Dance Techniques 2010

Introduction
21
Digital documentation
Discussion with the research teams also informed the DVD team’s concept for
digital and technological documentation. By presenting a visual documentation
of classes, the accompanying DVDs provide practice–based insights into
the work with students. Class excerpts are supported and contextualized by
commentaries, interviews, extracts from choreographies, and photos. For
copyright reasons, improvised music is used in all classes; the improvised
musical accompaniment attempts to reflect the experts’ preferences. 19
Class plans on the first DVD provide detailed insight into the methodical–
didactic goals as well as into the progression of individual exercise sequences.
Each lesson was recorded on one–to–two days. The classes are spread over
both DVDs, and the experts’ commentaries on their classes offer insight into
background material that has not been readily available before. The language
of instruction, English, was kept; there has been no dubbing. Barbara
Passow’s German–language class commentaries are subtitled in English. 20
Conclusion
Considering the layers of text and material, this publication is a practical
handbook that can be used interactively. As an essential contribution to contemporary
dance education, it provides insight into the precision and diversity
that characterizes the day–to–day work of artists, educators, and scholars
in the field of contemporary and modern dance. The book and accompanying
DVDs encourage reflection and research, and hopefully provide inspiration
for new approaches to teaching dance for educators planning their own lessons.
Direct replication is not the intention; rather, we wanted to provide
detailed suggestions as to how broad the perspective on one’s own teaching
content might be.
direction of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker.
The interview was carried out with Steven
de Belder, David Hernandez, Mia Lawrence,
Janet Panetta, Chrysa Parkinson, Salva
Sanchis, and Theo van Rompay.
19 We were unable to use specific pop songs,
like those Jennifer Muller uses in her classes.
We have also not been able to show Trisha
Brown’s Set and Reset choreography on the
DVD (in relation to Lance Gries’s workshop),
due to rights-issues.
20 Detailed information on how to use both
DVDs is provided at the end of the book. The
DVDs are NTSC.