Dance Techniques 2010

P.A.R.T.S. — Contemporary Positions
163
Is there an age limit for admission?
SDB Twenty-four for the Training Cycle, twenty-six
for the Research Cycle. We like to have a certain
homogeneity in the group.
What is the biggest challenge for you as teachers?
DH I find it interesting and difficult to deal with
the change of attitude that I encounter time and again in
many students. First, they are begging to get into
the school, then, after a short period of adjustment, there
is suddenly no pleasing them any more. It appears to
be a necessary process that I try not to let affect me, but
at the same I don’t want to ignore it. The pushing
and pulling is all part of it and if it stops, then I am doing
something wrong. In any case it stops me from feeling
too secure.
JP I think that each generation is becoming
increasingly narcissistic. I try to make it clear to my students
from the start that teaching cannot revolve
around them individually. They can’t tell me what they
think and feel about each small step before they have
understood what it is I want to teach them. I can only say,
‘Come and tell me in two years’ time what you think
about a tendu.’
CP As I am a performer, I always tell the students
that, as dancers and performers, they have to develop
their own voice—and then I suddenly realize that
they are using exactly this to resist the choreographic
process they are in! They hold back. But a personal
voice means giving your all, exhausting the full context
of a choreographic situation so that the personal
voice emerges clearly at the end. It is about pushing back
the boundaries. I realize that I also must expand the
complexity of what I am talking about to my perception
of technique. Based on an understanding of how intricately
artists articulate themselves, you should encourage
them to commit themselves as fully as possible, and not
restrict them.
SS I am obsessed with precision. In situations
where you can almost smell that extensive work on technical
details is being questioned, it is a challenge for
me to involve students in the work without confrontation.
I am not championing any Eastern doctrine here, like
practice and practice again; you don’t need to understand
anything. The school is not at all Eastern in this sense.
JP But that is not Eastern—it is old Western.
ML Resistance used to be a very big challenge for me
before, when I taught more. As you get older, you
learn how to deal with it differently; it makes you think.
SDB I can only speak from an organizational perspective.
The biggest task is finding a balance, for example
in the Research Cycle. You encourage the students to
develop their own paths and goals, and they are
given a say in the way they are assessed. It is a move
toward more independence. On the other hand,
they are still in a school environment and we tell them
what is good for them; they are not self–determined
artists. And with twenty-four students, restrictions are
necessary.
SS We are currently in the middle of auditions and
I again realize that we teach an elite. Not the elite,
but an elite, and that colors our entire discussion here.
These students have drive. They will go take their
own paths anyway.
CP The standard of the students certainly promotes
the development of each teacher. That is how intense—
how tight—and strong the exchange is here.