My motivation for attending mode05 stems from a long involvement with dance education, and a desire to see it reflect the new and developing approaches and expressions within the arts and sciences and in progressive education generally.
written in 1995:
• to create a radical shift in student’s vision of what dance/performance can be
• to create a radical shift in student’s physical perception of themselves
• to encourage exploration, experimentation; to encourage students to dive into the unknown - exploring what they did not come with
• to work together with colleagues - in dialog, sharing information - to develop a shared vision of structure and functioning - shared decision-making
• to be supported, while teaching, in one’s continuing growth as an artist
• time for research, time for reflection, time for sharing - for students and teachers
Vision statement 1995
To teach fundamental and transformative information through radically different and non-traditional methods, to shake a student’s most inner core in far-reaching ways. This, so that they will be willing and desirous of letting go of known forms in order to explore themselves in relation to the world around them, and to give voice to discovery in non-conformist expression.
Working together with like-minded colleagues, sharing knowledge, discovery and decision-making, to create a truly integrated and effective program that will make the thrust into exploration and experimentation, and communication thru new artistic expression welcome and possible.
Written in 2005
ethics = principles, morals, beliefs, moral values
principles = values, philosophy, ideology
philosophy = viewpoint, thinking, attitude
• an ethical stance that includes respect; responsibility; co-operation and power sharing;
• a philosophy that cultivates the uniqueness of each individual; curiosity; innovative approaches to learning and making; responsible artistic vision; thinking outside of the box;
• a stance that questions attitudes and beliefs, while working with a student’s strengths and interests;
• a belief that creativity can be taught, and creativity is taught most effectively in creative ways; that joyful moving and healthy bodies can create physical and imaginative excellence and work that has conceptual rigor, emotional depth, and expressive range . . . . .
I have just spent 2 years at Bennington College, working for my MFA.
The philosophy of Bennington College is inspired by the vision and writings of John Dewey, and many other artists and thinkers who believed/believe in ‘principles of creativity, individuality, and personal discovery, and that the way students are taught makes a difference’.
Previous to this I spent 12 years teaching at CNDO/EDDC. CNDO was established along these lines. The first years were an exhilarating smorgasbord of artistic activity and inventiveness.
Some history:
My first teaching experiences were with the experimental dance group ‘Strider’, in 1973, teaching Cunningham-based classes. Teaching open classes, as well as creating and performing work, were all part of the activities of the group. I entered teaching as many dancers enter teaching – without formal training to teach, simply teaching what I did and loved most. I stopped teaching when I moved to NY in 1975. Instead, I threw myself into exploring the world of post-modern dance that opened up for me in NY’s downtown dance scene. I took classes with Nancy Topf, Andre Bernard, Simone Forti, Judy Padow, Beth Goren, David Woodberry, and many others. I worked with the people whose performances and/or ideas excited me. When I started to teach again in 1976, in Australia, as a member of Dance Exchange, I was bringing these new ways of thinking and moving – release, improvisation and contact improvisation – to the people who came to take classes with us. I learned to teach by teaching, and I learned about the material I was teaching by teaching it. In 1979 I left Australia and returned to NY, to join the Trisha Brown Dance Company. I taught occasionally, as a member of the company - release and repertoire. Trisha always said she hated to teach, so we were the ones who taught the classes, unless the organization specifically requested that she do it. While dancing with Trisha I continued to learn about working with an innately intelligent body, using innovative movement material, developing probing choreographic ideas and aiming for clarity and specificity within body, material and form. I learned, even more unmistakably than before, that our most profoundly influential teachers can be dancing amongst us, instead of standing in front of rows of obediently diligent pupils who reproduce exact forms. In 1986 I graduated from the American Center for the Alexander Technique (ACAT). I had learned to teach a technique that teaches us how to learn. In 1990, I moved to The Netherlands to join the faculty of CNDO (later EDDC). At CNDO/EDDC I taught Practice classes and Workshops. Complex Movement, Improvisation, Composition, Awareness . . . . . . . . . day after day after day after day. As well as sharing my knowledge and vision with students, teaching became an exercise in developing stamina, and inventing new strategies to keep myself from becoming bored, blasé, and rote. I wanted, needed to remain excited about material I was teaching, and open to continuing to learn from the material, from my students, from the act of teaching itself.
My own work is rooted in the Post Modern/ post Judson dance scene, that has emerged out of NY since the 60s, (already 40+ years ago!), which has been inspirational to, by now, a few generations of dancers/dance makers, in certain pockets in the US, in Europe and worldwide. My interests and explorations as a dancer/educator, and the ideals that drew me to choose to accept a teaching position at CNDO, and do my MFA at Bennington College, have been stimulated by this particular stream of thinking/moving. Some aspects of this way of working include: individual dancer/choreographers searching for unique voices; dancer involvement in the creative process of the choreographer; a conceptual element to the making of work; training that focuses on internal as well as external awareness; an interest in innovative methods and current issues; use of improvisation in training, in researching, and in performance of work. . . . . .
In order for this work to flourish, there is a need for alternative dance schools, where mature students (mature in the sense that they have considered the questions of why, what, how, where, who, for whom, etc., and have not accepted easy, status-quo answers) can follow full time training, that gives them physical, creative and organizational tools and skills, with which they can become equipped to enter the world of artistic activity, and particularly, performance making and production. There should be a school for all those movers/thinkers/questioners/creative individuals who, because of body type, points of view, previous training or no training, etc. have no chance to, or don’t wish to enter establishment institutions, where types of classes and ways of teaching aim to produce a more acceptable and regimented ‘product’ (product = both dancer and work that is made).
Quotes:
from Catherine Ketting -
self-directed and independent learning
from Cambridge School of Weston web site -
an approach which places as much emphasis on asking good questions as on finding correct answers
who seek to take an active role in their own learning
experience the excitement of learning
from Antioch College web site -
to empower its students
challenges students' values and perspectives, and increases their knowledge, ability to question, and general intellectual consciousness about themselves and the society in which they live
become intelligent experimenters, informed risk-takers, creative thinkers, and courageous practitioners
teaching students to recognize and to take responsibility for their point of view in making, participating in, and viewing art
knowing, being, and doing.
commitment to critical approaches to teaching, learning, and practice (application).
teaches and encourages multiple ways of knowing and scholarship based on rediscovery, rethinking, and re-examining.
new discoveries and fresh understandings
to feel comfortable in an environment of change.
the integration of experiential with critical and analytic ways of learning
to experience more fully and express more eloquently the human condition
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