Dr. Amrita Sengupta Dutta
Guest Faculty, Department of Dance, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
E-mail: dramritasenguptadutta@gmail.com
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 3 (September 2026) – Anubodhan
Received: 23 September 2026 / Accepted: 29 September 2026 / Published online: 30 September 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.122
Abstract
Education is often understood through activities that are easily visible and measurable: reading, writing, speaking, listening, answering questions and completing examinations. Within this familiar structure, the body frequently remains in the background. Yet learning is never entirely detached from the body. We sit, observe, imitate, repeat, remember, experience, perform and respond through our bodies. Dance makes this dimension of learning particularly visible. A dancer does not acquire knowledge only by reading about movement or listening to an explanation; knowledge gradually becomes part of the body through observation, practice, correction, repetition, sensation, memory and performance. Dance, therefore, provides an important lens through which the relationship between pedagogy, curriculum and knowledge can be reconsidered.
This article examines dance as an embodied pedagogical practice within the Indian educational context. It argues that dance should not be understood merely as an artistic skill or extracurricular activity but as a mode of knowing through which physical, intellectual, emotional, aesthetic and cultural forms of understanding are developed together. The discussion considers traditional Indian modes of transmission, particularly the teacher–student relationship, alongside contemporary institutional education. It also examines the changing position of dance within the National Education Policy 2020, the National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage 2022 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023. Particular attention is given to the concepts of embodied knowledge, tacit knowledge, practice, reflection and cultural memory. The article proposes that recognising the moving body as a legitimate site of knowledge production can contribute to a more inclusive and experiential understanding of curriculum in Indian education. Rather than suggesting that dance should replace textual or theoretical learning, the study proposes a dialogue between body, mind, text and practice.
Keywords: Dance pedagogy, embodied knowledge, curriculum, Indian education, knowledge production, experiential learning, Indian classical dance, guru–shishya, movement education, arts education
How to cite: Dutta, A. S. (2026). The Pedagogy of the Moving Body: Dance, Curriculum and Knowledge Production in Indian Education. Anubodhan, 2(3), 267–276. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.122