Dance Techniques 2010

186 Understanding the Body / Movement
itself forward or backward—as the relationship to other
dancers also plays a constant role. Combinations are always
activated and structured using a balanced body
center. Roberts thus speaks explicitly about the body
center in his classes when teaching lifts, i.e., both interacting
bodies can control their positions to avoid going off–
balance. He teaches dancers how to economically position
the center for optimal use of strength. The body center is
generally treated as the center of movement, and less as an
imaginary zone.
Body weight and gravity, in Roberts’s technique classes,
are principally treated as forces to be resisted; while moving,
one tries to use body weight (meaning the gravitational
pull exerted on any natural object) as something
to be countered. Body weight must be physically controlled;
stabilization when falling or leaning must be learned.
Momentum must be formed, in a manner similar to the
Humphrey / Limón use of swing and oppositional ‘fall and
recovery’. But Cunningham Technique does work with
body weight; it is a strengthening factor as the weight falls
along a vertical axis (the spinal column) when aligning the
body. Roberts understands body weight, similar to Zen
philosophy, as force that impacts the earth and, with it,
also the body; this strength, however, does not have an
inevitable limiting effect on movement. Rather, it is about
garnering this force, as an active element, for movement.
Roberts refers to energy differently for each exercise
and movement phrase. The energy varies depending upon
the movement being performed, and in accordance with
the individual. Roberts encourages students to experiment
with their own energies. This relates also to weight shifts,
depending on where the shift takes place—and where the
movement is headed.
Cunningham Technique pays special attention to space
as a complex for kinetic design. In this aspect of training,
Roberts sees a great opportunity for students to develop
both better body awareness and sensitivity to the space.
In the first two phases of Roberts’s classes, students focus
on their bodies ‘in place’; in the following phase, they use
the information to concentrate on filling movement with
greater volume, giving them a sense of the surrounding
space. 19 Linz students Petit, Swietlicka, and Herrlein emphasize
that a relationship to the space is central to Cunningham
Technique. This applies both to the kinesphere,
wherein one learns about spatial correlations within the
body space, as well as to a constant orientation in the
room. Students find this concept (i.e., awareness of their kinetic
and kinesthetic space) presents an opportunity to see
19 See Teaching: Principles and Methodology.
both the body and space as malleable, free space, because
movement shapes emerge from the interplay between body
and space. Muscle groups and configurations, and the
joints’ coordination potential are all recognized as malleable
free space. A comment Roberts often makes is: “Feel
both sides of your back as they support your verticality.”
In Roberts’s teaching, all movements address the space,
almost with a sense of “spatial responsibility,” as he emphasizes.
Dancers can and should develop an awareness
of where they are in the room and what they are currently
doing, “for the sake of him- or herself, the choreography,
and others in the space.” Directive and formative awareness
for the room, as well as for the spatiality of movement,
enables a conscious perception of one’s own body.
Cunningham Technique understands space as an open
network, in which joints are given a flexible place for
physical articulation. Putting that to use in the physical
body means employing constant presence and agility in
the limbs and joints.
Awareness of the environment also influences Roberts’s
teaching; for example, awareness of sunlight shining into
the room. The student Katja Bablick described one exercise
wherein she was asked to execute an upper body
circle and, to help her, imagine sunlight streaming onto
her chest. The visualization helped Bablick perform the
biggest possible movement.
Combinations used in technique classes are oriented
in all directions and use all available space; directions are
often changed mid-movement. The preferred spatial level
is the middle level. The lower level is used for pliés, whose
movement radius both marks and delimits this level, while
numerous jump combinations constitute the use of the
upper level.
Roberts finds it essential for dancers in his class to be
conscious of exterior rhythms, but also to be aware of
how the inner rhythm works with the outer one. In his
classes, he teaches students how to tap into both equally
by placing great importance on rhythmic detail and investigating
musicality, i.e., using music to design movement.
Roberts wants to share his knowledge about the complexity
of time, a feature of Cunningham’s work, in order to
highlight time’s endless possibilities for shaping movement.
He says:
“Merce used to say to Pat Richter, the piano accompanist
for his class, that it did not matter to him what
she decided to play, as long as the rhythm was clear. She
loved that! She said it opened up a world of possibilities
to her, that she could think melody, but that it was not
tied to eight phrases of 4 / 4. I believe the same has to be
true in the work of a dancer, that we are not predestined
to function on counts of eight—we could also think of
it as a phrase of five, and a phrase of three. How do we
subdivide a musical structure, in regards to phrasing and
breath, while still holding true to the described amount of
time and space?”