Beyond the Classroom: Black Girls' Embodied Literacies and Cultural Preservation Through Majorette Dance

• In Event: Expanding Possibilities: Equity, Identity, and Culture in Out-of-School Time Spaces

Abstract

Black girls in majorette dance navigate out-of-school educational spaces where embodied literacies flourish beyond formal classroom constraints. This multisite qualitative study explores how these young women transform dance into powerful vehicles for cultural preservation, self-expression, and knowledge transmission. Drawing from Black Girls' Dance Literacies—a framework weaving Critical Race Theory, Black Feminist Womanist Storytelling, Dance Literacy, and Black Girls' Literacies—the research positions participants as co-narrators of their educational experiences. Through interviews, observations, journaling, and video recordings across an HBCU-style high school marching band, current dancers (ages 14-18) and dance elders (ages 18+) reveal how majorette traditions carry forward African diasporic knowledge while resisting systemic oppression. Their stories demonstrate that out-of-school learning environments nurture literacy practices often invisible to formal education.

Author

• Tempestt S. Johnson, University of South Carolina