Speaking as a Teaching Artist: Jodi Melnick, Tiffany Mills, Kathleen Wessel, and Liz Lerman

Tiffany Mills                                   Photo: Julie Lemberger 2015, at NYU Tisch School of the Arts

 

What is the interplay between teaching and choreographing for you?

 

What does the term “teaching artist” mean to you?

 

Jodi Melnick (New York, NY)

When I first started teaching (I was in my early 20s), it was mostly about me learning more about my own body, its capability, its availability. Through teaching, I became a different dancer; my articulation and awareness of the corporeal self grew exponentially.

 

Now, teaching is about the students; it is all for them. I see them, I concentrate on them. As my body is experiencing the detail and the pathways, I am relaying the information to them, for them.

 

Tiffany Mills (Brooklyn, NY)

My teaching practice is influenced by my choreographic work; the reverse is also true. In the past few years I have become more dedicated to teaching improvisational partnering and composition. Many of the tasks I take into my classes are ones that the company explores during rehearsals.

Both teaching and choreographing require an openness to what is happening in the moment, and both require a kind of rigorous curiosity. They may be structured differently, but they are both ways of practicing creativity and exploring the depths of physical experiences.

Teaching is also a way of contributing to the community and health of the field. I am able to offer my own perspective and knowledge, but I receive valuable information in return. The creativity of the dancers in classes continues to inspire me and open up new questions and perspectives that I can take into the studio and into crafting new work.

Kathleen Wessel (Atlanta, GA)

The more time I spend in front of a room full of students, the more I realize the vast difference between giving a class and teaching a class. Most people start out giving classes. They take the information they received from previous teachers, and they regurgitate it. I did it too -- where else can you start? I gave the information that was given to me. But then I started to really watch and listen. When something that made sense to me obviously didn’t make sense to my students -- as in it wasn’t producing the results I wanted -- I had to make changes. Use imagery, relate it to everyday life, try to inspire confidence, close the mirrors, concentrate on one thing at a time, slow down, repeat. A teaching artist is someone who realizes his or her class can and should be forever evolving to include new information. A teaching artist talks to dancers and cares how they process what they have learned; she sees as much dance as possible and stays current; she rejoices in her students' successes.

Liz Lerman (Baltimore, MD)

In the early days, teaching dance technique provided the platform for testing movement material that got explored in rehearsal. I’m not sure if that was always good for students, but it was good for me. Later, teaching composition was where I got to work though processes. And leading workshops with multiple audiences is where I tested my tools. Also, when we (DX) were touring, there was a great relationship with the kinds of workshops we offered in relation to the material we were performing. This is something I urge younger choreographers to consider. As they make a new work, they are also coming to some new understandings and those can be tested in workshops - multiple outcomes for the same research.

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