Sixteenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

One way to fill the mainstream educational system gaps created by rigid and reductive approaches to building knowledge that are lessening students’ curiosity, creativity, and imagination, is to engage holistic education and educate new generations of critical thinking minds. Holistic education, transformational in its nature, is based on the foundation that each person should find an identity, meaning, and purpose in life while nurturing relationships in the community, society, and natural world. A way to nurture holistic learning is through community cultural practices and developing an embodied way of knowing. This concept of the embodied way of knowing sets the premise and direction to explore these practices as a manifestation of a holistic way of being, learning, and teaching. Focusing on the study of cultural practices, and specifically traditional dance, I consider its impact as holistic learning in the development of a whole person. With this, I examine the pedagogical approaches of traditional dance as a way of acquiring knowledge, both a container of knowledge and a methodology of passing it to another generation.