“Can I really be authentic?” A co-created critical autoethnography on whiteness in dance/movement therapy education

Abstract

As a cultural force, Whiteness is insidious in dance/movement therapy (DMT) education. In the process of learning, East Asian international students and educators may aspire to White, middle-class, able-bodied, heteropatriarchal norms of what constitutes healthy movement and relational styles while excluding others, particularly within a group dynamic that privileges modern dance technique and overt emotional and verbal expression. The reach of educational neocolonialism in East Asian countries further perpetuates this force. As the foundational form of the discipline of DMT, “modern dance” is the standard of the expressive practice. And although “other” dance forms are starting to be welcomed, there is still a gap regarding how these are included into DMT education and applied in practice. This co-created critical autoethnography emerged from an embodied reflexive dialogue between two East Asian former international students on their experience of Whiteness in DMT education. Through counternarratives, we illustrate ways towards a decolonizing praxis of DMT that is situated within the educational environment and with the students with whom we work as educators and supervisors.