Abstract

ABSTRACT Learning through dance technique has the potential to transform students, both in terms of their bodily capabilities and their sense of self in the world. By exploring the “how” of dance pedagogy, this research study investigates dance technique learning through the accounts of undergraduate students and teacher-researcher reflexivity at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. The multilayered experiences of seven student participants are centralized, bringing insight to the complex ways that transformation might be enabled in dance technique pedagogy. The theoretical perspectives of engaged pedagogy (hooks 1994) and care ethics (Noddings 2013) provide a framework through which participant student data are organized. Active participation, demonstration of care, and stimulating environments are discussed in terms of the nuance of experience for individual students. An interpretive phenomenological approach is used in this longitudinal study within which the teacher-researcher locates himself or herself as subject and coparticipant.