Becca Levy. Photo: Seth Langner
What is the role of teaching within your dance life? What do you love about teaching? What does the phrase “teaching artist” mean to you?
Teaching is where I get to dive into investigating what is fascinating about the human mind and body. The most satisfying moments are when my students take charge of the material and start to make independent connections.
There has not been a time in my professional career when I wasn’t teaching, so it feels like a tightly woven part of my life as an artist.
Even though the material I work on with the professional company is really separate from what I’m doing at the College, the way in which I work on my skills as a communicator is shared. I work hard to articulate concepts clearly - through my physical practice, through every word I say aloud in and out of the classroom, and energetically to students receiving feedback. Teaching is my daily practice (sometimes successfully, sometimes not) in mindfulness.
What is the role of teaching within your dance life?
What I discuss and learn with my students, I bring to the studio to mull over in my own work. What I discover in the studio in my work, I bring to my students. It is a profound circle for me that is endlessly interesting and inspiring.
What do you love about teaching?
The above. Plus, I love watching/helping/encouraging a student to find their voice. There are few things in life that are more fulfilling to me than this.
What does the phrase “teaching artist” mean to you?
One of my mentors in my journey as a teacher was Joanne Robinson Hill, who for many years ran the Education Department of The Joyce Theater. Some of my first experiences teaching were under her guidance as a "teaching artist" for The Joyce. I’ve always loved the notion of an artist who looks deeper by considering how to share and disseminate whatever knowledge they have gained. Joanne taught me the importance of breaking down concepts in dance to their essence, to the simplicity of a body moving through space in time with energy and intent.
Role models and inspiration for your teaching practice and pedagogy:
- Joanne Robinson Hill
- Alison Chase
- Rebecca Lazier
What is the role of teaching within your work? What is the interplay between teaching and choreographing?
Teaching and choreographing are, to me, both collaborations. I collaborate with who is in the room and what they teach me as well, what we give each other. It’s a dialogue.
Teaching often helps me figure out how to articulate something verbally that is important to me, either performatively or physically, that I may not need to articulate in the same way for myself or with others whom I work with consistently. It also forces me to be physically clear with my body in order to pass on information to people not familiar with my choreographic process or technical vocabulary.
My choreographic process allows me to play with less structured physical experiments that help me understand what is unique to me, my desires, flaws, abilities, and then be able to take those into the classroom to share with others in a more structured environment.
There is definitely an exchange between my teaching and choreography but they are also, in many ways, separate or maybe unique practices for me. They cross-pollinate but also hold their own.
To read their full artist profiles, please click on each artist's name above.
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