Resilience and Ethics in Dance Education

Populærvitenskapelig sammendrag

Resilience and Ethics in Dance Education (REDE) is an overarching research cluster initiated by the academy of dance, at Oslo National Academy of Arts (KHiO). The REDE project aims to produce knowledge and applied research in order to empower dance students and strengthen their future professional potential. The project will approach this vision by exploring knowledge, means and strategies that can strengthen the learning environment in dance and educate resilient, reflective and ethically aware dance artists who can work sustainably and professionally, both independently and as part of collective processes. Over the last decade, the importance of resilience and physical and mental health, ethical challenges and distribution of ownership and power have altered the approach to teaching and learning in dance at the Academy of dance as well as in the professional field of dance in general.

Like dance itself, resilience is a complex and holistic objective, which intersects and relates to physical and mental health and wellbeing, confidence building, and motivation in a learning situation based on embodying crafts and skills, passed on through apprenticeship learning, and supported by artistic and contextual knowledge and insights. The objective of ethics, or ethical awareness and thinking in dance education, interferes with any considerations or decisions regarding artistic expressions, means and practices, work life and community, both educationally and professionally. Ethics is a serious and pressing issue for an art form that ontologically has the body at its center. Discussions on discrimination, identity, power, and equality are performed and manifested as bodily realities and are as such directly interrelated and entangled with the objective of ethics.

The future goal of the research cluster is to become an applied Centre of excellence in teaching and establish a REDE research Centre.