For Mariana Siljamäki, dance is a way to support body awareness and strengthen self-confidence
In addition to movement and dance, Senior Lecturer Mariana Siljamäki has always been fascinated by different languages and cultures, and so in her study years she ended up trying Afro dance. Her first Afro dance class gave an impetus to her future career.
“The drummer played, and I got dizzy at times, because the dance was fast and involved a lot of head movements and swaying,” Siljamäki says.
“But my only thought was that I wanted more. I was left pondering what kind of culture is underlying this dance, and where is it coming from.”
She set out to investigate the roots of Afro dance and made her first trip to Guinea in West Africa during her study years. After that, she has visited Africa numerous times, including twice on a scholarship to the Finnish–African cultural centre Villa Karo in Benin. She has also organised return visits and created an active international network. Her most recent African trip was in autumn 2023 to Tanzania and Zimbabwe, where she and her colleagues educated local PE teachers.
Afro dance gradually became a permanent part of Siljamäki’s life. In 1992, she became one of the first Finnish teachers of West African dances. Her Afro dance classes are still running once a week at the Jyväskylä Dance Institute.
PE student teachers also have the opportunity to enjoy the joy of Afro dance and the colourful rhythmic atmosphere created by live musicians in the sessions. At the same time, the students gain knowledge about the roots of Western rhythm music and a range of dance forms.
Equality in physical education
Siljamäki’s experiences from her African trips had a sustained effect and gave direction to her career as well.
“When being in Africa, I myself have had feelings of otherness, for better and for worse, in situations where I’ve been the only European white person. It has given me perspective to draw on in my current job.”
In 2014, Siljamäki, together with her colleagues Terhi Huovinen and Marja Kokkonen, planned equality course for the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences. This course has been a part of the PE teacher studies ever since. Now there are three courses: Basics of Equality, Equal Teaching in Physical Education, and – newly launched this year – Sociocultural and Pedagogical Aspects in Human Interaction and Equality. The newest course is taught by several colleagues, and it is attended by almost all students of the faculty.
Embodied language learning is one of the topics in the equality courses.
Learning takes place in the whole body. Everything happening in the body also impacts learning. It is influenced by emotions, senses, and human interaction.
Under Siljamäki’s guidance, the PE students plan and lead embodied, physically active language learning practices first for each other and then for the multilingual students of the Finnish as a Second Language groups.
In the practices, language is learned in different situations through movement. Numbers have been practiced using the jenkka, a Finnish folk dance similar to the schottische, and food vocabulary through precision throwing tasks. To practise vocabulary related to directions, exercises have utilised giant balls, for instance, and while stretching the participants can name different body parts.
In my opinion, it is natural to think that educators, who have movement in their arsenal, would also make use of embodied language learning. It calls for encouragement and a willingness to use one’s own body creatively.
To encourage students and help them get more familiar with their own bodies, Siljamäki connects through dance.
Dance belongs to everybody
Siljamäki teaches dance to future PE teachers in a comprehensive way. It includes dance expression, creative movement, and familiarisation with different dance forms.
I want to dance to increase people’s enthusiasm for physical activity and encourage them to get familiar with their body awareness. My view of dance is that dance belongs to everybody irrespective of gender, age or background.
This collective notion of dance was something Siljamäki experienced first-hand in Africa. There dance is for everybody and is highly visible in the environment.
"Here in Finland and in other colder countries, dance is less visible simply for climatic reasons. We usually dance indoors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, we held outdoor lessons on campus, and these attracted a lot of positive attention and feedback among passers-by."
Siljamäki wants to create a safe space for all her students to dance.
“We also have some students in our faculty who have never danced before. It is important to create a safe space in psychological and social terms so that everybody can feel safe in their own body.”
At its best, dance can benefit mental health.
“Getting to know your one own body and embodiment helps ground the self. Dance can build one’s confidence and self-assurance.”
A PE teacher is also a language teacher
In addition to teaching dance and equality issues, Siljamäki is also engaged in research. She completed her doctoral degree in 2013, and her dissertation dealt with dance as cultural education. Her research was supervised by Professor Eeva Anttila from the Theatre Academy of Uniarts Helsinki, with whom Siljamäki has continued close cooperation. As part of the recently completed ELLA research project led by Anttila.
Siljamäki examined language awareness in teacher education and studied students’ thoughts about the role of PE teachers as a supporter of language learning.
The findings of the research showed that PE students want to take social responsibility. Planning practices for embodied language learning may be time consuming, but the students find that the goal of including all pupils in the activities and getting them adjusted to the group and to Finland is important.
Language is pivotal in all human action. You don’t need necessarily have to be a language teacher to support language learning, and movement is a good support for it. For some students, this may be a novel idea.
More multiprofessional cooperation in language teaching
Siljamäki hopes that cultural awareness would be increasingly adopted in all physical education classes, coaching and other sports related professions. In that way, equality in physical activity would not remain just a topic for separate courses, but instead the graduating PE teachers and other professionals would set out to apply what they learned in their studies to their work.
Furthermore, she also hopes that schools would wake up to multiprofessional cooperation in language teaching. She says there are already some signs of such approaches.
It would be magnificent if PE teachers cooperated more extensively with the teachers of Finnish as a Second Language or other language teachers.
In Siljamäki’s experience, the learning situations have provided important experiences and encounters for multilingual groups and students.
“Many of them have no Finnish-speaking friends with whom to practise Finnish outside of school. These meetings have strengthened the self-confidence of multilingual young people, and they have said that they have gained the courage to use their voice and body in a new way.
“So much can be accomplished through embodiment and movement! We only need a bit of courage, encouragement and creativity!”
