Contemporary dance as being and becoming in the age of aging
existential aspects of (arts) education among elderly amateur dancers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.2257Keywords:
Adult dance education, ageing, choreography, community dance, self-conceptionAbstract
This article takes experiences from a contemporary multi-artistic dance project as a starting-point. The aim is to describe and explore how such a project can offer possibilities for being and becoming among elderly amateur dancers, based on a phenomenological way of thinking. The phenomenon of the investigation is self-conceptualization. The multi-artistic process and context is defined as an adult educational situation. To come close to the lived experiences of the dancers, the rehearsals as well as the performance were observed, and documented. Six of the participants were also interviewed. The material was analyzed in a hermeneutical phenomenological manner, and de Beauvoir’s thinking regarding aging, was used as a theoretical lens. The results show how the self-images of the participants change throughout the project. The dance activities seem to give the elderly possibilities to remain themselves, even if they become different. They learn to know themselves, each other and the world.
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