Dance Techniques 2010

136 Working Somatically
Irene Sieben
Working Somatically
Supporting techniques for contemporary dance
“It’s only when you know what you’re doing that you can really do what you
want.” 1
This statement, by Moshé Feldenkrais, challenges us to take responsibility for our
actions. It sounds provocative. Who knows what they are doing and how they are doing
it at each moment of their lives? And what should dancers know about the how? Feldenkrais,
a physicist and behavioral researcher, believed in the genius of each person, yet
he was also aware of disruptive factors: repressive upbringing and habits formed by
orders and regulations, role models, social norms, ideals of beauty, and traumatic experiences.
These inhibit further development and restrict perception. In artists and creative
contemporaries, he observed how lifelong learning formed flexible minds. He saw this
not only in the brilliance of their performance, but also in the exciting way of learning
that allowed for mistakes and questions: “Do not avoid errors, but rather use them as
alternatives for what you feel is right and their roles may soon be interchanged.” And
who knows exactly whether what they currently think of as wrong isn’t, in fact, right? 2
These considerations are fundamental for would–be dancers in increasingly more open
training systems. The language of movement must be reinvented and refreshed repeatedly
over the course of a career. Why do I move? What moves me? These questions are
not always asked at the start of a dance career because of the need to work on strength,
balance, flexibility, coordination, and virtuosity. The dancer’s instrument, the body, is
being finely tuned—but to what pitch? What is the objective? It is good to know that
each dance technique and each training practice influences the body image and creates
wiring in the nervous system, and that mindsets then determine muscle tone—and that
this fuses with habits we have brought with us from childhood, which is both baggage
and opportunity.
Letting go helps
Only when injuries present career obstacles are dancers required to separate routine habits
from intelligent habits, like separating the wheat from the chaff, and thereby neutralize
their bodies. This means freeing the body from unnecessary tension and mental barriers
and sharpening perception for the realities of the dance world.
Not all teachers have a well–founded knowledge of the structure and functioning
of the body. Gill Clarke, for example, is convinced that the “grammar of controlling
the body in space and time” 3 is necessary in dance. Clarke says that releasing unnecessary
tension leads to a release of energy that gives shape and direction to the body in
space. “Every muscle that doesn’t help, hinders,” says Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, while
André Bernard suggests a “smarter not harder” approach. Susan Klein, who helped
1 Moshé Feldenkrais: The Master Moves.
Capitola / CAL: Meta Publications, 1984, . p. 68
2 Moshé Feldenkrais: The Elusive Obvious.
Cupertino / CAL: Meta Publications, 1981. p.
94
3 Gill Clarke in Irmela Kästner: “Denken manifestiert
sich in Bewegung.” In: Tanz-Journal,
1 / 2003, pp. 32–33
4 Susan Klein in Irene Sieben: “Knochenarbeit.”
In: ballettanz, 10 / 2005, pp. 74–75.
5 Sieben, loc. cit.
6 Amos Hetz in Uta Ruge: “Das expressive
Selbst – ein Prozess.” Im: FeldenkraisForum,
Nr. 65, 2 / 2009, pp. 13–14.
7 Jarmila Kröschlová: Movement Theory and
Practice. Sydney: Current Press, 2000,
pp. 11–12.