Ethics and Efficacy of Touch
in University Dance Education
Research statement
This is an ongoing, mixed-methods study aimed at collecting the oral histories of individuals regarding the specific ways in which they have experienced pedagogical touch and hands-on work in university dance studio settings. Teaching dance through touch facilitates multi-intelligence learning, but is under-researched. This research study prioritizes student and faculty agency while examining the efficacy of tactile teaching and learning.
In this study, I ask: How do we, as dance educators, learn how to touch? What specific kinds of touch are used to facilitate learning dance? How is the studio learning environment changing to adapt to COVID safety? How are we teaching without touch?
This study examines both student and faculty perspectives and experiences of pedagogical touch in dance instruction through oral history interviews.
As a recipient of a Graduate Research Fellowship through the University of Utah, I am currently conducting oral history interviews as part of my ongoing research on the ethics and efficacy of touch in university dance education. Interviews are conducted via Zoom and are currently being scheduled for Spring 2021. Students and faculty of all institutions are invited to participate.
If you would like to schedule an interview, please reach out to me through the ‘Contact’ Tab.
Oral history Interviews
Online Surveys
Communal, individual, and anonymous surveys are completed ongoingly with many student populations. To request literature for your class, please contact me.
Rationale
Hands-on work, partnering, and physical touch are all crucial skills for dancers in process, training, and performance. Extensive research has been conducted examining the impact of touch in healing the body, connecting a dancer to their sense of self, and locating them in space. To read more on the literature that supports this research, please see my paper titled ‘Toward Strategic Approaches to Hands-On Work in Dance Education’, a literature review that was completed to supplement preliminary qualitative research conducted Fall 2019 at the University of Utah.
Throughout my preliminary research, outlined in “Toward Strategic Approaches to Hands-On Work in Dance Education”, it became clear that very little research has been completed on the impact and efficacy of specific kinds of touch in the dance studio. Alarmingly, undergraduate and graduate curricula do not address touch in the studio. Alexander Technique, a high-touch, movement-based training program, requires 1600 hours of training to become a teacher. Yoga Teacher training ranges from 200 to 1000 hours of training. Yet, in university pedagogy courses for undergraduates and graduates, there are no modules on best practices for approaching touch in the dance studio.
Touch in the dance studio is complex and multifaceted. Whether it is self-touch, peer touch, or a faculty intervention, touch does more than simply mobilize and stabilize a dancer. As instructors, many of us know intuitively how a somatic experience might assist a student in their learning because we have likely felt it in our own body. To understand an individual’s tactile teaching choices, the first step is to observe and articulate what is happening in the studio. In 2021, we are relying on the lived experiences of memories of students and teachers, as well as observing the real-time changes in response to dancing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the re-entry of in-person dance training, how are educators facilitating radical agency in the studio?
This phenomenological research will begin to diagram and analyze how hands-on work manifests in the university dance studio through reports of individual experiences. Through surveys and interviews, a parallel line of research examining practices of consent and communication around touch will be conducted, focusing on faculty and student gender/power interactions. The patterns of touch as part of a pedagogical approach, and reactions to them, have yet to be researched and written about. With the support of the University of Utah, I can complete this research and compile important information that has often been passed down through oral history, observation, mentorship, and lived experiences. Through recorded oral histories and an online survey, I can begin to form the next stage of this research with more information and more streamlined questions.
Ultimately, I hope that the observation and analysis of hands-on work in the dance studio will empower both faculty and students to learn and teach more effectively and safely.