WEAVING RELATIONSHIPS, DANCING SOLIDARITIES: Pedagogies of Transnational Feminist Choreography

As an educator of non-western contemporary dance and social justice choreography, the author grapples with many of the shorthands that proliferate in the performing arts, especially at the convergence of arts funding, arts programming, and pedagogy. What might it mean to embody a transnational framework in a practice whose very strength is aesthetic specificity, which is almost always tied to cultural specificities? How can instructors invite students to execute particular rhythmic cycles and movement pathways, even when the goal is not to look the same but to dance together? How can feminist educators in the performing arts teach students about negotiating space in compact ensemble formations and understand the reverberations of such practice for building solidarities? This chapter addresses these questions utilizing a transnational feminist lens.