"I am because we are" dancing for social change!

Abstract

In postapartheid South Africa, ideas of self, identity, and one's place in society pose a labyrinth of internal conflict and negotiation. In this article, we discuss the potential of a particular 7-week dance education course, offered to generalist preservice student teachers, as a possible location for self-transformation and, ultimately, social change. Our qualitative case study was rooted in symbolic interactionism, with social interactions becoming catalysts for transforming meanings of self in relation to the other. Participants, mostly nondancers, included 80 culturally diverse preservice student teachers (PSTs) enrolled in a first year bachelor's degree in education (BEd). Students shared personal reflections on their dance education experiences via open-ended questionnaires, focus group interviews, and reflective journals. Our data indicate that the students' dance education experiences generated transformative awareness of the self. This consciousness was primarily evoked by close interactions with diverse others through active, bodily involvement in dance education activities, which prompted more profound engagement with the self, stimulating discovery, liberation, affirmation and, ultimately, transformation of the self.

Gandrung Sewu Festivals: The Transition from Ritual Dance to Tourism Dance in Banyuwangi Indonesia

“…Through this paper, we explain what kinds of transitions from the Gandrung dance became a tourist attraction in Banyuwangi. Many factors influence the transition such as economics, social and politics (Marx, 2017). With Gandrung as a moral object and tourist attraction as a formal object that will be discussed using the Soedarsono (1999) tourism theory that the characteristics of the art travel package is imitation of the original, packaging in a brief and short manner, attractive or entertaining, leaving out sacred values, and at a cheap price for the tourists (Sari & Subagyo, 2020; Wulan & Handayaningrum, 2020).…”

Hurt or Help? Understanding Intimate Partner Violence in the Context of Social Norms as Practised in Rural Areas

“…Social norms can either emphasise continuity of beliefs and attitudes, or they can actively promote change (Giddens & Sutton, 2017). Marx and Delport (2017) argue that sustainable change implies transformation in attitudes and the self, which points to behavioural changes. Such shifts in attitude and beliefs can best be informed by health behaviour change models such as the Health Belief Model (HBM).…”