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The following paper is the result of a two week research at the Tanzquartier Wien in april 2005. A group of 6 teachers, Gill Clarke (GB), DD Dorvillier (USA), Inge Kaindlstorfer (A), Eva Karczag (H/NL), Martin Sonderkamp (D/TUR), and Oleg Soulimenko (RUS/A) explored their approaches to teaching and through a process of talking, moving, watching, and writing, began to tease out why these approaches are important to them.
This list is an attempt to articulate our thoughts so far on
commonalities present in our approaches to teaching. We welcome
feedback in order to inspire further clarification.
Non Linear
Because we have all experienced non-linearity in our early childhood
development, rather than presenting this as a new idea... we are
reawakening an experience of it.
If we take the physiological example of
the brain and the action of MEMORY, where different body/perception
systems all work at once... as a web (Multidimensional). This is
clearly a non-linear situation, activity, experience, construction. If
this is how MEMORY happens, it follows that a non-linear approach to
teaching/learning is the most appropriate.
This complex form is
infinitely reflected in nature. BUT... it seems too complex to sustain
(and at odds with) a typical logical sense of organization (linear,
numeric, pen on paper on a flat surface, two dimensional). This process
generally aspires to a predetermined result, product, or completion.
A
non-linear process in dance practice might include movement studies,
language, thinking, music, poetry, writing, interaction with others,
multiple states of consciousness... while coordinating/organizing
skills, patterns, awarenesses. In this approach what is happening (some
might say what is "being learned") is EXPERIENCE.
When experience stays
with you, learning happens and memory engages.
The class reflects the
physiology of the body, a “labyrinth that changes as you walk through
it”.
Different States of Consciousness
◊ By articulating/accessing/playing
with a range of states of consciousness the possibilities for different
qualities of interaction, movement, perception, etc are widened and we
can reach broader sources of vocabulary (not just WHAT kind of
movement, but HOW the movement, from which state, from/in which context
of yourself...
◊ Differentiating between states of consciousness (Alpha,
Beta, peripheral) = more access to a range of choices and possibilities
for navigating (in/around) them
◊ Certain processes (learning a phrase or
moving from the organs, for instance) are more easily accessible within
specific states of consciousness
◊ An alternative to a linear
student/teacher relationship (see Non Linear)
◊ We access these different
states in many ways. Some important ones are: touch, language, music,
working with eyes closed (see each of these below)
Touch
◊ Touch is an
integral component of a Non-Linear learning situation
◊ Touch is a way of
learning through EXCHANGE of information from body to body, in this way
information goes DIRECTLY to the body, "explaining" has a different
effect
◊ A primary experience of early human development, through touch
we can address and integrate essential aspects (kinesthetic, emotional,
intellectual, spiritual) of the whole being
◊ The intelligence of touch is
inherent in each human and merits learning and study. There are many
different approaches and ways of touching, which address various
structures of the body and layers of consciousness
Language
◊ We often work
with language through the body rather than the neo-cortex, where
language is a sensory medium rather than a semantic one
◊ Importance of
specificity of terminology, tone, timing, metaphor,
non-descriptive...
◊ Experience is made conscious through
language
Experience needs to be conscious in order to: be able to have
choices, make changes, be able to repeat, integrate, have exchange
between students/teachers/students
Daily life experiences
◊ Expanding our
vocabulary and the influences upon it
◊ To sustain the learning process
inside and outside the studio
Relationship between how and what
◊ Process
as well as product orientation – awareness of the pathway as well as
the arrival point
Working with eyes closed
◊ To amplify other senses than
the visual
◊ To stimulate non-visual perception
◊ To heighten sight and
vision
Multi-dimensionality
◊ To have access to different contexts
◊ To be able to imagine different states of being
Multi-directionality
◊ Physically and imaginatively to have all directions available within the perception of gravity
◊ Disrupting and not being limited by the accepted definitions and experiences of direction, time, space, etc.
◊ The availability to move in any direction at any time
Improvisation
◊ As a method that allows collaboration
◊ Facilitating learning through the experience of investigation, observation and the practice of present-ness
◊ A method for collaboration and a tool for interdisciplinary practices
◊ To stimulate the exploration of unknown territory and the unexpected
◊ Bringing the art of spontaneous creativity into class to integrate practice and performance
Observation
◊ By
observing oneself, others, the environment, etc, one has the
possibility of experiencing different relationships to any given idea
◊ To open possibilities in how to look
◊ To be able to investigate and consider in order to open up choice (to embrace also intuitive/ un self-conscious choice)
◊ Observation can lead to exploration
Exploring
◊ To practice self-directedness
◊ As a teacher to give responsibility to the student to formulate own ideas and points of view
◊ To encourage curiosity and research
The interaction between inner and outer
◊ To
make students aware of how our permeability allows internal and
external intentions, impulses, states, etc, through mutual influence,
to manifest, emanate or physicalize themselves
Choice
◊ To allow for investment, commitment, investigation
◊ Narrowing the focus for a while in order to open possibility
◊ Choice thrives through the process of refining observation and consciousness
◊ To be able to edit and build
◊ A vehicle for noticing your interests
◊ Intuitive choices are possible and encouraged
◊
Choices can happen rather than be made
Sensory experience/perception
◊
Because in everyday life we're not so focused on our senses and they are the substance from which movement can arise
◊ Invites
and gives access to, individuality and uniqueness of present moment experience and personal history (memory, perceptual history), which are
at the root of creativity (see non-linear learning and touch)
◊ A performer who is in touch with his/her sensory self is engaging to watch
◊ A tool for accessing intuition, important in rebalancing our usually rational selves (see inner and outer)
Writing and drawing
◊ A tool for accessing intuition, sensory and mental experience, and imagination
◊ Each
requires a different physicality and range of movement, and offers a
translation into another creative medium which can, and often does,
feed the dance
◊ Integrating experience and ideas and bringing them to consciousness
◊ They
are lasting and materialize dance, acknowledging the continuity between
studio experiences and the world (see daily life experience)
Enjoying paradoxes
◊ The
work is open-ended, non-linear, contains an infinite number of
temporary solutions to any given idea, and acknowledges the potential
contradictory nature of experience
◊ It speaks to the sometimes seemingly opposite, yet complementary forces that exist in and act on the body
◊ Creates fields of tension and pleasure and space for playfulness
Questioning
◊ Because there is no certainty and no one answer when one works with movement and change, which are the substance of life
◊ One is not aiming at conformity but facilitating many individual paths of expression
◊ Because it's more interesting to question
◊ By asking questions one can direct and shape one's own learning process
Risk and the unknown
◊ The unknown opens questions and demands continual evolution of approaches, practices, expressions, answers
◊ Risk gets us unstuck and leads us into the unknown
◊ Unfamiliar
states of mind and body open up possibilities and inspire us to take
risks, and taking risks can give access to the unknown
◊ When teachers are co-researchers, not the authority holding all knowledge, they are taking risks
◊ Studio practice can be presented as ‘a labyrinth which changes as you walk through it'
Imagination
◊ It is a seed of creativity, the bridge between the mind and body, between the action that emerges, and its effect/resonance
◊ Freeing imagination opens up the ability to observe and perceive on many levels
Use of image
◊ Taps into imaginative power and ability in order to allow change to occur
◊ By-passes the conscious and habitual mind so the dancer can experience movement initiation from an internally resonant source
Gender parity
◊ Why not?
◊ Each dancer/learner is an individual
Playfulness
◊ Is one of the best tools for learning
◊ Playfulness is a dynamic state
◊ Is enjoyable, immersive, unquestioning, and exists in the present moment
◊ We have all experienced it in childhood, and so we all know how to do it
◊ Draws us in and gets us involved
◊ Engages us with others in a lighthearted and communal way with shared purpose
Making sounds
◊ Sounding is part of our movement range and can enhance our proprioception
◊ Is a sensory experience
◊ Is an expression of breath and feeling
◊ Easily creates physical, mental and emotional changes (see sensory experience)
Physical demonstration
◊ It gives students a clear idea of the nature of a task (see touch)
No physical demonstration
◊ To not limit a student's interpretation and response to a set of given instructions
◊ To not prescribe the resulting form
De/re-construct
◊ Break apart in order to be able to see detail with great clarity
◊ To deconstruct a pattern allows one to break down habit
◊ Reconfiguring clearly understood detail as part of the whole (see detail)
Detail in relation to whole
◊ To show and highlight that the process of change can be initiated by focusing on a part
◊ An interconnected system
◊ Attending to detail can be a catalyst for affecting the whole
◊ The pleasure of detail in and of itself
◊ Gives specificity, articulateness, range from simplicity and essences to complexity
Composition and the disruption of pattern
◊ Learning
how to perceive material in time and space, how to make choices about
what is needed or not within a given parameter, and how to order and or
dis-order the elements
◊ To open possibility and move beyond mental/physical/emotional habit
Use of non-dance structures and exercises
◊ To bring dance within the sphere of ideas and creative tools utilized by any and all other art forms
◊ Dance is a visual, musical, theatrical, architectural, cinematic, etc art form
◊ To expand the imagination and the dancer's frame of reference
Collaboration/co-operation
◊ Dance-making is often a collaborative/co-operative creative act
◊ To learn from each other
◊ In partner work many of the sensory tasks are enhanced by touch, and learning happens in both directions
◊ Creates a safe environment in which confidence is built and risks can be taken
◊ In a non-linear learning situation there is collaboration between teacher and students, and students and students
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