Decolonizing Dance Pedagogy: Application of Pedagogies of Ugandan Traditional Dances in Formal Dance Education

Abstract

ABSTRACTDances from African communities are gradually getting incorporated into formal education at pre-tertiary and tertiary levels in the United States. Whereas strides have been made to embrace this artistic and cultural diversity, the instructional methodologies that are applied in teaching these dances are commonly founded on Western pedagogic canons and thought. This article locates the place of African dances within the existing body of literature, with emphasis on the scholarly, pedagogic, and research dilemmas, prospects, challenges and implications of integrating these dances in to formal education. Building on my orientation as a learner and teacher of dance in academic and non-academic settings in Uganda, the US and New Zealand, I explore my autoethnographic teaching experiences and reflections on how I have integrated and applied pedagogies of Ugandan traditional dances such as communal random mirroring; music as a teaching aid; ethnic dance terminologies; children games as warm up exercises; and storytelling as modalities of dance instruction in formal education. Moreover, I demonstrate how theories of spiral curriculum (Brunner 1960) and experiential learning (Kolb 1984) have participated in nourishing this pedagogic synthesis and philosophy.