“It’s such a Tangle”: The complexities of choreography pedagogy in tertiary education

Abstract

Choreography learning features as a valuable and essential part of dance education at tertiary level, especially as it inherently engages key 21st century skills such as creativity, collaboration, and communication. These skills are relevant to diverse careers inside and outside the arts. Dance making is also unavoidably social, as is the teaching and learning of it. Consequently, this study interrogates the interwoven relationships choreography educators negotiate within the choreography education context. The study poses the question: Within tertiary choreography courses in New Zealand, what are three dance educators’ meanings and experiences of teaching collaborative choreography? Focussing on degree qualifications in Aotearoa New Zealand, the study aims to reveal the values, agendas, and dilemmas of the educators as they facilitate collaborative choreography learning. The study is driven by a constructivist, qualitative methodology, engaging semi-structured interviews with three experienced choreography educators. The researcher’s expertise is positioned alongside the participants’ in order to find new understandings of the complexities of choreography teaching and learning in bachelor’s degrees. Data is presented through a narrative, interweaving the three participants’ voices and my own. Through thematic analysis the pedagogical entanglements choreography educators negotiate are unpicked. Themes addressed include collaborative choreography learning being a complex creative environment, perceptions and dilemmas of the teacher-student relationship, the subtext of the choreography classroom, choreographic-collaborative pedagogies. This study has significance for conversations within dance education in the areas of teacher education, pedagogical professional development, choreography learning in high schools and higher education, as well as in professional and community dance contexts. The study contributes to growing literature interrogating choreographic relationships. The findings may contribute to scholarship in the broader areas of creativity and collaboration.