Creating a cultural dance community of practice: building authentic Latin American dance experiences

Abstract

Cultural competency training is considered crucial for sensitively and appropriately approaching interactions with cultures other than our own, reducing the effects of privilege and power. This paper explores the rationales behind changes made to a tertiary dance unit, Latin Dance Party, as a part of an undergraduate dance degree. The project investigates learning dance through authentic cultural contexts and the part played by these contexts in creating learning communities that empower students to explore and understand the world around them in a global milieu. Through a range of reflective research tools, including student questionnaires, field notes, and a teacher self-reflective journal, the project explored a range of teaching approaches to authentic cultural learning. Recommendations based on this exploration include the future development of culturally inclusive pedagogies, development of supporting resources, and sustainable approaches to transforming tertiary cultural dance teaching.

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