ABSTRACT
This chapter traces a dance and visual arts-integration project undertaken by artist–researchers in one of Cape Town’s former “Coloureds only” primary schools in South Africa from 2017 through to 2020. As authors from two very different worlds we have journeyed beyond borders to value the different perspectives of ourselves and the children and teachers we serve. We argue that “embodied and culturally sensitive pedagogies” are vital to understanding children lives and building social cohesion. Our analysis purposefully situates the circumstances and lives of the children and their teachers not as apologies for unattained visions rather palimpsest grappling of unfolding worlds—crime, gendered lives, and the global COVID-19 pandemic. We have questions. How can a complex navigation of selfhood and lived experiences be brought to bear in a world aspiring towards ubhuntu and peace? How do our points of pedagogic and artistic departure and convergence infuse the “culture of care” that we hope to instill through dance and art? What is our desiderata when dancing social cohesion in Cape Town?
