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Rostislava Pashkevitch-Ngobeni

Rostislava
Pashkevitch-Ngobeni

Biography

Dr Rostislava Pashkevitch-Ngobeni is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed performing arts scholar, researcher, and practitioner specializing in the intersection of music, theatre, and social activism. She holds a doctoral degree in Performing Arts and has extensive experience in applied and experimental performance research, with a focus on artivism, the deliberate integration of artistic practice and activism to foster social awareness and transformation. Her work explores how musical performance can function as a tool for civic engagement, critical consciousness, and community dialogue, particularly within urban and multicultural contexts. Dr Pashkevitch-Ngobeni has developed original methodologies linking music pedagogy and performance-based interventions to address social issues, and her scholarship contributes to frameworks that bridge the performing arts, social justice, and education. She has published widely on experimental music, musical theatre, and creative strategies for social change. She is committed to advancing socially responsive arts practices that cultivate empathy, reflection, and collective action.

The Urban Pulse

This paper proposes an experimental framework for exploring music-driven flashmobs in urban spaces as tools of artivism. Artivism, understood as the strategic integration of artistic practice and activism, harnesses creative expression to engage communities, challenge social norms, and amplify marginalized voices. This paper suggests using original musical compositions performed spontaneously in public urban settings to provoke reflection, participation, and social dialogue. The proposed experiment draws on the Urban Cultural Resistance Music Pedagogy (UCRMP) theory, which emphasizes music as a vehicle for critical consciousness, social awareness, and collective action. Flashmobs function as ephemeral, participatory interventions that interrupt routine urban life, transforming ordinary spaces into sites of aesthetic and civic engagement. The study outlines a methodology in which performers enact thematic musical pieces addressing social issues while observing audience responses, documenting interaction patterns, and analysing potential impacts on public perception and engagement. Theoretical analysis suggests that the multisensory and communal qualities of music can foster empathy, solidarity, and awareness, aligning with artivist goals of education and social transformation. By conceptualizing urban musical flashmobs through a UCRMP lens, this paper provides a framework for experimenting with music as an accessible, context-sensitive medium for civic engagement. It contributes to scholarship on experimental performing arts, proposing innovative methods for embedding activism into everyday urban life while offering practical guidance for artists, educators, and cultural practitioners seeking to translate social theory into performative action.

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