Essay On Code-Switching

Cat contributes her own code switching performance work to this essay.

The performance investigates conflicts between formal and vernacular registers, and oral/kinesthetic and print text modes of discourse, particularly in regard to minority ethnic group preferences in a post-colonial setting.

Teaching dance technique requires kinesthetic demonstration, supported by oral description of pedagogic points; I often add descriptive and analytic print text assignments to these courses.

Conversely, teaching a typical dance history course may normally allow a teacher to rely primarily on print text sources and oral communication modes.

, a case study of dance choreography within the context of post-colonial Maori performance in Aotearoa/New Zealand, is described and analyzed for its performance of code switching.

The essay is framed by a discussion of how arts-based research within tertiary higher education requires careful negotiation in the form of code switching, as performed by the author's reflexive use of vernacular and formal registers in the essay.

Introduction As a dance artist and a doctoral researcher in dance studies, I integrate creative and academic activities as part of a new wave in the academy.

This wave, modeled in New Zealand at the University of Auckland's Dance Studies Programme among others, uses qualitative arts-based methods for research in higher education.

In particular, Maori choreographer Catherine Moana Te Rangitakina Ruha GWYNNE created a performance work titled (2006) that performs this academic "dance." Based on oral history interviews with her family, GWYNNE's choreography takes as its theme conflicts between her indigenous oral/kinesthetic home culture and the print text culture of tertiary higher education.

In this essay, I will refer to my colleague as "Cat," her preferred name.