Dance Techniques 2010

Anouk van Dijk — Countertechnique
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Van Dijk made suggestions: “Try being soft in the ankles.” “Try sending your
head above your spine.” “Catch up with your legs.” But this is easier said
then done and not everyone managed to apply the instructions. Integrating
the teacher’s suggestions into the way one moves would mean changing a
learned motor skill, and involve distributing weight differently in space. Few
of the dancers were able to change their thinking about running. Old habits
die hard. For those who caught a glimpse of what this could mean, the
movement appeared lighter, much more alert and freer, ready to take on any
direction. Countertechnique enables a dancer to use less energy for moving;
it makes one ‘available for movement’.
Without using the term Countertechnique or explaining its principles to
the students, Anouk van Dijk was already working with Countertechnique
principles in the running exercise. Running is a type of falling; the head falls
forward and forces the body to actively use its weight. If the students followed
the shift of weight from the head without allowing the legs to react,
they would fall over. To prevent falling over, almost all of them tightened
their muscles, i.e., gripped their bodies to maintain equilibrium, and ran.
Gripping, however, blocks movement; in order to move on, they had to
use more strength than necessary. Holding onto a center will also restrict
the ability to change direction, i.e., to move. Anouk van Dijk’s suggestions
encourage students to give up gripping in order to gain a flexible stability. If
the legs go downward, the trunk and head must go upward—if one actively
directs the head and trunk upward, space opens up for the lower body and
the legs. Following Anouk’s instructions, falling forward while moving upward
meant that running could be sustained for a longer amount of time;
downward force was relieved and the dancers were open for more and different
movement.
Anouk van Dijk: “For every direction, there is always a counter direction.
Always.” After the first exercise, students already understood why the use
of a counter direction is effective. What this implies, and how one can work
with this principle, will be the topic of this text.
Countertechnique, or the effective use of directions and counter directions
in both the body and space, offers many possibilities for dancers. As exemplified
in the falling / running exercise, the core assumption of Countertechnique
is that when dancing, the weight—or the weight of a body part—falls out of