Learning With and as a Body: Correspondence in the Ballet Studio

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Learning Sciences Posters

Abstract

This paper advances Lave’s (2012) provocation for alternative perspectives that approach learning as, what Ingold (2011) refers to as, craftsmanship. We describe six months of ethnographic observation of teaching and learning in a ballet studio. Specifically, we report on teaching and learning in a weekly “variations” class, or a class that provides repeated opportunities for dancers to practice solos, as a group, with the guidance of an instructor. This paper asks: Guided by a theoretical sensitivity to craftsmanship, how does teaching and learning emerge, collectively, in ballet lessons? In the end, this paper advances learning with and as a body as a way forward toward a more creative social politics.

Authors

• Ty Hollett, The Pennsylvania State University

• Xinyun Peng, The Pennsylvania State University

• Siyuan Luo, The Pennsylvania State University

• Susan M. Land, The Pennsylvania State University