Performance, Pedagogy, Potential: Utopian Performance as Community-based Education

Abstract

This article examines the intersection of critical pedagogy, servicelearning, and interactive performance epistemology to describe the impact performance events and processes have on student learning. Specifically, this research extends Jill Dolan’s concept of utopian performance and illustrates the potential of performance not only to generate a utopian impulse essential to social change and transformation but also to stand as an intervention for social change. It clarifies the potential of utopian performance to change people, provoke action, and stand as an intervention.