Embodied Practice and Cultural Sustainability: Cultural Identity Formation in Heritage Dance Education

Against the backdrop of global cultural homogenisation and the gradual decline of traditional community-based modes of transmission, regional heritage dance faces insufficient youth participation and increasingly fragmented cultural contexts. As an important institutional setting for living heritage transmission, university heritage dance education can reconnect young learners with local cultural practices. This qualitative case study explores how embodied practice and social learning are experienced in relation to cultural understanding and cultural identity formation within a university regional dance course in Henan Province. Drawing on interviews, participant observations, and curriculum documents, the study applies thematic analysis to examine learners’ embodied experiences, classroom interactions, and accounts of cultural participation. Four interrelated themes were generated: embodied learning as a medium for cultural understanding; social learning processes in cultural transmission; cultural identity formation through dance participation; and educational practices associated with living heritage transmission. The findings suggest that repeated embodied participation, modelling, peer interaction, reflection, and field-based engagement were interpreted by participants as important to cultural understanding and identity formation. These findings provide context-specific insights into how university heritage dance education may create educational conditions that support the continuing transmission of living regional dance culture.

heritage dance education; embodied practice; social learning; cultural identity

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