Decolonizing Dance Pedagogy: Application of Pedagogies of Ugandan Traditional Dances in Formal Dance Education

Mabingo, Alfdaniels

doi:10.1080/15290824.2015.1023953

Cited by 32 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Learning dance songs as part of dance also relates to the pedagogical framework of teaching African dances that I have developed (Mabingo, 2014, 2015). It explicates how songs scaffold the learners through the kinesthetic, contextual, historical, and philosophical knowledge bases and skill sets of African dances.…”

Section: Presentation and Discussion Of The Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music as a pedagogic tool and co-teacher in African dances: Dissecting the reflections and practices of teachers of cultural heritage dances in Uganda

Mabingo

2019

Research Studies in Music Education

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The subject of the inseparability of music and dance in African artistic experiences has preoccupied scholars and researchers in the field of ethnomusicology, ethnochoreology, and musicology. Commonly, music is conceptualized as an accompaniment to dance. Moreover, the existing literary perspectives frame the inseparability of music and dance in African communities in aesthetical, structural, functional, and semiotic terms. This article provides an intellectual excursion that locates music as pedagogy of dances in African practices. It offers a critical examination of how teachers of cultural heritage dances in nonacademic environments in central Uganda engage music as a pedagogic aid. I draw on the idea of choreomusicology and social learning theories to locate the place of music in dance not just as an accompaniment, but also as a teaching and learning aid. A total of eight dance teachers were engaged through storytelling, interviews, and inquisitorial observation for a period of nine months to elicit their reflections on and interpretations of application of music as a pedagogic stimulus in teaching cultural heritage dances. The findings revealed that elements of music such as songs, mnemonics, instrumental sounds, body percussion, and drum rhythms are key drivers in guiding and framing the teaching and learning processes of the dances. Through music, the dance teachers provoke learners to individually and communally embody, experience, question, abstract, experiment with, concretize, and conceptualize kinesthetic and historicized movement knowledge and skills of the dances. Music scaffolds and staircases learners into kinesthetic journeys of embodied knowing, experiential agency, constructive thinking, creative and reflective imagination, socialized connectivity, and corporeal action. The article provides insights into how music and dance practitioners in Western and non-Western traditions can leverage music to facilitate holistic pedagogic and creative processes of dance.

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Section: Presentation and Discussion Of The Research Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Music as a pedagogic tool and co-teacher in African dances: Dissecting the reflections and practices of teachers of cultural heritage dances in Uganda

Mabingo

2019

Research Studies in Music Education

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“…These two issues create dilemmas for arts educators operating within dynamic, multicultural constructions of community, particularly within urban schools and tertiary institutes distant from the traditional location of the culture (Ashley, 2014; Mabingo, 2015; Morunga, 2013). Teachers implementing ICH goals within the curriculum are required to negotiate uncertain pathways; integrating precolonial minority cultural performances into mainstream education whilst not seeking to represent those minority cultures as static, uncreative and segregated from global currents.…”

Section: Arts Education Strategies In the 21st Century: Shifting Convmentioning

confidence: 99%

From global policy to tertiary pedagogy: Transformational thresholds for creative arts degrees

Rowe

2019

Policy Futures in Education

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Performing arts teachers, in diverse regions of the world, recognise that globalisation has indelibly influenced how the arts are valued, practiced and taught (Rowe, Martin, Buck, et al., 2018). As illustrated by three key United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organisation (UNESCO) policies on arts and culture in the 21st century (UNESCO, 2003, 2006, 2011), global mandates can present contrasting imperatives, prompting shifts within regional, national and institutional strategies. So how do tertiary arts educators respond to shifts in global policies? After a brief historical analysis of three UNESCO strategic documents associated with arts education, this article considers how the contrasts within these strategies have presented challenging learning moments for arts educationalists. ‘Threshold concept’ theory is presented as a means of framing such learning challenges, to highlight the professional development needs of designers of tertiary curricula. Critically reflecting on the author’s experiences of codesigning tertiary degree programmes in New Zealand, China and Fiji, this article identifies key conceptual thresholds that can challenge tertiary educators when seeking to align institutional teaching practices with contemporary global policies on arts education.

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“…Alfdaniels Mabingo (2015) is a dance researcher in a Ugandan context. He points out that even though the pedagogy in Ugandan traditional dance practice is not formal, it does exist.…”

Section: Traditional Malawian Dance Pedagogies In a Rapidly Urbanizinmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Even though Duma did not train as a dancer as a child, he says he knew the steps,; his eyes and his body knew all of it, the muscles just had to be used to the movements. Mabingo uses the term "communal apprenticeship" (Mabingo, 2015) as a "methodical process that engages the participants in norms of creativity and practices not as isolated individuals but as a community" (Mabingo, 2015, p. 136).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Traditional Concept Umunthu as entangled in a Malawian Dance Teacher’s Educational Practice

Hovde¹

2019

JASED

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Dance pedagogies globally are theoretically and often practically based on Western pedagogies. It appears that dance pedagogies deriving from African perspectives have had little visibility in African institutions and in institutions elsewhere. This article outlines some of the pedagogical dance practices and philosophies in Malawi, Southern Africa, expressed by John Duma, a merited dance teacher at Music Crossroads Malawi. His emphasis is on love, respect and self-confidence as a practical part of dancing, and achieving a balance between tribal-modern-urban-traditional-western perspectives in the community. The pedagogical perspectives are discussed as part of the Malawian concept uMunthu in an analysis of the entanglements of these different interests. The material is gathered through extensive ethnographic fieldwork over 4 years, including one formal interview. The material is analysed through diffractive analysis and post-qualitative theories.

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Decolonizing Dance Pedagogy: Application of Pedagogies of Ugandan Traditional Dances in Formal Dance Education

Cited by 32 publications

References 40 publications

Music as a pedagogic tool and co-teacher in African dances: Dissecting the reflections and practices of teachers of cultural heritage dances in Uganda

Music as a pedagogic tool and co-teacher in African dances: Dissecting the reflections and practices of teachers of cultural heritage dances in Uganda

From global policy to tertiary pedagogy: Transformational thresholds for creative arts degrees

The Traditional Concept Umunthu as entangled in a Malawian Dance Teacher’s Educational Practice

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