A/R/Tography as Theory

The contributions of a/r/tography to dance education and research, as a theoretical, creative and arts-based educational research methodology, are the focus of this chapter. A/r/tography acknowledges the interrelationship of artists, researchers and teachers and equally explores the various spaces and possibilities that occur in between. The chapter traces the origins of A/r/tography as being historically situated within poststructuralism, and the broader emergence of arts-based educational research, and highlights some of the core conceptual terms of the approach. Further, it explains a/r/tography’s intersections with Deleuze and Guattarian (A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Bloomsbury Publishing, 1988) concepts such as rhizome and plateau and the power of blending theory and practice as a methodology for research in dance and dance education, as represented in the chapter opening figure.