”Spegeln är publiken” En kvalitativ intervjustudie av fenomenet speglar i dansundervisning

Abstract

Mirrors are common in dance education. Previous research indicates that mirrors affect dance students body image in various ways. The aim of this study was to describe and analyze dance students experiences of mirrors in upper secondary school education. Qualitative interview was used as a method and six dance students from two different swedish upper secondary schools took part in the study. The following research questions have been formulated for the study: What opportunities and challenges do dance students in upper secondary school experience regarding mirrors in dance education? How do students experience the relationship between mirrors and body image in dance education? To analyze the qualitative material a phenomenological approach was used, both as method and theorethical perspective. The result show that dance students experience mirrors as a tool for visual feedback. Furthermore dance students experience situations where mirrors are more or less advantageous. According to the result mirrors are less important in dance improvisation than in dance tecnique or for learning new material. Through the mirrors the dance students compare themselves with normative body ideal for a dancer witch affect their body image. The result also shows that covered mirrors enables dance students to feel the movement, kinesthetically in their body. As per dance students experiences the use of mirrors causes the kinesthetic part of their body image to be overshadowed by the visual part. Dance students experiences indicates that their body image depends on their lifeworld and whether they see themselves as objects or subjects in the mirror.