevance of Dance in Folk Music Education The aim of this study was to investigate why and how dance and dance teaching can be relevant in educational programmes in folk music in Sweden. Many of these programmes include dance within them and that fact, in combination with my observation that there is an underlying cultural assumption that dance and music belong together, inspired this research. I wished to look at the function of dance within folk music programmes, and music teachers’ observations of how dance affects their students’ playing. The study has been conducted through qualitative interviews with four music teachers from different institutions, covering three themes: the purpose(s) of including dance in this kind of education, if and how they can see that the students have use for the dance knowledge in their playing, and how they look at the connection between dance and music in this genre. The result shows that there are several reasons for teaching dance as a part of educational programmes in folk music and also that the music teachers themselves use references to dance in their music teaching. These reasons can give dance pedagogues information about how some music teachers think dance is relevant and can be used in the planning of dance teaching. In conclusion, there is a discussion of how this study can be a part of understanding and developing pedagogy within the folk music genre.