Children’s play events as improvisational choreographies

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper views children’s play events as improvisational choreographies. The contributions of dance studies to research on children’s play allows the opportunity to understand the kinesics communication intrinsic to their peer culture interactions and, therefore, socialisation. Based on an ethnography with Portuguese preschoolers, this work exposes the kindergarten as an institutional arena, where they deal with governance issues and, simultaneously, as a socio-cultural context, where they physically engage in collective play routines. Ethnographic data analysis suggests that, when children play freely together, they collaboratively use processes that can be seen as analogous to those from dance choreography. Both creative activities embrace body, space-time, energy, relationships, meanings, and three analytical concepts – improvisation, choreography and performance. Therefore, a choreographic framework will be intertwined with sociological perspectives of childhood and used as a device for understanding the children’s body language during interactive play episodes.