Browsing by Author "Mikkonen, Elise"

Goals. Dance in Finnish schools has previously been researched especially by professor Eeva Anttila. The aim of this research was to find out how dance is taught in elementary schools and what benefits it yields. I visited two different projects where dance artists taught dance to children. The first one was a project called “Do you dare to dance?” in Espoo. It targeted both boys and girls with the aim to reduce prejudice and stereotypical thinking that boys dancing in Espoon tanssiopisto had confronted in schools. The second one was a dance project in Eastern Helsinki. It was part of MUS-E® program, the aim of which was to prevent violence, racism and exclusion. My research questions were: 1. Why do the dance artists feel it is important to teach children dance in schools? 2. How has it been to teach dance in schools? 3. How have the children engaged in dance and what kind of feedback have the dance artists received from children and teachers? Methods. This research was a qualitative case study that followed the fenomenological approach. I collected the data by interviewing four dance artists and observing dance classes. My aim was to describe the phenomenon as closely as possible, come to conclusions through analysis and compose a general picture of it. Results and conclusions. The responses of the dance artists resembled each other very much. Every one of them brought up the uniqueness of dance as a form of bodily expression, which is combined with expressing feelings. The dance artists felt that through dance it was possible to diminish prejudice and prevent bullying. They also perceived dance as a good way to develop self-expression and new physical skills. By observing the dance classes I was able to see how much joy children experienced through dance. Both girls and boys in every class and school I visited showed enthusiasm to dance. The dance artists stated that there is a lot of demand and need for similar projects and that the challenge often is to find funding for the projects.