Embodied Space through Poetry and Dance
Presentation: Bonnie Nish, Lorraine White-Wilkinson
Session F | 11:50- 12:30 | Location: Room 1328
Abstract:
Children at risk can come from any background, live in any neighbourhood and may be in any classroom. This performance of poetry and dance will illustrate how it is we create a much-needed space for students who have a hard time learning for various reasons, such as learning challenges, language barriers, economic challenges or a whole vast range of impediments. This space is created to foster dialogue in which experiences can be shared and differences appreciated. Learning flourishes in this kind of an environment. As educator Eliot Eisner (2008), tells us, ‘Becoming aware of our capacity to feel is a way of discovering our humanity. Art helps us connect with personal, subjective emotions, and through such a process it enables us to discover our own interior Landscape’ (p.11). The back and forth exchange between the dancer and poet illustrates the active flow between teacher and student when held in a space where students feel they are free to engage as who they are. This space allows for these dynamics to happen and for the learning between teacher and student in a vibrant exchange to take place.