“La Pasión y el Enojo Brujo”: Engendering of Ethical Perception in Children's Learning of Ballet Folklórico

This study explores the engendering of young dancers’ ethical perception in their learning of ballet folklórico, a Mexican cultural dance form. Ethical perception is conceptualized as the intricate interweaving of perceptive and ethical action as part of children's learning within the ethos of a goal-oriented practice—which, in this setting, is accountable performance to others as part of a performing ensemble. In its formulation, the study draws upon the frameworks of professional perception and morality-in-interaction along with theorizing on the ethical aspects of embodied assistance within pedagogical practice. The study's findings detail how the practice of folkloric dance is taught through multimodal gestalts of calibrated moral and perceptive action along with fluid participation frameworks in which the teacher discerns whether something is tellable or showable or if the dancer is malleable to touch. “Internal” somatic and moral understandings are made visible through the dancers’ physical and/or vocal responsiveness and their accomplishment of breakthroughs in their performance. Within these practices, the teacher and pupils attend to the ethos of the profession (emically described as la pasión y el enojo brujo) and to disciplinary knowledge (e.g., proper posture, movement dynamics). This study argues for locating children's potential for learning within the social field of action (e.g., meaningful participation) as opposed to within their aptitude or character as an individual.