Dance Techniques 2010

52
Teaching: Principles and Methodology
performing a plié and again notice how it feels. Danielson
also uses imagery to stimulate learning through feeling
and experiencing. One example of this would be “Reach
back as if the sun was shining on the chest” versus “Reach
back as if it was raining on the chest. How does that feel?”
The dancers thus bring life–
knowledge into the studio
and integrate it into their
dancing.
Here Danielson adds
that there are times when
he proceeds in a deductive
fashion, for example,
when demonstrating movement.
He is convinced that
visual information can
help students learn how a
movement should be. More
precisely, he adds that this
is not about everyone performing
and looking the
same in the end, rather it
is about each dancer learning
how to sense movement
personally.
I would like to expand
at this point on Danielson’s “looking the same” remark.
Interestingly, I was able to observe Danielson’s lessons and
methods, and I know from my own experience that he attaches
great significance to understanding one’s own body.
On the other hand, during the three weeks at the Palucca
Schule, the core group of students performed precise and
homogenous movements in which individual nuances had
been reduced to a minimum. So I might summarize the
relationship between induction and deduction as follows:
In a technique class, Alan Danielson clearly expects that
certain, specific movement material be performed to a certain,
specific rhythm and / or timing, and that a particular,
predetermined quality is thus achieved. He works on this
with the students. An additional learning goal is teaching
his students to sense how a set, normative quality feels.
Danielson also works with improvisation: Students
work alone or with partners in order to find an arc or
to experiment with phrasing. This way of working also
takes place in other teaching contexts, not only in technique
classes. Danielson only gives students the option to
make choices and decide for themselves when he says, for
example, that they are free to add a particular movement,
or turn, or whatever—or not.
Regarding mirrors, Danielson has no standpoint. He says
that the mirror is sometimes useful. He uses it so students
can see how something—of which they have an internal
image and which they have felt—‘looks from the outside’.
However, Danielson says it is always important to turn
away from the mirror afterward, as it is important to feel
what you are doing. Other Limón teachers never use a
mirror precisely for this reason.
The skills and abilities that a Humphrey / Limón teacher
should have are dependent upon her or his pedagogical
concentration, teaching expectations, and the target group.
As broad an educational background as possible is a
great advantage for anyone teaching Humphrey / Limón
Technique. Anatomy, physiology, physics, philosophy,
music, and visual arts inform Alan Danielson’s teaching.
References from architecture and psychology are also useful.
Danielson explains that by drawing upon a wide spectrum
of sources, his dance technique understands movement
and dance from a human perspective. Everything
that humans do belongs to the Limón teacher’s area of
interest, even the most seemingly everyday of human activities—like,
for example, having children and watching
them grow up.
A Limón teacher should also, ideally, bring certain
physical characteristics to the classroom. These include a
well–developed memory, body awareness, good physical
coordination and combination skills, strength and stamina,
and good alignment. Finally, for Danielson, it is also
22 See also Understanding of the Body / Movement,
keyword ‘Movement Principles and Types
of Movement’.