Nicole Oga
19:30 - 20:00 (GMT+1) / 11:30 - 12:00 (GMT-7)
Dreaming to Life Collective Liberation: cultivating caring communities through dance and movement
BIOGRAPHY
Nicole Oga (she/her) is a radical thinking dance artist and educator who approaches her work through an intersectional lens, influenced by abolition, liberation, anti-racist, black feminist praxis. In June 2024 she graduated from the University of the Arts Helsinki with a Master's in Dance Pedagogy. Nicole regularly questions her artistic and teaching practices to ensure she is inclusive and in true solidarity with her community - listening to, collaborating with, and following the lead of those who are most impacted. She cultivates care, which she knows will transform the world into an equitable society where all are truly free.
ABSTRACT
Decoloniality is deeply connected with abolition and collective liberation. These core values are woven into everything that I do, and I bring them into my dance teaching. My research formally began during my MA in Dance Pedagogy thesis studies, where I taught Contemporary Dance and Partnering Community Practice workshops in three different countries (Kumeyaay land in Turtle Island; Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa; and Outokumpu, Finland). I continually question, how can liberatory education praxis support the cultivation of a caring community within dance education? How does this contribute to bringing the collective liberation dream to life?
Through teaching and research, I re/de-construct movement education to re-imagine more liberatory teaching practices, finding what is needed from me to support the creation of caring communities within dance education. I am simultaneously strategizing ways to teach that do not uphold the current oppressive societal systems and dreaming of alternative ways of being that transgress current boundaries to support critical thinking, holistic growth, and self-actualization. This work is an ongoing process where I must consciously continue to evaluate how I teach, what I teach, and why I teach. I believe through dance and movement, we can bring into reality part of the collective liberation dream and extend this into society at large, until all people are truly free.