Promoting the development of adaptable dance techniques

Kovich,  Zoran, MSc(Cog.Sc), BA(Dance), Wesley Institute, Drumoyne, NSW, Australia 

Professional dancers must constantly adapt their dance technique to meet ever-changing stylistic and choreographic requirements. They need to do this well, not only for professional and artistic reasons, but also to cope efficiently with demanding physical workloads. Dancers who can effectively manipulate their dance technique are better prepared to competently and safely work in the theatrical dance profession.

Dance training can be designed to teach dancers to more effectively adapt their dance technique. One way for dancers to develop this flexibility is through a structured process of repeating a technical skill while intentionally, and systematically, varying its performance. By improvising around and inside the movement parameters of a technical skill, dancers master the skill, and also become more competent and dexterous in manipulating it.

This approach is based on creative processes found in dance improvisation, Nicholai Bernstein?s motor learning theories, and perceptual-motor-learning practices from the Feldenkrais Method.

The movement session will be of interest to lecturers, teachers and dancers involved in higher education programs and professional dance training; dance educationalists; and dance science/somatics researchers.

Participants will directly experience what it is like to engage in an exploratory, improvisational approach to technical dance training, forming an experimental model to take back into their respective dance fields.

Approaches used include pedagogical strategies from the Feldenkrais Method and creative processes from dance improvisation. Participants will perform a series of variations relating to a technical dance skill, tracking the effects of the process kinaesthetically and visually. Underlying ideas and learning strategies will be examined through discussion.

The presenter will shape and guide the session drawing on knowledge, skills, and experiences developed through work as a lecturer in higher education dance programs, somatic educator, and professional dancer; and academic studies in cognitive science, dance, and social science.