Finding freedom: dance-making as a lifeline in times of crisis

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to understand the impact of a new distance dance-at-home course on South African university students’ quality of life in the era of pandemic. The following research questions guided the enquiry: What were students’ experiences of this dance-at-home course? and How did participation in this dance-at-home course contribute to student wellbeing and connection, during a time of trauma and isolation? Since online streaming was not a feasible option at this Eastern Cape university, most of the course consisted of dance-making activities students could do alone or with their family members, at home. 48 students volunteered to participate in this study. Reflective journals, questionnaires, and interviews were used as data collection methods. Data revealed that participants in this dance-at-home course experienced a kind of freedom that was transformative and life changing, as it added to their quality of life during a period of trauma and isolation. Through dance-making at home, participants were able to find the freedom within, find the freedom to express their culture, find a lifeline in times of crisis, and find meaningful connection in times of isolation. Implications are that this course can be facilitated in refugee camps and spaces of war, assisting persons to find the freedom within, in times of crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Dance education
• intervention
• mental wellbeing
• multicultural classroom
• distance education

Introduction

Covid-19 caused educators across the globe to move to synchronous streaming platforms to continue teaching and learning throughout the pandemic. For dance educators, teaching dance without the co-presence of bodies in a physical space, fitting a movement demonstration into a camera angle, and requiring learners to stare at a screen while dancing seemed unfathomable (Gingrasso 2020), and raised concerns about exactly how the integrity and future of dance education could be secured in a world of online streaming (Heyang and Martin 2020). Shortly after, success stories of dance educators appeared, such as Li (Zihao 2021) and Tsompanaki and Magos (2022) who demonstrated that online tertiary dance education still fostered creative development, collaboration, peer support and teacher development; and Mabingo and Ssemaganda (2023) who uncovered many innovative online dance practices in Uganda, providing new insights into an African pedagogy of dance.

In South Africa, however, the shift to online streaming was not practical, since many students lived in rural areas not connected to electricity or internet. Many students had to share smart phones as their teaching and learning device, some could not afford data, had no internet signal, had insufficient bandwidth to cope with video streaming and insufficient space to learn (Chomunorwa, Mashonganyika, and Marevesac 2023). The shift to synchronous streaming platforms thus advantaged those who had, and disadvantaged those who had not, prohibiting equal access to education as the South African Constitution (RSA 1996) promised.

Adamant to not continue the cycle of inequality in our country, I re-designed my university dance education course as an asynchronous dance-at-home course. The main purpose of the course was to equip our generalist pre-service student teachers to facilitate creative dance in their future Intermediate Phase (ages 10–13) classrooms. ‘Generalist’, since they are required to teach all subjects at school, including dance education, a compulsory component of the Creative Arts curriculum. Covid-19, however, necessitated a secondary purpose, that of assisting our students to cope with the trauma of living through a pandemic. Isolation, fear of becoming sick and infecting loved ones, death and feelings of loss was everywhere, and their world (and ours) were in crisis. Conscious of dance’s capacity to alleviate trauma and anxiety (Karkou and Sanderson 2001; S. C. Koch et al. 2019, 2014; Mathis 2020) and how dance can add to people’s quality of life (Bond 2019), I did not want to resort to merely teaching dance theory as many of my dance colleagues did, I wanted my students to experience the dance. Hence, I designed an asynchronous dance-at-home course where students could learn how to dance, as they themselves danced and created dances of their own, at home.

This study seeks to understand the impact of this dance-at-home course on students’ quality of life in the era of pandemic. Research questions that guided this enquiry was: What were students’ experiences of this dance-at-home course? and How did participation in this dance-at-home course contribute to student wellbeing and connection, during a time of trauma and isolation?

The dance-at-home course

The dance-at-home course is based on creative movement, a dance teaching strategy that focuses on the holistic development of persons during the process of dancing (Koff 2000). Creative movement is rooted in the natural movements of a child’s spontaneous play (Kaufmann and Ellis 2007). Creative movement activities may include exploring the elements of dance, imaginative work, content expression or dance-making, and persons need not conform to a particular dance genre or aesthetic paradigm to express these through the body (van Heerden 2021). This creative movement course is based on dance-making and problem solving through the body.

Dance-making engages the body-mind unit to solve a creative challenge. Thus, creative negotiations with the Self (and often another) occurs through the body to find an aesthetic resolve to the challenge. Hanna (2008) and Geršak (2012) argue that this embodiment during dance-making allows persons to explore their intellectual, kinaesthetic, emotional and social Selves, as they also negotiate their identity. Feelings, emotions and aspects of the Self are expressed through the body as the person makes sense of the Self in the world (Hanna 2008; Kaufmann and Ellis 2007; Skinner et al. 2018). The embodied creative process can therefore develop a person’s sense of self, self-esteem and identity, whilst developing the person’s creativity and aesthetic understanding (Chappell et al. 2021; Marx and Delport 2017; van Heerden 2021). As a physical activity, it also induces endorphins associated with stress relief and feelings of happiness (Bungay et al. 2020). Rehearsing movement sequences reinforce certain pathways in our brain, which Hanna (2008) argues, may well assist the mind to adapt to challenges (Hanna 2008).

The pedagogy of teaching and learning creative movement in this course is unique since students did not share the usual collective or inter-personal dance experience in an embodied physical or virtual space with their peers or their teacher. Instead, students received weekly instructions to learn a short set choreography piece and do 2 dance-making activities at home. For example: Choose an emotion. Find 5 different movements to represent that emotion. String these movements together to form a dance. Students could choose to dance alone or with their family members. Video recordings or written reflections were submitted via WhatsApp as evidence of their weekly participation, after which students received weekly individual feedback via voice notes. The course lasted six weeks in which students completed a total of 18 dance activities at home.

Theoretical framework

This article presents symbolic interactionism (Blumer 1969; Schwalbe 2020; Stryker and Stryker 2016) as theoretical framework. Symbolic interactionism foregrounds our human capacity to produce symbols of meaning, ultimately resulting in the production of communication, culture and history (Plummer 2004). Meaning is created, refined and altered ‘in and through the defining activities of people as they interact’ with ‘objects’, which include people (Blumer 1969, 3). Interacting with objects causes the individual to interact with the Self through inner conversations, as they make sense of the Self, the Other and the world (Atkinson and Housley 2003; Blumer 1969; Mead 1913; Plummer 2004; Stryker and Stryker 2016). In this course, participants simultaneously interacted with movements as symbols of meaning, with their embodied Selves, their capacity to create and with dance, as they made sense of the Self and their world. In some cases, participants also interacted with other people, mostly family, often sharing many of the same ethno-cultural and movement symbols as the participant.

The secondary part of this theoretical framework is that of positive psychology, which prompts researchers to investigate factors that may enable human beings to flourish and live a quality life (Csikszentmihalyi 2014; Myers 2000; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Lomas et al. 2020). Entangling these two theoretical lenses create spaces for interpreting what happened during the dance-making experiences at home, in the context of the secondary objective of this course, which was to increase students’ quality of life at home. Positive psychology calls for researchers to investigate individual traits such as ‘capacity for love and vocation, courage, interpersonal skill, aesthetic sensibility, perseverance, forgiveness, originality, future mindedness, spirituality, high talent and wisdom (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000, 5).’

These may assist persons to live a happy and fulfilled life. Similarly, cultivating attributes such as hope, faith and a person’s capacity to flow – could, according to these authors, very well prevent mental illnesses (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Although Csikszentmihalyi’s (2014) flow is an attractive idea, it is not applicable to these dance experiences. His descriptions of flow clearly indicate the absence of awareness of self and of negotiation, which is the opposite of what emerged from the data. Symbolic interactionism, however, regard what happens during interpretation and negotiation as central to sense-making processes (Schwalbe 2020). That being said, positive psychology does not view the individual as a mere product of circumstances, but as one with agency, decision making capabilities and the capacity to excel (Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Lomas et al. (2020) encourage scholars in positive psychology to expand their boundaries and include mechanisms that consider diverse voices, interpretations, meaning-making systems and experiences of life, which symbolic interactionism allows for. Whereas symbolic interactionism encourages scholars to analyze data through different lenses (Schwalbe 2020), creating space for positive psychology. The review of further literature is interwoven throughout the article.

The research

This is a qualitative case study of culturally and socio-economically diverse South African students’ experiences, as they participate in this new method of teaching and learning dance education, at home. The study seeks to explore the impact of this dance-at-home course on our 3^rd year Intermediate Phase Bachelor of Education students’ quality of life in the era of pandemic. Data is drawn from a larger study investigating the same cohort’s experiences of dance-at-home in their third year of study (2022), and dance-on-campus in their 4^th year of study (2023), for which ethics clearance (H21-EDU-ERE-008) were granted by my institution. The student sample is unique, since they were in lockdown for three years before returning to campus for their final year of study. Thus, their experiences of isolation and screen-time were prolonged, which potentially heightened experiences of the dance, making visible that which may not have otherwise been recognisable.

Ethical concerns regarded the researcher being both researcher and teacher, potentially inflicting bias and misusing power to coerce participation and compromise the validity and integrity of the data (Dahlberg and McCaig 2010). To mitigate these concerns, recruitment occurred after students completed the dance course and received their grades, and after my involvement in their programme discontinued, to avoid feelings that non-participation might affect their grades or our relationship. 48 out of a cohort of 160 students volunteered to participate, a rather low percentage, which perhaps demonstrates that students did not feel coerced. In addition, participants were provided with a series of choices regarding the nature and extent of their participation, to shift the power from researcher to participant. Participants could choose to: grant access to already graded assignments; write new responses; write anonymous responses via google forms; participate in an interview; and choose their interviewer. Most participants provided permission to access their already graded assignments (a questionnaire and a reflective journal essay) for use as anonymous data. 4 participants submitted anonymous google questionnaires and 5 participants volunteered to be interviewed by myself.

The questionnaire was administered directly after the dance-at-home course in 2022, which mainly required descriptions of meaningful and challenging moments during the course. The reflective essay, administered 6 months later in 2023, included deep reflections on their dance-at-home experiences and a dance based on their essay. Interviews occurred post recruitment. These were guided by questions regarding their experiences of dancing at home. Interviews were recorded and meticulously transcribed by the researcher. Since most participants volunteered to participate in more than one data collection method, it seemed more useful to organize the data according to each participant to better understand their experiences of dancing at home, rather than keeping the data sets separate for triangulation purposes. Thus, the data was organized and numbered according to participants and then captured, stored and organised on ATLAS.ti. Manual data analysis was done by the researcher via open coding, to reveal the codes, categories and themes that best answered the research question (Punch 2009). Thus, the researcher was open-minded when viewing the data, allowing the codes, categories and themes to emerge from the data. Thereafter, an appropriate theoretical framework was developed to understand ‘what happened’ during students’ experiences of dancing at home. The discussion of findings is organised into four main themes that emerged from the data, which will be discussed below. Pseudonyms were carefully chosen to represent ethno-culture and gender, avoiding names in the student cohort.

Discussion of findings

The data revealed that participants in the dance-at-home course experienced a kind of freedom that was transformative and life changing, as it added to their quality of life during a period of trauma and isolation. Through the dance-making experiences at home, participants were able to (1) find the freedom within, (2) find the freedom to express their culture, (3) find a lifeline in times of crisis, and (4) find meaningful connection in times of isolation.

Finding the freedom within

Mia quoted the famous dancer and choreographer, Merce Cunningham, as she wrote:

Merce Cunningham stated that dance provides only a single transient moment of feeling alive. In 2022 amid a period as isolating and uncertain as the COVID-19 pandemic, I ached to find this source of expression and freedom. (Mia)

Mia, alongside several others (Babalwa, Cindy, Chrizelle, Josua, Itumeleng, Khayalethu, Lira, Siphe and Tina) indicated that dancing at home during this course, indeed evoked experiences of freedom:

I never realized how much I limited myself creatively, socially and emotionally by always worrying about what others thought of me until the shackles fell off piece by piece through every dance experience I had. The journey from isolation to emancipation through this dance course has been one that I will carry with me to my own classroom one day. I hope to be the person that inspires freedom in my learners through the art of dance. (Mia)

The dance-at-home course made her aware of that which limited her capacity to flourish. She described her ‘emancipation’ as a systematic process, a ‘journey’ that occurred over time – ‘piece by piece’ - which suggests that her experience of freedom was a transformative experience impacting her life, and not a fleeting moment as Cunningham (and scholars such as Marx and Delport 2017; Stinson 1997) suggests. Her interactions with dance-making changed the way she perceived herself, her capacity and her place in the world. Affirming that interacting with symbols of meaning create space for persons to revise their views of self and their place in the world (Plummer 2004). As future teacher, she was also inspired to become an agent of emancipation, to assist her future learners to break free from similar ‘shackles’ (Mia). She wanted to teach her future learners these skills to flourish, resonating with the agenda of positive psychology (Myers 2000; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000; Lomas et al. 2020).

Below, a rationale for the song choice of Mia’s final dance piece about her dance-at-home journey:

This song is called ‘Set Me Free Pt.2’, which is an anthem of sorts to those that feel trapped by society’s expectations, as well as the limitations they place on themselves. This song represents the journey from being isolated and confined to being set free with the power of dance. The choice of instrumental was purposeful, as words are not enough to describe the freedom and joy dance offers. (Mia)

Prior to the dance course, Mia felt numbed by personal and societal expectations, to the extent that it limited her capacity to ‘feel alive’. The dance-at-home course gave her a platform to identify what she felt, express it, and break free from it, to experience a freedom that words could not explain. Josua shared a similar sentiment: ‘I remember being locked in my house wishing for freedom, until I danced and experienced a freedom enhanced!’

Lira also wrote about freedom:

Dance has given me the chance to find myself, allow me to breathe and hear what my body has to say to me. I have found so much freedom within myself, even though my mind is always racing.

The dance experiences assisted her to slow down and practise a kind of mindfulness, where she could just breathe and listen to her body. It created a space where she could check-in with herself, find her authentic Self and be with her authentic Self. It allowed her to interact with the Self to make sense of herself and her world, as Mead (1913) and Stryker and Stryker (2016) suggest, assisting her to respond to the world and her circumstances from a place of freedom.

Similarly, Mikayla wrote: ‘This was a completely new type of alone time for me, and I relished the chance to spend quality time with myself while getting to know myself in a different way.’ The dance-making activities allowed Mikayla to discover new things about herself, also evident in Mia’s response: ‘I discovered a creative, innovative side of me that always seemed to lurk in the corners of my identity’.

From the data it seems as if the dance-at-home experiences created spaces for participants to interact with the Self in an honest and true way, encountering their emotional, intellectual, creative and embodied selves. In so doing, participants discovered the Self: ‘I found myself’(Lira) ‘I got to know myself’(Mikayla) and they got to re-define the Self (Mia, Josua), affirming the value of creative movement for the discovery of the authentic Self – We could ‘really be our true self’ (Ami-Lee) – as scholars (Bernstein 2019; Kauppila 2007; Marx and Delport 2017; Smith 2002) suggest. These scholars however refer to dance-making in community with others, whereas in many of the above responses, dance-making occurred alone. A distinction between the value of dance-making alone and dance-making in collaboration with others may be useful for future research, to separate the value of the act of creating dances for the individual, from the value of interacting with peers and collaborating with others.

Experiences of freedom found in this data, related to that of liberating the self from oppression – be it from negativity, experiences of inferiority, inequality or captive power induced by self, other or society. Significant in a society that is still rife with experiences of inequality and oppression, amidst experiences of incarceration due to the pandemic. Josua describes it as ‘a freedom enhanced’ and Mia, felt that ‘words are not enough to describe the freedom’. It holds an emotive and transformative quality, somehow missing in positive psychologist Csikszentmihalyi’s (2014, 55) descriptions of freedom in terms of choice and intrinsic motivation.

Finding the freedom to express my culture

Culturally and socio-economically different participants (Ami-Lee, Anathi, Bradley, Elizabeth, Itumeleng, Josua, Kholisa, Leanne, Octavia, Pete, Siyabulela and Vivian) felt free to express the Self as unique and as a member of a collective identity: ‘Dance allowed me to express my identity, culture and emotions’ (Octavia). Octavia felt free to use her own choice of movements and her own movement language to express her felt emotions. The course was designed to create spaces for culturally diverse participants to be free to express themselves as they wished, without the pressure to assimilate their movement vocabulary to a dominant or popular Western (or ethno-cultural) way of moving. Different cultural expressions were recognised as valid and meaningful, which assisted diverse persons with experiences of dignity, equality and equal worth, much needed in an unequal society like South Africa (van Heerden 2021; van Heerden 2024). ‘Dance let me feel like I was truly valuable’ (Kholisa) echoes these experiences of dignity and worth, important building blocks for enabling persons to flourish. In this regard, positive psychologists and educationalists would do well to explore future research that indeed asks: What constitutes experiences of dignity? and How can experiences of dignity be cultivated in different institutions and classrooms?

Vivian experienced recognition and affirmation of her ethno-cultural identity as valid and worthy:

When I saw that we were going to do the Kaapse Klopse dance, I felt represented as a young biracial-coloured woman… It shares similar movements that are well-known among the Coloured community. It was a warm experience knowing that I and others had this opportunity to explore this form of dance, either for the first time or just as a memory of what it means to some of us. I took the opportunity to not only follow the guided routine, but I expressed my joy and own ‘flavour’ to it as well. (Vivian)

This ethno-cultural dance is associated with the Cape Malay New Year’s celebrations. It was taught as a set choreography by myself, an outsider to the Coloured community. Doing this dance made her feel recognised, represented, valued and included, to the extent that she had a heart response – her heart felt warm, often associated with feelings of being loved and gladness. It validated her collective identity, and she loved sharing it with the Other. She also experienced the freedom to add more of herself (and perhaps her people) into the dance.

The value of being free to represent the self in terms of custom, culture and locality in the dance-making activities, echoed in Itumeleng’s account:

Dancing with props was less challenging to me and some of my friends, simply because we are familiar with that. I mean if you are from the township you will be exposed to isi’Pantsula [a high energy dance originating from the townships of Sophiatown and Alexandra, Johannesburg] and most of the time amaPantsula guys usually use props like a broom, crate etc. so from that experience I tried to modify it a little bit and add my taste to represent me. It was a wonderful experience. It felt like home for me because I was representing me my culture and all of that.

Itumeleng experienced a sense of home, often associated with a deep familiarity, feeling loved and a sense of belonging, as he did the dance-making activity. He felt free to ‘represent’ himself, his locality and his collective identity.

Dance-making created spaces for participants (and in some cases their families) to interact with existing symbols of meaning, be creative with these symbols and potentially create new symbols of meanings that are aesthetically pleasing. This enabled persons to simultaneously connect with past histories, whilst creating something new for the future. I am reminded of a participant quote from Nicholas Rowe’s film entitled ‘Dancing 7 cities’, as he speaks of his dance-making experience: ‘I am contributing to that, creating history and culture and heritage’ (Sami Shafeeq, cited in Rowe 2020 film). Perhaps one could argue that dance-making at home facilitates spaces for the creation of history, culture and heritage, since participants often base their movement explorations on existing symbols of meaning, whilst applying these in a new manner. These experiences were also often shared with family members, which will be discussed a little later.

The value of a pedagogy that creates spaces for persons to use their indigenous knowledge as a valid knowledge as resource to create something of beauty, should not be overlooked. The course was designed to promote a decolonized agenda encouraged by our institution (CHE: Council on Higher Education 2017). Diverse knowledge systems were recognised as valid, the content was relatable to students’ home environments and diverse students felt that their knowledge mattered (CHE: Council on Higher Education 2017; Msila 2009). More about how this course represented decolonising curricula, and how the data could be interpreted through the lens of African philosophy, can be read in van Heerden (2022, 2024). Because the dance course created spaces for persons to create something new and beautiful with their own symbols of meaning, culturally and socio-economically diverse participants could find the freedom within, know that they are enough – they mattered, express their authentic and collective selves, and flourish.

The third theme provides insight into how the dance-at-home experiences assisted participants to cope with isolation and trauma in the era of pandemic.

Finding a lifeline in times of crisis

The pandemic caused a crisis. Our students were forced to deal with feelings of anxiety, loss, depression and isolation as they navigated involuntary online learning and living in front of their screens with almost no peer-to-peer interaction. Where most of South African society was ‘pulled out’ of isolation and despair after 6 months, our students experienced three years of involuntary isolation, since our campuses were considered a mass gathering – the last of the COVID-19 restrictions to lift. Entangled with the daily challenges of poverty, hunger, crime, and frustrations of loadshedding (2–4 hours of being without electricity per day), many felt helpless.

At one point, in 2022, I felt as if I wanted to give up studying completely. I chose to do a dance activity and my view shifted 180 degrees. I suddenly felt re-energized, my mood went from worried to calm. Besides the physical movement in the dance activity, it taught me that I should slow down and start doing things one by one. I made a list of things to do, due dates, etc. Dance helped me gather my thoughts and capture them in one place. (Marc)

The dance-at-home course seemed to assist Marc and several others (Josua, Mikayla, Chrizelle, Octavia, Thombozuko, Caroline and Tracey) to regain control – in their studies and in their lives. It taught them how to break things down into manageable step by step components to overcome feelings of being overwhelmed. Like Marc, quite a few participants felt their mood shift: ‘[It] was sort of a reset button. After dancing my mind was clear and I was ready to deal with everything (Mikayla)’, whereas others felt motivated: ‘As someone who was diagnosed with depression, it helped a lot and gave me motivation and I looked forward to the next activity’ (Cwayita).

Many participants (Ami-Lee, Bradley, Caroline, Chrizelle, Cwayita, Josua, Marc, Mia, Merle, Mikayla, Nadia, Nondumiso, Octavia, Siphe, Siyabulela and Vuyani) felt that the dance-at-home course assisted them to cope with mental health:

I went into depression and wanted to commit suicide. And just being able to have letting that go, working through all of that… through dance, you were really able to express that kind of feeling. Yes, I felt the pain there. But I’m not letting it define me anymore. I’m not holding on to it anymore … [I’m just] leaving it all there on the floor (Josua)

The dance-at-home experiences assisted Josua to work through his emotions: ‘My isolation, overwhelming thoughts, worries and fears began to fade. Through every move, I learned to let go of that which I kept within. Anger, frustration, and loneliness all seemed to slip away.’ Josua compared his emotional turmoil to a prison debilitating him. It was ‘as if I was caged, now I’m being set free’. The dance-at-home activities allowed Josua to break free from negative thoughts and self-doubt. ‘It empowered me to become conscious that when my words may fail my dance moves could speak for me.’

Caroline was diagnosed with disassociation, which according to her, ‘is a feeling of detachment between your mind and what is going on around you. It can sometimes feel like a bubble or like you took a step back from your eyes.’ Turner (2023) describes disassociation as a trauma response which causes separation between the mind and the body. Dangerous, since episodes occur randomly. Some may experience symptoms before the disassociation, during which persons can develop a ‘grounding skill’ (Turner 2023, 11) to prevent or minimize the effect of the episode. Although Caroline practiced certain exercises to help her cope, she found that dance-making helped her ‘to feel like I can ground myself in my body through movement’. It offered her a space to ‘slow down’ and focus on:

what are my fingertips doing … It is important to take a minute, reacquaint yourself with your body, your attitude, and thoughts … This module has taught me that movement with music can help ease the dissociative feeling and reel me into my body again … that when I go to bed, I can rest easy. (Caroline)

Caroline’s dance experiences allowed her to enhance the body-mind connection (Turner 2023), so that she could ‘rest easy’. It also assisted her to cope with anxiety: ‘they say like trauma is held in your body. So just to help me move in ways that I don’t move in on a regular basis, it releases tension and can take away the feeling of anxiety’ (Caroline).

What is it about dance-making that is so powerful? Koch (2017) argues that art-making demonstrates our effectiveness, makes us feel in control and instils the feeling that ‘I can’. Thus, the act of creating affirms our usefulness as a human being, since it allows us to prove to ourselves that we have a valid and original contribution to make. Josua often struggled with the questions: ‘Why am I here?… Am I just a waste of space?’ and found validation of his worth and existence during dance-making. This affirms Bernstein’s (2019) claim that re-discovering creativity is empowering in times of feeling powerless. But why? We seem to be missing something about the act of creating … There must be value in the act of bringing something else into existence. In dance-making (unlike for example visual art) we are required to embody our creation to bring it to life. Perhaps it is because it requires the whole person (i.e. body, mind, life experience, identity, culture, meaning-making symbols and innovative capacities) to bring something else into life, that makes us feel ‘alive’ (Mia)? In this regard, Kholisa wrote ‘Dance let me feel like I was truly valuable. I felt as though I had accomplished something so great and so pure.’ It may not just be the sense of accomplishment that hold meaning, but the fact that it is pure – clean, consisting of the essence of something, untainted, unblemished. Kholisa was the reason that the dance – something else that is living and moving – exists.

The data, unlike what Kealiinohomoku (2001) and Vissicaro (2004) argue, implies that the dance creations need not be interpreted by another, nor understood in order to be considered a dance. ‘Sometimes to somebody else it will look like a mess, but you understand it – what you are expressing in that moment, what you feel, and what you are letting go’ (Josua). The creation is significant in itself, it does not require interpretation to validate its existence. It is enough that the dance-maker understands it.

Most participants experienced dance-making as a stress release. This is not to say that participants found the course easy, almost all participants described their experiences of dance-making as challenging, after which stories of personal breakthrough and moments of triumph followed. Thus, the challenging nature of the tasks resulted in another positive outcome (Lomas et al. 2020), that, of fostering resilience in times of crisis.

The dance-making activities also seemed to instil hope for a better future. Bradley wrote: ‘Each dance brings me one step closer to another promised day’. A heartbreaking statement intertwined with hope, supporting Anttila’s (2018) assertion that connections between dance-making and hope should be further explored. Hope is an important building block to increase mental wellbeing (Cineka and Michale Raj 2020; Csikszentmihalyi 2014; Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi 2000). Bradley later emphasised that it was ‘Through dance I was able to connect with my family, as I used to isolate myself a lot.’ Connection within the family, according to Bareket-Bojmel et al. (2021), can instil the kind of hope that makes the imagining of a better future possible.

Finding connection in times of isolation

Indeed, Siphe held that it was because her family engaged in dance-making with her, that it held meaning:

I was diagnosed with the depression … It was to the point that I used to hate going outside my room. I’m always in pain, but when I know that it’s dance. I’ll just go out of bed and interact with my family. So it was much better including my family. It was very fun … that also made me a bit better because interacting with my family, all of them like participating with me, it made me… It made me feel very much better. It changed the whole day, because after dancing, me and the family would be having fun - and they were really supportive throughout my depression journey … that brightened the whole day.

The opportunity to create and move with her family, assisted her to heal. In African practices, the sociality of dancing with community (including family) is recognized as a healing force (Edwards 2010). In Senegal and Rwanda for example the entire community gathers to dance with a person who is struggling with negative thoughts, to help them find their joy (Cox and Youmans-Jones 2023). In this regard, Siyabulela wrote:

Dance is a stress release it brings unity and excitement at home … My experience is that dancing with people is much more enjoyable than doing it alone … It offers relief from feelings of depression, frustration, anxiety, and irritability for the whole family.

He witnessed a change in his parents’ behaviour as they participated in the dance-at-home course together: ‘It help[ed] our parents cope with stress and diseases (Siyabulela)’. Like Finn et al. (2023), Myers (2000) also hold that quality social relationships increases our sense of belonging, fostering experiences of wellbeing. The strengthening of close bonds influences feelings of support and care, assisting persons to adapt to a ‘challenging reality’ like a pandemic or other difficult situations (Bareket-Bojmel et al. 2021, 134).

From the data it is clear that dance-making at home, whether alone or with the family, assisted participants to cope with feelings of stress, isolation, depression, anxiety and disassociation. Dance Movement Therapists Koch et al. (2019) and Bernstein (2019) has found similar outcomes in Dance Movement Therapy sessions. The pandemic also encouraged more research into dance interventions that could potentially promote mental wellbeing. For example, Cineka and Raj (2020) found that engagement in dance and music could decrease both physical and psychological pain in COVID-19 patients, whilst Finn et al. (2023) and Humphries et al. (2023) delved into the value of fostering belonging and connection through online dance classes, to decrease anxiety and depressive symptoms. These interventions however, regard dance participation and not dance-making. In this study, students did not dance synchronously with their peers, neither did they merely learn to dance a set routine. Students had to create their own dances according to specific abstract instructions. It extended beyond learning a dance, it required participants to solve a problem, use their imagination, access their creativity, make choices, pre-plan each movement, find the flow and rehearse their dance until they felt comfortable to perform it in front of a camera. It is thus the participation or co-participation in creative dance-making at home that seemed to alleviate feelings of depression and anxiety.

In cases where participants danced with their family, the dance-at-home course seemed to foster family connection. Vuyani held that dance-making at home ‘reminded me to turn and look to people around me to come and join me in my studies, which is very important because having attention from my relatives played a huge role of motivation.’ Vuyani was reminded that he does not have to stand alone. In ubuntu philosophy, a person’s existence, being and wellbeing is deeply connected to the family and community (Menkiti 2006). The dance-making activities reminded this student that he can draw strength from his family’s knowledge and care, as a source of motivation to continue his studies. It seemed as if the dance-making activities encouraged families to support family members. It allowed the family ‘to make time for each other in our busy schedules’ (Cindy) and created spaces for them to ‘bond’ (Elizabeth). Elizabeth added an afterthought: ‘We must enjoy the time we have with each other; it is a blessing’, expressing an understanding and awareness of loss and of time being precious.

Odwa felt that dance-making at home created an opportunity for him to connect with his sister:

I connected with my sister on a more personal level. After we were done putting the dance together, she opened up to me about how the gap year has taken its toll on her. I got to understand some of the changes I had noticed in her behaviour, and we reconciled.

Dance-making with the family seemed to create opportunities for honest heart-to-heart conversations, fostering family connection and experiences of support and care for each other. I wonder why. Perhaps the process of sharing movement ideas allows one to test whether it is a safe space to share honest thoughts. The movement sharing process could indicate the nature in which mistakes and imperfections are judged or accepted, it could cultivate feelings of ‘I matter’, my ideas matter, nothing needs to be perfect, and acceptance of movement mistakes – or, off course, the opposite. The shared process of successfully solving a movement problem together may also nudge persons to further problem-solving discussions.

Regardless, Kirstey wrote: ‘There is something that you can do to bring families together’, a sentiment echoed by Siphe: ‘Even if a family are not getting along, but then when it comes to this [the dance activities], I do think, and I do feel that they become united.’ Both these participants experienced that dance-making at home not only shifted the atmosphere in their family, but it prompted their family to reconcile. Others held that the dance-at-home experiences ‘bring[s] unity and excitement at home’(Siyabulela), as it ‘brought a sense of togetherness’ (Tamryn, Chantel). These family moments became ‘memories I’ll cherish forever’ (Tamryn, Ami-Lee), demonstrating the value dancing with the family held in their lives. In an interview, Siphe said that the dance activities allowed her family to ‘focus[ed] on something that was making us happy, making us loving each other’. The dance-at-home course’s capacity to re-kindle experiences of love between family members in times of crisis, was profound.

In this regard, Waters (2020) holds that activities that cause repeated positive family interactions such as the above, can increase collective family happiness. Especially, when these family interactions are aimed at cultivating positive skills such as effective communication, or in this case, how to use the body, creativity, dance-making and creating something of beauty. The findings of this study indicate that the dance-at-home course had a profound impact on the quality of life of participants as they dealt with three years of isolation due to a pandemic. Through the dance-making experiences at home, participants were able to find the freedom within, find the freedom to express their culture, find a lifeline in times of crisis, and find meaningful connection in times of isolation.

Conclusion and implications

This study investigated the impact of a new distance dance-at-home course on South African university students’ quality of life in the era of pandemic. The two research questions that guided this enquiry, was What were students’ experiences of this dance-at-home course? and How did participation in this dance-at-home course contribute to student wellbeing and connection, during a time of trauma and isolation?

This study found that the 6-week dance-at-home course indeed contributed to the quality of life of students, as they grappled with their third year of lockdown. The outcomes were transformative, since it changed the way participants viewed themselves, it allowed them to experience freedom, express their culture, break free from negative and destructive thoughts, and assisted them to re-connect with their family.

In a country such as South Africa it is significant that this university dance course reached beyond the student, impacting the mental wellbeing and quality of life of students’ families at home. Many of our students are the first and only members of families receiving higher education. In many instances, students lack emotional and financial support from family members due to poverty, unequal educational policies of the past, previous and current disadvantage and misrecognition of the value of higher education. Since this dance education course reached into the homes and communities of participants, it also supported a broader agenda of social and community upliftment.

The findings of this study have far-reaching consequences. This method of teaching dance education promoted equal access to education. The unique pedagogy does not require a facilitator to be present. Persons can dance at home, alone or with their families and dance at a time and locality that suits them. The pedagogy does not require a stable internet connection, steady bandwidth, a constant supply of electricity or even a computer. It only requires access to WhatsApp once a week. Thus, this dance-at-home course is accessible for people across the world – without the need for persons or facilitators to be on-site or even in the same time zone.

This means, that experiences of finding the freedom within, finding the freedom to express culture, finding a lifeline in times of crisis, and finding meaningful connections in times of isolation can be offered to others in need, without restrictions of access or borders. Thus, the course can for example be used as a dance intervention for persons in refugee camps and those trapped in spaces of war, as it may assist them to find a way to express their authentic selves, find themselves again, and in so doing allow them to regain a sense of self-worth. It can assist with finding motivation, relief from feelings of anxiety and depression and re-connect them with their families and those around them. It can offer them a space to freely express their culture and validate the worth of their cultural expressions to regain a sense of dignity.

This study demonstrates that dis dance-at-home course can be used as a dance intervention programme, facilitated across cultural and international borders without the facilitator being on-site, with a potential to increase the quality of life of individuals. If anyone is interested in facilitating this course as a dance intervention that may assist those in need, feel free to contact me for further details.

Further research may investigate the following: How might this course (or pedagogy) translate to non-South African contexts? Which context specific sensitivities should be incorporated for different localities? How might such a course be ‘marketed’ (for lack of a better word) to people in need, to convince them that they may benefit from it? What might the challenges be in refugee camps or spaces of war that may prohibit dance participation, or place participants in danger? Which processes are required to move such a small-scale idea to a large-scale organisation that can increase the quality of life for persons across the world?

In terms of pedagogy, the teaching and learning process shifted to students’ home territories. This shift created spaces for self-directed learning, creative development, aesthetic exploration and teacher development – without the need to succumb to western notions of what dance is, which movements are acceptable, what good dance practice is and what aesthetically pleasing is. This opened spaces where participants could use their indigenous knowledge as central to their learning experience. Participants could thus be themselves and associate their learning to their home environments and life experiences, without having to assimilate to a ‘foreign’ (or western) culture or way of doing, as they developed their skills, knowledge and their capacity to teach. How can we continue to create spaces in Higher Education where community and indigenous knowledge counts, and where it is developed as a living and valid knowledge within our society?

The implications of this study for the teaching and learning of dance education, is that it beckons dance educators to create spaces for ‘foreign’ ways of moving in their classrooms. Dance educators should encourage creative and genre development in ‘foreign’ aesthetic paradigms, to recognise the dance knowledges of the Other as valid, living and evolving knowledges, worthy to exist. In this regard, dance educators may want to explore ways to incorporate family/community knowledge into their dance classes, as a start to this journey.

Furthermore, it beckons dance educators to change our perspective on how the learning and teaching of creative dance should occur. It needs not be limited to the classroom or to a space where a facilitator is present, and it should indeed be encouraged at home. Dance-making can be a transformative activity for individuals when they have alone time with their creative selves. The impact of at-home activities can also extend beyond the individual when individuals choose to create dances with their families.

This research perhaps also offers an evidence-based answer to the deep philosophical questions we as dance educators often grapple with: Why do we teach dance? How can we add value to society? And how can we dance when the world is in crisis? That being said, I still wonder: What is it about creating dances and our capacity to create that is so powerful?

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marelize van Heerden

Dr Marelize van Heerden lectures Dance education, Music education and Philosophy of Education at the Faculty of Education, Nelson Mandela University, South Africa. She holds a Master’s Degree in Music and a Doctorate in Education. Her doctorate regarded the potential of dance education to promote social cohesion in South Africa. She also did Cultural Sociology at Masaryk University, Czech Republic as part of a European Union mobility programme. Her research interests include dance education, training teachers for the multicultural classroom, decolonisation, ideas of Self in relation to the Other and creating experiences of dignity in education. Marelize was the Acting Head of Department for Secondary School Education at NMU.