Ethnodance and identity: Black students representing science identities in the making

Abstract

We explored how arts-based practices, specifically what we define as ethnodance informs the study of science identity. We present a theoretical argument supported by an empirical illustration of how ethnodance offers Black youth with dance identities a medium to narrate evolving science identities, communicating meanings, interactions, and emotions, and to construct identities further as reified artifacts of participating in science classroom communities. The theoretical argument frames dance as an embodied narrative, identity construction as an ongoing process with interactional and affective commitments, and Black Dances as venues of Black bodies’ expressivity of the brilliance, competence, and creativity of Black people. The empirical illustration focuses on Black students in an urban high school choreographing a dance performance to capture their science identity construction transitioning from biology and moving through physics. The students’ semiotic choices communicated the experienced (dis)connection between self and science; ballet, lyrical, and contemporary dances represented experiences challenging their position within science, and a Black Dance, majorette, experiences affirming their place or creating a bridge. Majorette offered students a sense of cultural solidarity, symbolic of their collective overcoming of obstacles faced, frustration, and alienation felt at the beginning of physics, and joy of rising above the struggle.