Shawn Lent discusses using dance as a tool for diplomacy and peacebuilding. He advocates for a dance intervention model that creates context-specific, short-term initiatives integrated into the local community to have lasting impact. This approach respects history and customs while starting with the host's vision. Outcomes of this practice include reduced prejudice, increased trust and interaction between groups. The theories behind this work include proximity, rewriting narratives, and addressing different types of conflict. Dance is considered a human right and cultural exchange through the arts can increase peace and understanding across borders.

1. A PLACE FOR DANCE IN NEW DIPLOMACY
AND PEACE
SHAWN LENT
DANCE CENTER AT COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO – OCTOBER 29, 2018

15. THE PRACTICE
 Relevant, Responsive and Reciprocal | Often intergroup
projects
 Dance Intervention Model: context-specific, short-term
initiatives that become integrated into the local ecology, and
not reliant on one person or program → lasting impact.
 Aware of environment, tensions and privilege; respectful of
history and customs; resonating with population, place and
time; working as a partner rather than expert; and starting with
hosts’ vision, values/assets, needs/wants, and threats/fears.

16. OUTCOMES
 Reduction of prejudice and defensiveness | Kinetic Empathy
 Spontaneity | Release of inhibition
 Somatic awareness | Dance technique and cultural knowledge
 Sense of security | Trust of oneself and others
 Joy, humor, and confidence
 Place-making and place-sharing | Intergroup interaction

17. THEORY BEHIND THIS PRACTICE
Bryan Stevenson’s Change Theory
 Proximity
 Rewrite the Narrative
 Hope
 Discomfort - the right to feel fear and
vulnerability (Csikszentmihalyi’s Flow Theory)
Bryan Stevenson

18. THEORY BEHIND THIS PRACTICE
Address all types of conflict:
Violence Triangle Theory (Galtung)
1. Direct
2. Structural
3. Cultural

19. THEORY BEHIND THIS PRACTICE
Philosopher Richard Shusterman: somaesthetics
provides a new matrix for a positive body
consciousness and an “essential element in the
philosophy of nonviolence and the quest for less
violence against bodies.” (Fitz-Gibbon, 2012)
Phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty: “The
body is not only the crucial source of all perception
and action but also the core of our expressive
capability and thus the ground of all language and
meaning.” (Merleau-Ponty, 1962)
Richard Shusterman

20. DANCE AS A HUMAN RIGHT
Cultural/Artistic Rights as Human Rights
(UDHR Article 27)
Everyone has the right freely to participate in the
cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to
share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral
and material interests resulting from any scientific,
literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

21. MOTIVATIONS
Why do artists want to work across
cultures and borders?
Any person who interacts with another culture facilitates a form
of cultural exchange, making artists de facto “cultural
representatives.”

22. MOTIVATIONS
 POLITICAL: increase peace –> regional stability, open new markets
for cultural products, inform and influence foreign publics,
strengthen strategic relationships, and more.
 ARTISTIC: find novel sources of inspiration, discover new ways of
working, learn from different cultural traditions, exchange ideas
with people whose worldviews differ, expand audiences/income,
and more.
 HUMANITARIAN/SPIRITUAL: connect with others, engage with
difficult issues, foster trust and mutual understanding, increase
capacity for positive change, etc (without formal political agenda).

23. ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION
 Re-victimization
 The difference between social intervention and social interference.
 Partner. Collaborate. Share. Co-teach or train.
 What’s happening in our neighborhood. Be a student. Take a lesson. Show up
to other people’s classes and projects. | Duplication | Gentrification
 Know when to step up — and more importantly, when to step back.
 Remain an active resident and friend.

24. THE ECOSYSTEM
 Dance Education
 Teaching Artistry | Dance Integration
 Dance Movement Therapy
 Movement Analysis
 Community-Based Dance | Informal Arts
 Youth Arts
 Arts Entrepreneurship
 Social Practice Arts

25. RESOURCES
 ShawnLent.com
 ClydeFitchReport.com
 EmbodyPeace.com
 U.S. Department of State and Affiliate Programming: ECA, DanceMotion USA,
BAM, Cultural Envoys, USIP, USAID, Fulbright, World Learning, IIE,
EducationUSA, etc.
 UN Alliance of Civilizations
 NEA’s white paper and webinars on Social Impact Design
 Mapping Art Projects with Societal Impact (MAPSI)
 United States Department of Arts and Culture

26. Q&A | FINAL THOUGHTS