Identities and dance competition: re/discovering the force from within

Abstract

The National Student Dance Competition is a significant annual event in the field of dance in Taiwan supervised by the Ministry of Education. Dance pupils who participate in this competition are under the influence of their instructors and thus tend to reproduce the same culture in their socialization process. By using the Bourdieuian concepts of habitus and cultural reproduction, this paper brings to light the dance instructors’ pedagogic influences on the dance pupils’ training and the consequences of participating in the competition. By examining the effects of symbolic forces in the competition, this study critically examines the moulding processes of the participants’ personal, cultural and social identities during their formative training. This paper argues that such socialization processes potentially restrict the participants’ creativity and sense of agency since the individual and collective identities of a particular group often develop in similar directions.

Keywords:

• cultural reproduction
• dance competition
• dance education
• habitus
• identities
• pedagogic influences

Notes

1. During the martial law period (1949–1987), political censorship was imposed in all subject fields including dance activities.

2. Many thanks to the following contributors for sharing their experiences through individual interviews or focus groups about dance competition: Huang, Shi Kai (dance instructor), Lee, Jia Wen (dance instructor), Wu, Chen Lin (dance instructor), Yang Zi Yao (dance instructor), Fei Yang Folk Dance Group and dancers, Hua Yuan Dance School and dancers, Lü Guang Dance School and dancers, Lee, Bi Yu (parent) and Wen, Mei Yu (parent).