Dance Techniques 2010

Dance Techniques and Lives
151
What is taught in choreutics? And what is taught
in eukinetics?
AM Choreutics is about developing an awareness for
what one does in the space and how one uses the space—
it is about clear spatial awareness. Eukinetics is about
the dynamics of the movement.
RH Every dancer works with them. Awareness helps
a dancer to develop a more differentiated approach.
One need not be permanently engaged in a theoretical
discourse about the principles—but adopting a more
aware approach enriches one’s choreographic work.
We thus have a tool available when creating choreographies,
when teaching, and when dancing.
Would you describe Jooss–Leeder as a technique?
AM Definitely, yes. Technique is the way one masters
the trade. Teaching technique means helping young dancers
to forge their instrument. It is about mastering and
becoming aware of the body. Technique is about all of
that, but it doesn’t exclude fantasy. One needs fantasy
to achieve technique: imagining how something should
be is also very helpful when learning or developing
technical skills.
RH I would agree with that and add that the Jooss–
Leeder Technique is not a technique with a fixed
movement vocabulary, it is more about inviting teachers
to develop their own material to train the body.
AM The Jooss–Leeder Technique has no set movements
that everyone must learn and can perform, although
there are principles that, when understood, repeatedly
lead to certain movement qualities being taught. In
ballet, for example, there is a jumping technique that can
be used and which doesn’t need to be developed again.
The same is true of balance, one learns balance in ballet.
Going off–balance and finding it again is our modern
task. Technique is about finding a lively and new form,
and playing with the principles.
RH If one has a fixed movement vocabulary, as in ballet,
then an ideal of the perfect performance exists, for
example of an arabesque or attitude—one has to conform
to a particular form. If one goes off–balance in modern
technique, one is floating, falling, and giving in to gravity.
It is not about shape at this moment, it is about quality.
I haven’t found the kind of endless play with losing and
regaining control found in the Jooss–Leeder work in
any other technique.
AM But what does the Jooss–Leeder Technique mean,
in fact? We teach technical challenges like swing, impulse,
falling, etc.—namely, typical movements that don’t
exist in ballet. Then you get choreutics coming in from
one side, and eukinetics from the other. This means the
technique we are discussing informs both muscles and
skills, while at the same time it teaches spatial awareness
and precision through choreutics—as well as analysis
and dynamics through eukinetics. So we really do cover a
wealth of material.
You have both spoken about how important ballet
is for you. Does one need to study both ballet and
Jooss–Leeder in order to become a well–trained
dancer?
AM I believe in cooperation between both techniques;
both are enormously challenging. If students want to
become dancers, they need to be trained in order to be
able to adapt to any choreographer’s style. To prepare
for this task, young people need two techniques that are
complementary but have different values.
RH At the Tänzerkongress (dancers convention) in 1928,
Kurt Jooss called for equal treatment of ballet and
modern. In my mind, one could already see a dovetailing
of the two disciplines if one looked at Hans Züllig and
later Michael Diekamp’s classes.
Does the Jooss–Leeder Technique have any basic
principles in the following areas: methodology,
didactics, physical learning, and artistic practice?
AM We started thinking about the partnership between
ballet and modern more in–depth after 1950. We
organized the modern work a bit more and decided
to focus in the beginner classes on purely dimensional
movement—saved going on the diagonal, working
off–balance, and also working with the torso in which
one has to lose one’s placement until the advanced
classes. We thought—and Volkova disagreed with us to
a certain extent—that ballet placement was so important
that one couldn’t simultaneously learn placement and
how to lose it! But I must add that the Folkwang students
were not teenagers—most were already eighteen years
old—and one can’t work with eighteen–year–olds the same
way as with twelve–year–olds. The entrance audition
was not about a proportion (like whether the legs or torso
are a bit short), it was about motivation and recognizable
talent such as musicality, coordination, and understanding
of movement. Everything else had to be demonstrated
in the probationary period. By this I mean that
the methodology had a great deal to do with the age
of the students.
RH Attaining a ‘dance moment’ in the class and then
leading dancers into a movement sequence was part
of the methodology used in modern dance training. First,
individual motifs of a movement sequence were worked
out before they were put together. There were musical
and rhythmic tasks involved and the performance of different
movement qualities. I don’t often see this ‘classic’
progression in a modern dance class today.
What are the most important basic principles for
you?
AM All those that we have already mentioned. I
can’t say spatial principles are more important than
dynamic principles or musicality.