Embodied [by] Dance: Adolescent de/constructions of body, sex and gender in physical education

Abstract

Using developmental, sociological, feminist, and dance studies perspectives on the social construction of body, sex, and gender, the author discusses the functions of agency and performativity in the physical education curriculum with specific attention to the embodied performance of culture through dance and movement. Classroom examples of critical and feminist approaches to dance pedagogy are provided to deconstruct body/sex/gender through dance education. A dialectical approach to critical self-reflection is proposed that limits reproduction of the mind/body split, thus reinscribing the body as subject.