Dancing Themselves Free: A Qualitative Study Examining Black Girls' Embodied Literacies in Majorette Dance Spaces

• In Event: Reorienting Method: Counter-Story, Embodiment, and Refusal as Currency in Qualitative Inquiry

Abstract

This qualitative study using Black Feminist Womanist Storytelling methodology examines Black girls' lived experiences in majorette dance as embodied literacy and resistance against adultification and hypersexualization. The study includes 8 current high school majorette dancers and 4 dance elder participants who explore how majorette dance spaces function as sites of cultural affirmation and healing. The study employs the original Black Girls' Dance Literacies framework, synthesizing Critical Race Theory, Black Feminist Womanist Storytelling, Dance Literacy, and Black Girls' Literacies to analyze embodied practices rooted in African diasporic traditions. Preliminary pilot findings reveal that majorette dance functions as counter-storytelling, challenging majoritarian narratives about Black dance forms and Black girls' emotional capacities while providing protected spaces for authentic expression without hypersexualization.

Author

• Tempestt S. Johnson, University of South Carolina