Dancing Across Borders: Perspectives on Dance, Young People and Change

Dancing Across Borders presents formal and non-formal settings of dance education where initiatives in different countries transcend borders: cultural and national borders, subject borders, professional borders and socio-economic borders. It includes chapters featuring different theoretical perspectives on dance and cultural diversity, alongside case narratives that show these perspectives in a specific cultural setting. In this way, each section charts the processes, change and transformation in the lives of young people through dance.

Key themes include how student learning is enhanced by cultural diversity, experiential teaching and learning involving social, cross-cultural and personal dimensions. This conceptually aligns with the current UNESCO protocols that accent empathy, creativity, cooperation, collaboration alongside skills- and knowledge-based learning in an endeavour to create civic mindedness and a more harmonious world.

This volume is an invaluable resource for teachers, policy makers, artists and scholars interested in pedagogy, choreography, community dance practice, social and cultural studies, aesthetics and interdisciplinary arts. By understanding the impact of these cross-border collaborative initiatives, readers can better understand, promote and create new ways of thinking and working in the field of dance education for the benefit of new generations.

Charlotte Svendler Nielsen is Associate Professor and Head of Studies at the Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports research cluster “Embodiment, Learning and Social Change” University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

Stephanie Burridge lectures at LASALLE College of the Arts and Singapore Management University and is Series Editor for Routledge Celebrating Dance in Asia and the Pacific.