Creative dance in the literature classroom: (Re)making meaning and stretching boundaries

This article explores the integration of creative dance in students’ meaning-making processes in the literature classroom. Analytical focus lies on fifth-grade students’ interpretations of a poem and how interpretations are created and expressed in creative dance. The material, generated in the pilot study of an educational design research project, was analyzed thematically. A total of three key themes emerged: (1) meaning-making through literary reading,(2) (re)making meaning in dance and literature, and (3) stretching boundaries. Findings suggest that students’ literary reading was not represented through dance, but made and remade into new bodily interpretations in the intra-action between dancer and literature. As such, dance can adhere to literature’s striving to broaden and create new horizons, and meet readers on an affective level. In conclusion, this article presents principles for integrating creative dance in the literature classroom.