Teacher's Day 2026
Introduction & Event Overview
Hello everyone, I’m Kruti Vyas from the M.A. English Programme at Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. As a part of our department’s Virtual Teachers’ Day celebration on September 5, 2026, I am happy to share this special project on my YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy watching it and exploring the ideas I’ve presented. So, let’s begin.
Beyond the traditional celebrations, this year’s event integrated practical digital competencies into our curriculum. A few days prior, on September 1, our ICT committee leaders conducted an intensive hands-on session. They trained us on how to build Google Forms, seamlessly connect them to Google Sheets, and utilize Autocrat to automate the generation of personalized certificates.
Following this workshop, participating students were tasked with creating, uploading, and actively marketing their own video projects over a 4-to-5-day window a practical exercise designed to teach us real-world digital marketing and outreach skills. September 5 marked the final submission milestone for this engaging academic initiative.
Featured Project: The Politics of the Dancing Body
For this project, I created a video essay titled "The Politics of the Dancing Body: Cultural Capital and Hegemonic Masculinity in Yeh Ballet and Dance Like a Man."
Watch the Video:
Summary of the Video Essay
The video examines how the dancer's body serves as a dynamic site where class, culture, gender, power, and identity intersect:
Access and Cultural Capital: The analysis begins by questioning equal access to elite artistic spaces like ballet. Utilizing Pierre Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital, the video explores how specialized knowledge, training, and familiarity with elite practices confer social advantages, while those lacking these resources face systemic exclusion. Through Yeh Ballet, we see working-class aspirants enter an elite domain and challenge rigid class boundaries.
Gender Norms and Hegemonic Masculinity: Shifting focus, the narrative integrates R.W. Connell's theory of hegemonic masculinity. It highlights how dominant social paradigms associate manhood with toughness and conventional labor, frequently marginalizing dance as "feminine." Through Dance Like a Man, the video captures the intense social and familial pressures experienced by male dancers whose artistic passions clash with patriarchal expectations.
Conclusion: Bringing these two texts together, the project demonstrates that although characters face distinct marginalizations class exclusion in Yeh Ballet and gender policing in Dance Like a Man both deploy dance as a powerful tool of resistance. Ultimately, the dancing body is framed as a political entity capable of dismantling dominant structures and redefining belonging.
Interactive Learning Modules
To extend the conversation beyond the video essay, I have developed two interactive spaces for deeper academic engagement:
Google Form:
Test Your Knowledge & Earn a Certificate: Take the quiz via Google Forms and receive an automated certificate upon completion: Google Form Quiz Link
- Join the Discussion: Engage with the core themes further through a specially curated lesson: Ted-Ed Lesson Link
I would be grateful for you to watch the video, take the quiz, and join the conversation on Ted-Ed.
Acknowledgments
A profound and heartfelt thank you to the Head of the Department of English (MKBU), Prof. Dr. Dilip Barad Sir, alongside Megha Trivedi Ma'am and Prakruti Bhatt Ma'am, for their continuous mentorship, guidance, and encouragement of innovative, practice-based learning activities.
Conclusion
Thank you so much for watching and for your patience! I’ve also added a quiz and a TED-Ed lesson in the description, so please check them out and participate. And don’t forget to like and subscribe to my channel. Thank you! Behind The Scene Photos:
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