“Bodies never lie.”
bell hooks and Embodied Pedagogy
Curtis, S. and Wilkinson, A. (2022). Extending embodiment: bell hooks’s engaged pedagogy in the virtual postsecondary classroom. In Radical Spaces of Possibility: bell hooks’s engaged pedagogy and the Rethinking of our Teaching Practices for the 21st Century, Comeforo, K. and Matacin, M. eds. Hartford. Accepted for publication.
Humanizing Creativity and the Development of Collegiate Dancers’ Political Identity
Wilkinson, A. M. (2020). Humanizing creativity and the development of collegiate dancers’ political identities. Journal of Dance Education.
Colleges and universities are increasingly called on to prepare students for the demands of democracy. Students’ ability to rise to these challenges depends in part on the development of political identity. As of yet, little research centers on how political identity is linked to creative processes found within dance programs. Given the significance of the rehearsal studio and the stage as sites where college students potentially engage with politics, the purpose of this qualitative case study is to illuminate connections between humanizing creativity and students’ applications of their political identities, thereby providing a vision for arts practices that serve as contributors to a flourishing democratic society. Published 2020 in the Journal of Dance Education: https://doi.org/10.1080/15290824.2020.1722819
Razor Burn: A Feminist Approach to Dance Pedagogy in Rehearsal and Performance
Wilkinson, A. (2019). Politics and pedagogy in the classroom: From rehearsal to performance. In D. L. Morgan & C. H. F. Davis III (Eds.), Student activism, politics, and campus climate in higher education. (pp. 129-142). Routledge.
This case study investigated the rehearsal and performance of an original student-choreographed dancework entitled Razor Burn that explores themes such as the role of the “unapologetic woman” in American society, conventional standards of femininity in popular culture, and intersectional feminism.
The work was created as a final project for an undergraduate dance composition course and utilized elements of choreographic craft as well as movement development devices. Chief among these were gestures reflecting traditional views of feminine behaviors such as shaving, putting on makeup, posing, and grooming one's hair. The piece develops to resist these tropes with the dancers physicalizing "less acceptable" aspects of femininity including open legs, natural black hair, and the depiction of women aggressively eating hamburgers.
An abridged version of Razor Burn premiered in the spring of 2017 at a mid-size private institution’s annual Dance Composition Showcase and was fully produced the following fall at the school’s Mainstage Dance Concert. The piece was subsequently performed at several additional venues including a men's basketball game half-time event, a regional convening of the American College Dance Association Conference (ACDA), and an undergraduate research symposium. For a video link to Razor Burn please see here (password: burn).
For a student-created look inside Razor Burn please see here.
Public Voices Greenhouse Oped Project
The Los Angeles Review of Books Blog
The Little Rock Nine: Ballet and Racial Justice in Art
Dancing with Science: Collaborating for Vocational Activism and Effective Citizenry
The Hill
Cuts to Arts Funding could be Detrimental to Academic Achievement
Rewriting the Brain Cancer Narrative
Politics Means Politics
Performing Free Speech - Not the Same as Academic Freedom
Thrive Global
Unlikely Dance Partners: When Science and Art form Policy Movements
Medium
Failing, Resilience and the Intangible Benefits of an Arts Education