Dance Techniques 2010

Jennifer Muller — Muller Technique
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exercises—sitting and walking through the space—that
train physical awareness and aid in finding a movement’s
intention. What she terms ‘emotional work’ combines
movement with attention to presence. For her, emotional
work means initially understanding feelings as energy, as
‘friends’ and ‘acquaintances’ with whom one can work,
but whom one can just as well let go of. Emotionality is
thus not about overdramatic expression, rather a credible
expenditure of energy with awareness, in relation to the
movement’s intention—as well as in relation to any single
movement’s meaning as seen in relation to other movements.
Emotional expressiveness is thus affected, for example,
by deciding which movements develop out of other
movements and / or which movements support others, as
well as awareness for a movement phrase’s high points.
We can therefore say that the Muller Technique combines
a structural knowledge of movement and the body with
imagination and emotional expression, allowing dancers
to express a full range of emotions when performing.
Although the Muller Technique targets a specific aesthetic
profile, the skills can be transferred to other contexts.
In summary, the training attends to the holistic forming of
the dancer as a performer, artist, and social being. It nurtures
awareness of the body and individual parts as well
as imparting knowledge about the body’s structure, which
leads to good placement and helps make the plié soft and
useful. Dancers come to understand the interplay between
these elements and how to consciously shape and use
them. A dancer should have the ability to emotionally and
visually interpret movements, and should further utilize
the powers of imagination such that movement acquires
meaning. This includes facilitating the dancer’s ability to
create a subtext for movements in certain contexts, even if
the choreographer has not specified such. Finally, dancers
should develop respect for one another in order to create
a supportive and motivating working atmosphere. Beyond
understanding dance as an art form, a dancer should gain
social skills that can be applied to other aspects of his or
her work and life. Along with discipline, (which dancers
acquire automatically in their daily classes, and which
Muller refers to as the ‘deadline mentality’), dancers further
benefit from Muller Technique experiences made in
group process, working environment, and in the structuring
of work processes. To that, the dancer acquires observation
skills that range from the detailed to the analytical.