Dance Techniques 2010

236 Interview
my own company in 1974 that this approach became the
technique that was taught to the company from day one.
The change of energy in the body is the central concept
of Muller Technique. Change of energy propels the
body and is the source of all movement; it is both a concept
and a sensation. One has to imagine as well as
feel the change of energy. One has to be aware.
What makes sense in training? What are you
looking for? When I first encounter a group, the first
class usually is about energy because it is such a
strange concept to most people. It still is. Hopefully by
the end of a week, people are starting to understand
the relaxation of the plié, and understanding that if they
don’t relax their plié, their plié will not be usable.
That has to happen for the energy exchange to happen
in the body. Then, sourcing from the ground an
extraordinary energy, the ‘up’ energy allows you to extend
your technique; it supports movement in a
different way, for numerous turns, gives height to the
jumps. It is this energy that allows you to balance.
The softer the plié, the more usable the plié—and the
more attenuated the ‘up’ can be to support more
difficult movement and phrases.
The placement I use is slightly different. You have to
place the pelvis right over the floor, open up the back
of the leg to be able to get the curve in the small of the
back, to feel the line of energy in the spine from the
tailbone all the way up to the neck. With this placement
you get a functional structure and that supports you,
enables you to balance and extend movement.
The most difficult concept and sensation, as I said, is
to have the plié be a usable, powerful plié. The floor
is your power, the abdomen is your control, the spine
and the back of your legs are your strength. If you can‘t
discover that plié, the rest is not going to follow. It is
not about positions; it is about the change in energy in
the body. And that is very deep work. If you are not
able to do that investigation, if you have not gone deep
enough in understanding and sensation, then you
are not going be able to teach that or use it to its fullest.
What is important in conveying this work?
I encourage dancers to visualize, to make internal pictures.
That’s why we start with a short meditation;
to encourage the process of making internal pictures
of your body. Not an anatomical picture, but a
highly personalized picture of your body. You begin
to encourage an intimate sense of the body. Many
dancers are not aware of their torso, they dance from
their legs and arms. I believe everything comes from
the inside of the torso, from the abdomen—the extremities
are last. I start the energy exchange with placement,
the strength of the spine, understanding shape work.
After you study the technique for a while there is this
tremendous flow of strength and vitality that starts to
happen in the body, creating both freedom and control—
control through awareness. That is what one can begin
to accomplish with a new group of people. The other
element considered from the beginning is how to phrase.
All steps are not even, and all steps are not just steps
in a row; they have to become a line of movement. It
influences the timing, the use of energy in certain shapes,
how one arrives in certain shapes.
What do you think is most important for
your teaching? My view of teaching is that you have
the responsibility to create change. You have to use what
ever you can until you can to make an impact. It is not
just putting it out there and if people learn, they learn.
The aim is that the student can end up becoming a dancer
by dancing from the inside of his or her body, having
power from the floor and energy on the top to sustain
movement. As a teacher, you need the knowledge of
what you are teaching. You need the knowledge of the
principles and you need the passion to communicate
it. You need to be egoless to communicate it. You have
to know it so deeply and so well that you can convince,
get inside people’s minds and spirits to convince them to
change. And you need to be supportive and non-critical
doing so. For me, an essential part of allowing people to
grow is for them to know that they have your compassion,
and your approval.
That means a certain relationship between teacher
and student. It is an atmosphere you put out. If you
put out a supportive atmosphere, people are then willing
to take some risks. If you only push, people close in
and they don’t want to do anything. People change if you
push with a support underneath it. Because if I am trying
to teach a technique that gets rid of all tension, it is
tension not only in the body but in the mind and soul
that’s going to get in the way. That is why I use the music
I do during class, why I sometimes make a lot of jokes.
I sometimes keep it very light, I dance around a little bit.
It is all very intentional—to keep the spirit light and the
soul available.
Do you have a concept for a class, and do you
change it? In the beginning, I did a different class every
day. Then I realized a dancer cannot improve if they
are trying to learn steps every day. What you need is to
know the steps and then start working on the internal
structures of your body, your body moulding. So we do
one class per week, the same center, the same barre, same
across the floor, and the following week we do a completely
different class.