Hello all!
As many of us are 3 weeks into our research I feel now is a good time to put some thoughts out to you all in hopes of receiving your feedback and thoughts on my inquiry.
To streamline things for myself, I have broken my research into 3 main areas of inquiry…
1. The relationship between Ballet and Modern technique -
- What is it? What could it be? What elements within the two are supportive (similar) and what are opposing (different)? Do adolescent students (12-17yrs old) have the ability to understand this relationship? (more about this below) and… Can the teachers understand, articulate and encourage the supportive elements of this relationship?
2. How do the Limon principles (concepts) apply to Ballet and Modern technique? How do they fit into, influence, affect the relationship between Ballet and Modern in both teaching technique (teachers) and dancing/embodying technique (students)? These principles include: Fall and Recovery, Opposition, Suspension, Initiation, Isolation, the Center (Core), Succession, Weight and Rhythm.
3. The study of Adolescent development - how the physical, mental and emotional development of adolescents affects their training. How dancers experience these changes in their training and if or how they are recognized and supported by the teacher.
I would love to hear about your experience as either an adolescent student and/or teacher of adolescent students.
- Do you teach students who dance in more then one genre?
- How do you find training in multiple genres benefits or hinders the overall technical training of adolescents?
- Are there concepts or elements within genres that can cross over and enhance the training within other genres?
- Do you or your fellow colleges ever discuss this idea with each other or your students?
- Do you feel your students easily carry information and experiences between technique classes and genres or do they close the door on one class and open on another, forgetting everything that they heard and experienced in the previous class?
- Thinking about the Limon principles (movement concepts) listed above, can you recognize them within your own teaching? Do you use any of these terms, or maybe explain them in different ways? Or maybe not at all?
Sorry to bombard you all with so many questions! Knowing that you are all established teachers I would love to hear your experiences with these ideas. If you have the time, please comment: )
Thank you!
Ainsley
Dear Ainsley;
ReplyDeleteas always it was great to read you blog. The more you write about you field of research the more I see we have in common;) I have now tried to reply to your questions:
Do you teach students who dance in more then one genre?
Yes, I regularly teach adolescents in both Classical Ballet and Jazz. Until recently I also taught contemporary.
How do you find training in multiple genres benefits or hinders the overall technical training of adolescents?
I think that the adolescents benefit immensely from training in different genres. Each genre has its own ways of being taught so the dancers learn different ways of thinking and doing dance. I feel that the dancers often shows greater improvement in each genre if they train in several genres.
Are there concepts or elements within genres that can cross over and enhance the training within other genres?
Yes, I think so. Take something as simple as doing pirouettes, the basic technique and principles for this is easily recognisable in all of the above genres. Although being done slightly different in each one, the value of transferring your skills will apply to each of them.
Do you or your fellow colleges ever discuss this idea with each other or your students?
Yes and yes. I think it is important for the teachers to point out that you can transfer a lot of the technique between the genres. When conducting my interviews with the adolescents (13-16 year olds) in my field of research they also mentioned this; that they felt their Classical Ballet technique was important for the other dance styles they weekly participated in. One of them even said that after the weekend (where we had have a visit from a guest teacher having a three days with three hours each day workshop in Classical Ballet) she could do nice triple pirouettes in jazz.
Do you feel your students easily carry information and experiences between technique classes and genres or do they close the door on one class and open on another, forgetting everything that they heard and experienced in the previous class?
I think this depends highly on the student. I have some girls that are quite skilled at transferring knowledge (see answer above) and others that I sometimes wonders if they have learnt anything at all….
Thinking about the Limon principles (movement concepts) listed above, can you recognize them within your own teaching? Do you use any of these terms, or maybe explain them in different ways? Or maybe not at all?
I have never taken Limon classes myself and are not familiar with the technique. Therefore I did not know the the principles you listed was Limon principles. having said that I have heard them a lot of times; during my own training and I use most of them in my own teaching. Some of the principles I use is; Fall and Recovery, Opposition, Suspension, Initiation, Isolation, the Center (Core), and Weight and Rhythm. All of these I talk a lot about when teaching Contemporary. I also talk a lot about the Center (Core) in both Classical Ballet and Jazz. We also do exercises for Isolation and Opposition in Jazz.
Maria;)
Thank you so much for your help Maria!
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