Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is, not a preparation for life; education is life itself. –John Dewey
My classes are about pulling the most and best out of every dancer. Students should feel secure in pushing beyond their normal emotional, physical, and mental limits. Dancers in my courses should feel that I care tremendously about each one of them as a person and dancer. Through demonstration, verbal motivation, and tactile input, I aim to instruct each dancer on how to complete and transition through phrases of material while relating to a real situation in their lives. This allows the dancer to connect their studio life to their real life utilizing the concept of transfer.
One of my primary duties as a teacher is creating a comfortable classroom environment that motivates students to take risks and push beyond what they thought possible. That environment must include movement that is safe for the body but still physically and mentally challenging, clear communication that reaches all students with awareness of all learning styles, and giving appropriate corrections and compliments to motivate all students to work to their potential.
My strengths lie in knowing when and how to push, creating combinations that allow for complete engagement creating a balanced mind and body, clear communication skills while possessing the humility needed to make changes to my approach when I’m not being effective, and using humor as a method of creating a cohesive class community of which our main goal of the class in creating excellent experiences.
As teaching is so important to the choreographic process, I also transfer the aforementioned methods and theories to said choreographic opportunities. My approach to creating new work cannot fully begin until I understand my cast of dancers. I always enter the studio with ideas, a phrase, and multiple questions but the material does not genuinely develop until after the first night of rehearsal. Creating a new piece is not a selfish process, I’m not a choreographer who creates for my benefit. Making a piece is to provide an opportunity for an experience for all bodies involved. I believe that this communal effort will result in a more cohesive and rich work.
Most of the time I create phrases, manipulations, and transitions in response to the level of the dancers. When I feel that I am working with a particularly imaginative group, I will invite them to utilize their minds and bodies through movement contribution or manipulation. Mine is a fluid process, one that constantly responds to the needs of the dancers. From these words, one may construe that my process is so relaxed that a tailored piece could not result. These outcomes are quite the contrary as my process usually results in a trusting cast that will contribute their maximum effort toward making sure the piece looks and feels the best it possibly can.
Through effective teaching and choreographic process, rich experiences can be had by all involved. I strive to create an environment that yields artists who are confident in who they are as dancers and as people, who contribute to their own learning and to that of others, and provide the resources required for technical and performative mastery.
My classes are about pulling the most and best out of every dancer. Students should feel secure in pushing beyond their normal emotional, physical, and mental limits. Dancers in my courses should feel that I care tremendously about each one of them as a person and dancer. Through demonstration, verbal motivation, and tactile input, I aim to instruct each dancer on how to complete and transition through phrases of material while relating to a real situation in their lives. This allows the dancer to connect their studio life to their real life utilizing the concept of transfer.
One of my primary duties as a teacher is creating a comfortable classroom environment that motivates students to take risks and push beyond what they thought possible. That environment must include movement that is safe for the body but still physically and mentally challenging, clear communication that reaches all students with awareness of all learning styles, and giving appropriate corrections and compliments to motivate all students to work to their potential.
My strengths lie in knowing when and how to push, creating combinations that allow for complete engagement creating a balanced mind and body, clear communication skills while possessing the humility needed to make changes to my approach when I’m not being effective, and using humor as a method of creating a cohesive class community of which our main goal of the class in creating excellent experiences.
As teaching is so important to the choreographic process, I also transfer the aforementioned methods and theories to said choreographic opportunities. My approach to creating new work cannot fully begin until I understand my cast of dancers. I always enter the studio with ideas, a phrase, and multiple questions but the material does not genuinely develop until after the first night of rehearsal. Creating a new piece is not a selfish process, I’m not a choreographer who creates for my benefit. Making a piece is to provide an opportunity for an experience for all bodies involved. I believe that this communal effort will result in a more cohesive and rich work.
Most of the time I create phrases, manipulations, and transitions in response to the level of the dancers. When I feel that I am working with a particularly imaginative group, I will invite them to utilize their minds and bodies through movement contribution or manipulation. Mine is a fluid process, one that constantly responds to the needs of the dancers. From these words, one may construe that my process is so relaxed that a tailored piece could not result. These outcomes are quite the contrary as my process usually results in a trusting cast that will contribute their maximum effort toward making sure the piece looks and feels the best it possibly can.
Through effective teaching and choreographic process, rich experiences can be had by all involved. I strive to create an environment that yields artists who are confident in who they are as dancers and as people, who contribute to their own learning and to that of others, and provide the resources required for technical and performative mastery.