“it is like jumping down into a water-barrel”

 – a study about dance pedagogues work with choreography in dance education

This study examines how modern- and contemporary-dance pedagogues, in Sweden, work with choreography in their teaching. The purpose of this study is to through a phenomenographical perspective examine a selection of dance pedagogues perceptions of what the meaning of the phenomenon choreography has in their teaching. This is to hopefully contribute to an increased understanding of how choreography can be used in dance education. The research questions are How does three dance pedagogues perceive the usage of choreography in dance education? and Which pedagogical aspects can affect the teaching in dance? The study was researched through three semi-structured interviews which were processed and analyzed through Kvale´s interview-guide and Dahlgren’s & Johansson’s phenomenographical method for analyzing. The results show three main categories of description that were distinguished; The student´s affect in the dance education, The teacher´s affect in the dance education and Knowledge from choreographic processes. Each category was perceived differently, yet many connected to each other. Though this is a small-scaled study, the variation of perceptions shows many different ways to recognize and understand choreography’s and pedagogy’s relation to each other. Further research needs to be done to verify if these factors are important to the bigger population of dance-educators.