Jesse Zaritt
Today you will hear from four artists who have shared their stories on the blog over the past three months and learn about the role of teaching within their careers. Teaching is integral, challenging, and inspiring.
From Jesse Zaritt (Brooklyn, NY):
In my teaching, I try to critically examine the historical terms of what constitutes dance technique, restrictive definitions of choreography, assumptions around the value of conventional western physical virtuosity, and the model of master teacher/novice student. In every single teaching context I find myself in, I wrestle with how to both honor and transform the art form of dance. I come up against the limits of my own capacity - not just as a dancer/choreographer/scholar - but as a communicator, and more importantly, as an agent of change – as an individual committed to transformative feminist pedagogy. I have to acknowledge that I come from a social position of extraordinary privilege as a white, middle class male. When I stand as a teacher in a room full of students, the terms of my identity are present. My ability to counter the easy slide back toward a dominant model of dance education that reinforces hierarchies of class, race, ability, gender, sexuality, age and location is constantly challenged, not only by my own lack of awareness, but also by my (often misplaced) perception of the expectations of both the students in the room and the institution that I am teaching within.
I do strongly believe that dance is a field where transformative ways-of-being-in-the-world can be deeply and effectively practiced/tested in the body. It is for this reason that my pedagogy must be committed to activating multiple ways for individuals to "deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world." (Richard Shaull)
The research into how dance can support transformative action is inside the way my classes are structured. "What if...?" is a guiding question for every class (thank you Deborah Hay…) In each learning space I facilitate, I try to create a sense of not-knowing together. I try to ask questions without one single correct answer.
From Cynthia Oliver (Urbana, IL):
The interplay in my work between art making and teaching...that used to be a difficult synchronicity for me and has become less so. My worlds as a freelance artist were often separate. When I lived in NYC, I taught to pay rent. I danced with others for sheer satisfaction of doing, being in and testing the limits of my body. I made work because I felt I had a perspective, a point of view worth making manifest and wanted to see if I could do so. However, an academic job forced me to bring these worlds together. I had to think economically so that I was not pulled in directions that just exhausted me without return. I wanted to be a good teacher and learned how via pedagogic workshops as a young professor which were really helpful. I figured out how to connect my research to my teaching, my world views and cultural values to notions of technique, and to wrest what I did in the studio with students from the enforced hierarchical, biased and pervasive canon we have to negotiate in contemporary dance worlds. And lastly, I began using my choreographic experiments in the academy as research for what I do in the professional sphere, instead of simply as service (a nice piece to make on a couple dancers). Connecting everything taught me how to go more deeply in all areas of my research and the ways in which my ideas were connected even if I hadn’t initially thought them so.
From Dawn Stoppiello (Portland, OR):
I was a dance teacher when I was 25, just after leaving the Bella Lewitzky Dance Company. At that moment I had a very clear technique to teach and it all seemed relevant since Bella was still alive and I felt there was a direct application for the technique I was teaching. Now it’s a bit different. There has been much conversation about the role of class for today’s contemporary dancer. My philosophy now is that a dancer needs to be strong and flexible and knowledgeable about the structure (muscles and skeleton at least) of the body. Today’s dancer needs to be adaptable and ready to contribute creatively to an artistic process. I try to teach general principles like dealing with gravity and weight, requirements for various choreographic design, strength and coordination, and improvisation and composition skills. The specific steps (style or technique) are less relevant over the physical concepts of how to move through space without injury and with grace and ferocity. It’s an ongoing conversation and I am still learning and adapting to what I perceive as necessary to maintain a strong and supple dancing body. As I previously mentioned, teaching the integration of technology and performance is an enormous part of my work with Troika Ranch. I love to teach.
From Debra Knapp (Los Cruces, NM):
Teaching is the mainstay of the way most dancers earn a living. I also want to say that when I began teaching, I became a better dancer. I encourage all dancers, young and mature, to share their passion of dance through teaching, too. For those that have not had much experience, there are so many places and people from which to learn the art of teaching.
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