“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves.”
— Paulo Freire, We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change
The research program of Alliance Action Arts explores questions about Movement & Artistic Processes with/in Space (MAPS). This inquiry-based approach, shared at conferences and in publications, informs the education and performance programs at Alliance Action Arts.
We take space for granted. However, engaging in embodied artistic processes, mindful of spatial relationships, not only teaches us about those spaces, but also about ourselves and others, about our creative potential and critical capacity. The education and performance programs at Alliance Action Arts raise awareness about natural and human-made spaces by providing and promoting movement experiences that are creative and transformative.
Research questions include:
How can cultivating an expressive body support personal growth and empowerment?
How can cultivating a socially conscious body support individual and institutional transformation?
How can cultivating an environmentally conscious body support environmental stewardship?
Keywords: anti-racism, artistic processes , arts-based environmental education, Body-Mind Centering®, community-based organizing, contemporary approaches to traditional Black African Diasporic dance, creative movement, dance & dance education, dance for the screen, decolonization, Dynamic Embodiment™, eco-somatics, ecological arts (eco-arts), ecological/environmental stewardship, intergenerational learning, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Studies, parent-child relations, organisational change, participatory arts, place-based education, risk, ritual, sibling and friend relations, site-specific dance, somatic dance, somatic education & therapy