Scratch nights and hash-tag chats: creative tools to enhance choreography in the higher dance education curriculum

This paper reports on a focused collaborative learning and teaching research project between the Dance Department at Middlesex University and partner institution London Studio Centre. Informed by Belinda Allen’s research on creative curriculum design, dance students and lecturers shared innovative learning opportunities to enhance the development of the creative dance graduate. The key motivation was to explore practices in the modules on both institutions’ undergraduate programmes in which choreography is located. Interdisciplinary, peer and audience discussions surrounding students’ work were fostered during Scratch nights and via hash-tag chats on Twitter. In this discussion we demonstrate that these discursive and participatory practices have value for future dance artists entering the professional field. We evaluate the research outcomes with focus on language, critical confidence and risk taking with the view of better shaping students’ overall learning opportunities in a collaborative dance network to support their individual development as artists.

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Research in Dance Education on 21/12/2016, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14647893.2016.1264381