Choreographer/researcher/teacher: Developing a/r/tography as an approach to dance pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts in a professional learning community of teachers

This article follows the becoming a/r/tographic of four colleagues working within the field of dance pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts. The four colleagues – Tone, Camilla, Stina, Madelaine - are part of a larger professional learning community of staff that together have carried out a 3-year long change project restructuring the BA program in dance pedagogy. As a result, the BA has been given an a/r/tographic approach, emphasizing the entangled positions of the artist, researcher, and teacher in dance pedagogy. Another result is the open course A/r/tography in theory and practice in higher education (7.5 ects), which was developed to qualify staff to work through a/r/tography. The four authors of this article were all involved in the first round of the open course, Tone as course teacher, and Camilla, Stina, and Madelaine as staff-students. The course is the entanglement from which they have explored the question that guides this article: How is a/r/ography being developed for the field of dance pedagogy in the context of Stockholm University of the Arts in an ongoing collaborative learning community of teachers? Their exploration is based in a diffractive methodology, thinks-with theory from a/r/tography and expanded choreography, and has resulted in three a/r/tographic expositions on Research Catalogue. The insights arrived at are discussed as: values; performative pedagogy; expanded choreography; a researching approach as choreographers/researchers/teachers; and professional development of staff in higher dance education. Photo: Camilla Reppen