Performance Praxis as Radical Pedagogy

Some Lessons and Reflections on Embodiment and Teaching Since COVID-19

Abstract

This article revisits a performance art history course I taught in fall 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. While much has moved on from the immediate crisis of COVID, reflecting retrospectively on this course reveals enduring lessons about embodiment, relationality, and pedagogy in art history education. Drawing from phenomenological and critical pedagogies, the course foregrounded “performance praxes” – embodied, reflective exercises designed to engage students in the contested histories and contemporary stakes of performance art. The final project invited critical re-performances, enabling students to engage performance art history through their situated subjectivities and pandemic realities. I conclude by considering what was lost, what was gained, and how performance pedagogy remains vital today, emphasizing care, presence, and the ongoing negotiation of collective embodiment.