Dance Techniques 2010

98 Introduction
Wiebke Dröge, Claudia Fleischle–Braun, Patricia Stöckemann
Introduction
The research project investigating the Jooss–Leeder Technique 1 was conducted
at LABAN in London, with Barbara Passow, as part of the Historical
Project module. The second–year Bachelor of Arts in Dance Theater students
not only were exposed to dance history, they were also able to improve their
technique through intensive training in a selected modern dance style, as well
as being afforded the opportunity to learn repertoire by a dance–theatre pioneer,
Reinhild Hoffmann.
Seventeen students opted for the Jooss–Leeder Technique as taught by
Barbara Passow. The fifteen teaching units were closely intertwined with
Reinhild Hoffmann’s rehearsals. Following each technique class, Hoffmann,
a choreographer and opera director, rehearsed an excerpt from the opera
Dido and Aeneas (music by Henry Purcell) that she had staged at the Bremen
Theater in 1984.
LABAN was an ideal location, not only because of its educational focus on
contemporary dance and its advantageous location; students from a number
of countries identified strongly with the project, they were highly motivated,
and showed an eagerness to work during both the training and rehearsal
phases. The great teamwork and organizational preparation, as well as the
project’s integration into the LABAN curriculum, were factors that contributed
to an intense and effective working atmosphere. 2
In preparation for the project, a meeting was held with Barbara Passow
and Anna Markard, Kurt Jooss’s daughter. The London project team included
Passow and Reinhild Hoffmann, as well as Wiebke Dröge, Claudia Fleischle–
Braun, and Patricia Stöckemann.
1 Whether this is a ‘technique’ or a ‘technology’,
a knowledge–system or an elaborated
‘working method’ will become clear over the
course of the essay. The term ‘dance technique’
encompasses sequences of movements
specific to dance (including partial movements)
and skills oriented towards overall
concepts. These can be extrapolated from
the experiences gained from teaching and
performance, and the physical laws underlying
them, as well as from an individual movement
style. See Robert Prohl / Peter Röthig et al.
(Editors): Sportwissenschaftliches Lexikon.
Schorndorf: Hofmann Verlag, 2003, pp. 588–592.
2 At this point we would like to give our
special thanks to Colin Bourne, Naomi Lefebre
Sell, Amy Knauff, Rosmary Brandt, and the
musicians James Keane, Robert Coleridge,
Gian Franco Biasiol, and Oli Newman.