Steps to sustainability: Dance as a learning pathway to enhance engagement with sustainability

Abstract

This paper explores dance as a transformative learning pathway for communicating and engaging individuals with sustainable development. Growing recognition of the challenges and cultural politics involved in conveying sustainability has prompted efforts to explore alternative communication modes and ways to engage audiences. Combining a rising interest in cultural geography with performative and creative practices and methods, this paper investigates how dance can act as an alternative communicative approach, generating embodied knowledge that can change how people engage with and understand sustainable development. We argue that dance provides a unique medium for translating sustainable development concepts into lived experiences, enabling individuals to undertake personal and collective learning pathways and become more aware of global sustainability concerns. In a creative workshop, participants were invited to interpret and choreograph dance performances based on information about the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), conveying themes such as gender equality, hunger, and ocean pollution. Using participant observation, focus groups, and individual interviews, we critically reflect on a five-stage learning pathway—Information, Thinking, Creating, Performing, and Reflecting—to highlight the co-creative and transformative potential of dance in sustainability communication and nurturing sustainability-minded citizens. We outline the value of dance as a communicative and pedagogical tool, demonstrating its capacity to humanise sustainability challenges and offer innovative, embodied forms of engagement that can contribute to the cultural shifts needed for a more sustainable society.