“Transitividad crítica de la danza” corporeidades, gestos y memorias una pedagogía de la danza tradicional colombiana y la educación para la paz

Abstract

This research explores the relationship between intergenerational memory, traditional Colombian dance, and peace education among eighth-grade students at the “Liceo El Gran Virrey” High School in Bogotá, Colombia. The proposal stems from tensions observed in dance classes, particularly difficulties related to collective creation, participation, physical resistance, and student interaction. Given this situation, the need arises to develop pedagogical strategies that connect students' life experiences with sensitive processes of reflection, physical expression, and meaning-making. The research was conducted through the “Rutas de Paz” (Peace Routes) research-co-creation laboratory, conceived as a pedagogical and artistic space focused on exploring family memories through embodiment, dance, and collective creation. From an Action Research-Creation Educational (ARE) perspective, in dialogue with Creative Research-Creation (CRC) approaches, pedagogical experiences centered on the rural Merengue music of Boyacá and the “Carranguera” tradition were implemented as cultural mediators for intergenerational dialogue, aesthetic experience, and peacebuilding within the school context. The research process revealed that physical resistance and difficulties in improvisation and creative exercises are not merely pedagogical obstacles, but rather manifestations of how students inhabit their bodies, build relationships, and participate in the school environment. In this sense, the family narratives shared during the workshop revealed memories marked by displacement, violence, inequality, and histories of resistance present in many Colombian families, making it necessary to strengthen an ethics of memory oriented toward respect, critical reflection, and empathy. As a conceptual contribution, the research proposes the notion of “Transitividad crítica de la danza,” inspired by the thought of Paulo Freire, understood as the capacity of bodily and aesthetic experience to mobilize processes of awareness, dialogue, and subjective and collective transformation through movement, through dance. Similarly, concepts such as “Tejido sensible danzario” and “Corponarrativas” emerge, aimed at understanding dance as a space of encounter between body, memory, experience, and creation for the creation and reconstruction of non-violent environments. Finally, the research concludes that traditional Colombian dance can be a significant pedagogical practice for peacebuilding when it facilitates processes of collective creation, recognition of the other, and a sensitive reinterpretation of family memories. In this sense, arts education is reaffirmed as a field capable of contributing to the holistic development of students from more humanistic, critical, and contextualized perspectives.