Dance Techniques 2010

Barbara Passow — Jooss–Leeder Technique
105
Current Practice
Jooss and Leeder’s enduring legacy was the introduction
of Laban’s elaborate model for movement analysis into
a comprehensive dance education curriculum. Laban’s
ideas were transformed into an efficient method in accordance
with dance pedagogy. The technique they developed
is well suited as company training, which explains why
Passow is a regular guest instructor at the Bremen Theater.
The Jooss–Leeder Technique remains an important instructional
component at the Folkwang University, in particular
in postgraduate studies for dance teaching. Current
instruction, by various teachers who all are closely associated
with the Tanztheater Wuppertal, sets new accents
in modern and contemporary dance. Nonetheless Lutz
Förster still finds advantages in the original Jooss–Leeder
approach and says: “Applying eukinetics helps establish
dynamic differentiation; applying choreutics leverages
plasticity and three–dimensionality.” 11
New accents in pedagogical methods are in keeping
with Jooss’s approach. For him, technique was not an end
in itself, rather it existed “for the sake of the aesthetic,”
and is “determined and created by it. The aesthetic, however,
changes with the zeitgeist, and thus the technique
must change, must modernize with the times.” 12 Not only
was the founding generation of German dance–theater–
makers taught in this spirit; generations of well–known
contemporary dancers and choreographers developed
their technical roots and personal dance styles during
their education at the Folkwang University or during engagements
at the Folkwang Dance Studio—and they have
passed these basics and styles on to others.
One can assume that dancers’ and / or instructors’
knowledge is passed down in a variety of artistic and
teaching contexts, and that such knowledge is filtered
through the vying priorities of teaching institutions. An
instructor’s personal processing, integration, and choice of
focus inside a dance technique are factors in how information
is transferred generationally.
Nowadays, the Jooss–Leeder Technique is taught primarily
by former graduates of the Folkwang University in
private dance and ballet schools throughout Germany. One
good example is the Brakel Dance Academy in Hanover,
established in 1969. Loni Brakel–Harmssen and Eckard
Brakel, the founders, were previously associated with Kurt
Jooss’s masterclasses and, later, the Folkwang Ballet.
After Sigurd Leeder’s death in 1981, his school in
Herisau, Switzerland, continued under the direction of
11 Quoted from Wiebracht 2007, p. 5. Along
with Prof. Lutz Förster, Prof. Malou Airaudo,
and Prof. Rudolpho Leoni, today’s Folkwang
faculty also includes Stephan Brinkmann, who
studied modern dance with Jean Cébron,
Hans Züllig, and Lutz Förster, among others.
12 Quoted from Stöckemann 2001, p. 230.
Grete Müller (with support from Christine von Mentlen).
Even today, the school (now known as the ‘Dance Space
Herisau — Space for Dance, Movement, and Performance’,
run by Mentlen and Claudia Roemmel) offers courses and
advanced training in dance and performance based upon,
among other things, choreutics and eukinetics.
In the Dance Department at the Academy of Christian
Humanism University in Santiago, Chile, Raymond
Hilbert, as Patricio Bunster’s successor, continues teaching
in the Jooss–Leeder tradition. Hilbert studied with
Bunster at the Palucca Schule Dresden in the 1970s. From
2000–2004, Hilbert was a professor for modern dance at
the Palucca Schule, before following his teacher’s example
and moving to Chile.
Individual Approach
Assessing the history of the Jooss–Leeder Technique, its
approach, and how it is taught, fundamental and integrative
concepts are recognizable. This technique does not
rely on a fixed or formal, stylized movement vocabulary:
the exercises and movement sequences are structured, analyzed,
varied, and organized around choreutics and eukinetics.
These two core disciplines provide students with a
means to systematically explore articulation and modulation
of the body and to incorporate these ideas into their
own work.
Barbara Passow reiterates that the Jooss–Leeder approach
is not a teaching concept set in stone, rather dancers
and instructors educated in the Jooss–Leeder Technique
are particularly capable of realizing their own educational
ideas because they have explored, and continue to explore,
theoretical parameters that determine the shape and form
of any movement. Instructors are also able to choose their
own style, can select teaching content and methods that
set goals, and gear learning to a group’s particularities—
thus providing a teacher with options for direction and
leadership.
The Jooss–Leeder Technique is Passow’s foundation for
teaching professional modern dance classes, for training
professional dance–theater companies, and in her courses
and workshops for amateurs.
Relation to Other Dance
and Movement Techniques
We are able to characterize Passow’s movement style as
follows: qualitative characteristics are seen in an organic
flow, there is a preference for swinging movements and a
play between the workings of gravity, elasticity, and cushioning
of weight that can be found in regaining balance.
Furthermore, movement phrasing is articulated such that
gentle, flowing movements and transitions using accented
pauses can, for instance, be connected with extended