In March 2020, the government of Pakistan announced the completion of the first stage in implementation of its single national curriculum (SNC) project. Among other things, the SNC is to eradicate the educational apartheid in Pakistan through the implementation of a uniform nationwide curriculum. The curriculum developed by 400 subject matter experts will be implemented in all private and public schools as well as madrassahs in Pakistan. While the proponents of the SNC argue that the uniform curriculum will ensure access to equitable and culturally relevant education, it raises an urgent concern that has the potential to sabotage these objectives: the exclusion of a culturally relevant dance curriculum that will aid Pakistani students in exploring and embracing a diverse Pakistani identity and narrative.

While dance advocates and performing artists such as Farah Yasmeen Sheikh and Sheema Kermani continue in their mission to revive dance in Pakistan, the education sector has remained detached from this effort. In particular, the SNC has clearly been a missed opportunity to instill dance and its manifold benefits in the Pakistani school curriculum.

The Performing Act Ordinance of 1983 first introduced a federal ban on dance during the dictatorship of Gen Zia ul Haq. Dancers came to be associated with nudity, vulgarity and prostitution and many fled the country after receiving death threats from fundamentalist groups. Since the inception of the ban, students in Pakistan have lacked the formal opportunity to engage with Pakistani dance styles and are hence divorced from a significant aspect of their cultural heritage.

Recently, Pakistan’s educators have been subject to immense criticism due to the absence of a culturally relevant curriculum that engages its diverse student population. Research on culturally relevant pedagogy such as that by academics Gonye and Moyo has shown that the absence of a cultural dance curriculum divorces students from the “bedrock of their identity and essentiality”.

Cultural dance can provide a range of benefits for students in Pakistan especially in terms of holistic identity development. Indigenous dances have proven an essential tool for schools with Western curriculums to become “cultural spaces and centres that provide strategies to reclaim cultural identities in order to counteract threats of cultural identity loss” in post-colonial nations as argued by Gonye and Moyo in their paper, Traditional African Dance Education as Curriculum Reimagination. In essence, they say, “traditional dance education would constitute an expression of cultural heritage as well as a countercultural response to colonialism”.

We often see videos of groups of men performing folk or traditional Pakistani dances on social media platforms. These videos enjoy wide circulation and praise, often going viral as a proud celebration of regional Pakistani cultures. Women’s participation is often missing and a hotly debated issue. Introducing regional performing arts as part of formal learning is integral to inclusion and equal participation. Such measures can play a significant role in not just restoring a sense of pride and joyfulness in cultural heritage but can also prove to be instrumental in preserving Pakistan’s cultural heritage.

UNESCO stresses that traditional and folk dances fall under the banner of intangible cultural heritage, that is “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants [… that] contribute to providing a sense of identity and continuity”. Numerous studies demonstrate the potential of traditional dances at schools to serve as a powerful medium to bridge demographic and cultural boundaries. One such study by academics Rovegno and Gregg demonstrates the effectiveness of a Maori folk-dance curriculum in an African American elementary school to promote multicultural learning. According to the study, the curriculum allowed both students and teachers to “explore and express their own and others’ cultures and share their stories in ways other than the spoken and written word”. Additionally, dance as an artform or embodied social practice continues to substitute the written word as an effective tool for marginalised communities to communicate their stories and share their culture in diverse communities. Such studies speak to the potential of a dance curriculum to empower marginalised students in Pakistan, comprising diverse ethnicities and cultures.

While the key purpose of developing and offering a cultural dance subject as part of the SNC is to preserve Pakistan’s intangible cultural heritage as well as aid students in exploring their diverse cultural identity, the literature on dance education reveals manifold benefits of a dance education to positively affect learning abilities at schools. An abundance of research suggests that daily physical movements yield improved academic scores. Movement and dance allow students to develop SEL skills particularly with regard to self-management and relationship building. According to the globally acclaimed dance educator, Anne Green Gilbert, dance allows learners to access critical benefits and lifeworthy skillsets: social, emotional, intellectual and physical.

It is shocking to realise that there are few if any, opportunities for the youth of Pakistan to engage in the culturally powerful form of artistic engagement. Piloting a cultural dance curriculum on diverse populations may be a first step in the right direction.

The writer is an educator, movement choreographer, and Project Manager of the Heartistry Video Series at Noorani Dance located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her research lies at the intersection of art, education, identity and culture. She is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Education