Tenth International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Classical ballet student experiences about learning ballet, as well as their ideas about authoritarian practices, normalizing aesthetic values and specific body structure, are elicited. From an in-action phenomenological framework anchored on feminism, buddhism and constructivism, a Conscious Ballet Method (CB) is developed and implemented as workshops. Using data collected from students enrolled in a course of twenty sessions, three questions are addressed: what are the groups’ initial versus final conceptions do the practitioners have about 1) the democracy of the bodies? 2) Personal life experiences elicited through this method? 3) Conceptions of collaboration relationships in the ballet class? As part of this phenomenological analysis classroom observations and teachers’ in-depth interviews provide a contextualized perspective on distinctive dimensions of complexity. The referential aspects experienced show three distinctive dimensions of complexity: structural: focus on the traditional method, relational: focus on conceptual development, extended abstract: focus on in-life development. A model for the expansion of teachers’ awareness on teaching and learning is proposed, with special attention given to systematic reflection and the ontological and epistemological aspects, as they influence reasoning, judgment and metacognition of the educational process.