Navigating the byways of polyculturalism – whose dance are we teaching in South African schools?

Abstract

The post‐apartheid Dance Studies curriculum in South Africa is attempting to offer school learners both an education and training in dance as an art form. The outcomes‐based syllabi are intended to ensure that learners come to respect the diversity of South African society, and therefore a range of dance styles and genres are offered in order to enhance understanding and appreciation of this diversity. Serious questions and problems arise, however, when the intentions need to be translated and implemented into the classroom. Both political and cultural issues inform the hidden curriculum of the syllabi. In addition, the context of schooling in much of the Western Cape, in particular, means that many of the learners in schools offering Dance Studies are drawn from communities beset by current social and political strife. This paper attempts to raise some of the issues involved when we ask: Whose dance are we teaching in the classroom? To what end?