This exposition is part of the peer-reviewed article:
Østern, T. P., Reppen, C., O’Connell, S., & Daneberg, M. (2025). Choreographer/researcher/teacher: Developing a/r/tography as an approach to dance pedagogy at Stockholm University of the Arts in a professional learning community of teachers. Nordic Journal of Art & Research, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.7577/ar.5460
A/r/tographic design dive
This exposition documents the design of the course A/r/tography in theory and practice in higher education (7.5 ects) at Stockholm University of the Arts. The process began in 2021, and the course was taught for the first time in the 2022-23 academic year.
I dove into the course design a/r/tographically
This exposition is framed through the metaphor of diving, even though the project itself had nothing to do with actual diving.
I had the feeling that I dove into the project — a large-scale change initiative in dance pedagogy, propelled by ongoing critical, decolonial, and anti-ableist paradigm shifts in higher dance education. One of the outcomes of this change project was the open course A/r/tography in theory and practice in higher education (7.5 ects), which I designed.
Change — including the creation of a new course — is risky, like diving into deep water: sinking into the unknown and navigating unfamiliar currents. Yet it is also a pleasure and an adventure.
In 2012, I choreographed a piece called I FRITT FALL (FREE FALL in English), in which we explored experiences and ideas related to diving. This current project recalled that memory.
The layered meanings of diving have long fascinated me, both choreographically and metaphorically.