Editorial

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">In our work as dance artists we have for many years worked at guiding creative and artistic processes based on body and movement. We have developed didactic models that can be put to use in encounters with both children and young people, as well as students and professional dancers. Our work is based on guiding or coaching starting from the individual’s viewpoint. In these processes it is the individual expression that is being cultivated, always in an artistic context. The work is founded in a phenomenological view of body and movement, with the lived, experienced body as a central concept.An important part of our work has been about developing models and tools where physical principles, understanding of shape, expression, space and composition, can be seen in relation to the individual’s creative and artistic process. Through this a need has arisen to find new words and terms that can explain artistic processes in a more overall way and where the development of bodily knowledge is not separated from the artistic processes.In this context we have found a new word, “fraskyv”, that could be understood as the opposite of gravitation, like a push-off, some kind of upward pull, a spring, momentum, or maybe as a shift of weight, transfer or a change in a wider sense. The point has been to find a word that can contain both technical and creative elements, and this word “fraskyv” is the starting point for this article.</abstract>

FRASKYV – metode og verktøy i dansekunstneriske prosesser

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article is about the first part of the artistic development research project called “Hoppsa Universum”. It was carried out in collaboration with the choreographer Anna Källblad 2006-2008. Ninety children from preprimary schools participated by taking part in dance- and movement sessions at the University College of Dance in Stockholm. After the sessions they were interviewed and the results were:<italic>The children enjoyed dancing and thought it was fun and felt good about dancing</italic><italic>The children preferred running and other loco motor movements</italic>The observations were videotaped and analyzed and the result gave new movements ideas as the children performed their own ideas without any instructions. The importance of exploration and improvisation within the class and within the learning process proved to be essential.</abstract>

En rapport från danspedagogens perspektiv

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article features the DANCEballad project which is in its seventh season of providing high quality dance for children and youngsters (aged 9-15) during their summer holiday.Everyone with an interest in dance can join the project since no previous dance experience is required. The purpose of the project is to offer an opportunity for the participants to compose, perform and appreciate dance through their own uniqueness in cooperation with others. Another purpose of the project is to make dance become more visible throughout the regions by creating a base for development, continuity and interest for dance in the community in general.The DANCEballad has been a great success with more than 600 student-dancers involved each summer.Within only one week, the summer school dancers from each region have to create their own dance performance and present the choreography on a professional stage. The benefits for the participants from joining the project naturally vary from child to child. Previous evaluations show that personal and aesthetic development is part of the main benefits which e.g. become visible through enhanced self-confidence. In an aesthetic manner they broaden their horizons, interests and understandings of what dance can be and do. Through an interview with Sara Sejrskild, a DANCEballad participant, we get an example of what the summer dancers can achieve from the project.</abstract>

DANCEballad

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article discusses a youth dance project called <italic>Corridor</italic> and its pedagogic and choreographic process. It introduces the author’s approach to coordinating and choreographing the project and argues for the benefits of working with youngsters cross-culturally.<italic>Corridor</italic> took place at Kuopio Dance Festival in June 2009, bringing nearly 50 young dancers from six different countries onto the Music Centre stage. The title of the event, corridor, was turned into the theme of the concrete artistic work. It expresses a kind of space and mobility between people and ideas. Spectators, as well as choreographers and dancers opened doors to different cultures – here culture refers to the live, social environment which touches us, and in which the public and the private, the collective and the individual meet.The author’s choreographic and pedagogical approach proceeds from a general to a detailed one. The work evolves in a spiral form starting from action which opens channels for relating to the present moment through dancing. Then this experienced action is shared and reflected on, either physically or verbally. The author aims at shared power and genuine dialogue. Similarly, instead of taking difference and complex dynamics as a threat, they are considered as resources and possibilities.<italic>Corridor</italic> was a part of Keðja Kuopio a project which focused on children and young people. Furthermore, Keðja Kuopio belongs to Keðja project (Dance Encounters 2008 – 2010), the vastest platform so far aimed at dance artists as well as educators, producers and scholars to meet and address important issues within the contemporary dance field in the Nordic/Baltic region.</abstract>

Corridor – Käytävä Kulttuuriseen Mosaiikkiin

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The purpose of the article is to illuminate the experiences of young dancers working with their own individual training in a context of contemporary dance education. Through a three-year programme, the students have kept logbooks and developed material based on the question: What were the essential experiences of individual training today? From having a focus on training strength, mobility, resilience, stamina and balance in the beginning, they often reoriented their training so as to give themselves the space to relate to and create confidence that their own subjective and relational experiences have validity in a professional dance context. As young, prospective professionals they learn gradually that what they experience is “not wrong”, but an expression of “where they are”. Their experiences contribute to the questioning of “narrow” definitions which a number of dance researchers also do today.</abstract>

”To allow oneself to dance….”

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article focuses on and discusses the concept of space as a theoretical tool in connection with dance pedagogy. The author suggests that to look at the dance class as spacious contributes to the dance teacher’s awareness of the fact that she operates in, and also creates, many different spaces as she teaches. This awareness might support the teacher in broadening the dance space in order to embrace differences among dancers, thereby providing the word spacious with a second meaning: generous. The author’s interest in the concept of space as a theoretical device to help understand what goes on in a dance class was born during the analysis of the video material collected for her PhD in dance (Østern, 2009). The practical investigation of the study dealt with formulating an approach to dance pedagogy with a group of mixed-ability dancers based on an understanding of the meaning-making processes among the different dancers in the project. Dialoguing with scholars like Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1962/2002), Valerie Briginshaw (2001), Shaun Gallagher, Dan Zahavi (2008) and Leena Rouhiainen (2007), the author distinguished different spaces in the dance improvisation classes she was teaching, video recording and analysing. Through this process, she developed a theory on the fact that in a dance improvisation class with differently bodied dancers meaning was made in different ways, touching on and producing different spaces. The author concludes that one main advantage of regarding a dance class as spacious is that it allows for an understanding that in class meaning-making can happen in different ways, within different spaces. Together with the dancers, the dance teacher moves in and out of these spaces as she teaches.Tone Pernille Østern (Doctor of Arts in dance) is a dance artist, teacher and researcher based in Trondheim, Norway. She is the artistic leader of the Inclusive Dance Company <italic>(<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.dance-company.no">www.dance-company.no</ext-link>)</italic> which is a small independent contemporary dance company. She has developed the Dance Laboratory <italic>(<ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.danselaboratoriet.no">www.danselaboratoriet.no</ext-link>)</italic> which is a performing group with differently bodied dancers. The Dance Laboratory also formed the basis of her field work in relation to her PhD in Dance at the Theatre Academy in Helsinki (Østern, 2009). Østern is also the leader of the MultiPlié Dance and Diversity Festival, a biennial in Trondheim since 2004. The festival tries to stretch and discuss ideas about what dancing is and who can be a dancer. From 2009 she also takes up the position as assistant professor at the Program for Teacher Education at the NTNU University where she teaches and carries out research. E-mail: <italic>inclusive@dance-company.no / tone.pernille.ostern@plu.ntnu.no</italic></abstract>

Teaching Dance Spaciously

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This article is about language and lived experiences and analysis of movement of dance within Physical Education studies in Denmark with a special focus on how the language of movement and dance can be related to lived body and movement experience. The issue of the challenges and possibilities of expressing movement experience and analysis in words is discussed at the general level and exemplified in the context of a dance educational event where the movement theory of Rudolf Laban is applied. A central question arising out of this example of working with language and lived experience of movement is: What influence does language have on our way of understanding and communicating a dance experience? The article proposes that a bodily anchored <italic>lived</italic> language – through an <italic>ethic-aesthetic</italic> phenomenological approach – may supplement, expand and broaden a given professional terminology in order to articulate, communicate and unfold the experiential dimensions of dance.</abstract>

The Dance of Words

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 14 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 14 (2023): Issue 1 (June 2023)

Volume 13 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 13 (2022): Issue 1 (June 2022)

Volume 12 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 12 (2021): Issue 1 (June 2021)

Volume 11 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 11 (2020): Issue 1 (June 2020)

Volume 10 (2019): Issue 1-2 (December 2019)

Volume 9 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 9 (2018): Issue 1 (June 2018)

Volume 8 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 8 (2017): Issue 1 (June 2017)

Volume 7 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 7 (2016): Issue 1 (June 2016)

Volume 6 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 6 (2015): Issue 1 (June 2015)

Volume 5 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 5 (2014): Issue 1 (June 2014)

Volume 4 (2013): Issue 2 (December 2013)

Volume 4 (2013): Issue 1 (June 2013)

Volume 3 (2012): Issue 2 (December 2012)

Volume 3 (2012): Issue 1 (June 2012)

Volume 2 (2011): Issue 1 (December 2011)

Volume 1 (2010): Issue 1 (December 2010)

Nordic Journal of Dance

 Nordic Journal of Dance – practice, education and research was established in 2010 within a network called DENN: Dance in Education Nordic Network  The goals and values of DENN are:  “Bringing together expertise across borders, sharing ideas about pedagogical strategies and concrete methods, promoting exchange in dance teacher training across the Nordic countries, promoting dialogue, opening doors and collaborating.”  The DENN network aimed at establishing a Nordic Journal of dance practice, research, containing both peer reviewed research articles, and practice related articles from the field of dance in education in general, in a Nordic context. Nordic Journal of Dance is thus a Nordic collaboration between researchers within dance, dance history, pedagogy, artistic research and more, connected to relevant institutions in all the Nordic countries. These researchers are all represented in the editorial board.  The purpose of the journal is to: Develop the quality of dance practice, education and research in the Nordic context. Exchanging experiences and knowledges in the doing, learning and teaching of dance/movement. Strengthening the Nordic perspective on movement, dance and education. Giving researchers a place to present their work and increasing the quality of publications within dance research.  Nordic Journal of Dance represents one of very few opportunities for researchers to publish their work. It is the only journal focusing on dance research in a Nordic context. Our impression is that it has a substantial impact. NOFOD – Nordic Forum for Dance Research is also a collaborator, having two representatives in the editorial board.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 