Somatics

Somatics

Here is a term that dancers and dance students hear all the time. When I asked people around me to tell me what it is I got various vague responses. So in this post I'll try define it from a dancer's perspective.

The word "somatic" comes from Greek and means "From the body", "Relating to the Body" and according to Wikipedia "Somatics" is a field which employs holistic body-centered approaches to assist people in integrating and transforming self through movement and awareness practices intended to promote psycho-physical well-being. The field contains distinct disciplines, each with its own educational and/or therapeutic emphasis, principles, methods, psychology and techniques.

All of these distinct disciplines concentrate on exploring one's own body through sensory awareness. Each technique, in its own way, is attempting to make us feel and listen to our senses (proprioceptors). The aim is mainly to get to know yourself better which, supposedly, often results in better health. Although most of the techniques were developed as a way to treat a medical problem I don't think this is where their appeal lays for dancers. I find the idea of exploring and discovering the body far more interesting. These techniques can help us be highly aware and connected to our bodies. This is more important as a dancer as it will help avoid injuries and dance better. If I know and feel my body better I will be able to listen to it when something doesn't feel right (physically) and I will also be able to quickly understand the complexity of a new movement quality.

Thomas Hanna is the person who first coined the term "Somatics" in the 1970's. He was looking for a term to describe this new field that was being developed by him and others. He then went on to create "Somatics Magazine" and "The Somatics Society". Since then the field has grown and developed into what it is today.

The amount of disciplines that came out since the 70s is quite astounding. You will most certainly have heard of some of them, to only name a few.


Hanna Somatic Education created by Thomas Hanna
Body Mind Centering created by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen
Feldenkrais Method created by Moshé Feldenkrais
Alexander Technique created by Frederick Matthias Alexander
Bartenieff Fundamentals created by Irmgard Bartenieff
Rolfing created by The Rolf Institute of Structural Integration (Ida Pauline Rolf)
Progressive muscle relaxation created by Edmund Jacobson
Ideokinesis created by Mabel Todd, Barbara Clark and Lulu Sweigard
Authentic Movement created by Mary Starks Whitehouse
Gyrotonic Expansion System created by Juliu Horvath

All these practices are often criticised for their complete lack of scientific evidence to back up their therapeutic claims. This is the reason why I want to show that we can ignore these claims and use these techniques as the brilliant tools that they can be for dancers. Tools that will help us know our bodies (mind included) better. Consequently making us better dancer, and I don't only mean better technically but also creatively and artistically.

Choreographing on Commotions

I've just spent the last week end in Manchester choreographing on a youth dance company called "Commotions". The company has about 12 members ranging from 12 to 18 years old. It is a very nice non professional company with varying dance abilities.

I was asked to come and create a 6 minutes piece on the subject of "secret", in two days. Sadly the lack of founding doesn't allow for more time but I thought that it would be a great challenge. Being a choreographer is still something new to me as I am more of a dancer and teacher. I started planning the work about two weeks before going to Manchester, mainly by making lots of material. By material I mean dance phrases. I also decided on what the music would be and I created a rough overall structure. Although the time with the company was short I also wanted to make sure that some of the material would come from the dancers.

I arrived on the Saturday morning and we got started right away. First I taught a big chunk of movement and then we started playing with the rough overall structure. I wanted to see if some of my structural ideas would work. When the dancers had done enough learning we moved on to a creative task. The task was to pair up and play with the idea of:
- one of them walking and staggering and occasionally reaching with one arm. As if lost or in need of help.
- the other one grabs the arm and pulls it. Playing with pull and push.

I don't think I explained it very well but they still came up with some great stuff. I should have broken it down a bit more and made the first instructions more physical. We would then have been able to move on to a more conceptual idea.
For the rest of the day we worked on setting each of these duets and we played with the general structure of the piece.

The following day we started by running through what we had done the day before. Then we carried on working on the overall organisation of the piece. By then a much clearer structure had started to appear:
1st part - group section
2nd part - duet,solo with group in the background
3rd part - group section to end

I then asked the dancers to make one duet out of all the duets they had made the day before (only using the best bits). We used that material for the last group section. We also worked on the duet and solo that are in the 2nd part.

The idea of "secret" evolved into something a bit different. My first idea was about an oppressed state such as a totalitarian regime. Trying to show people that are sad and with no individualities. In that sort of environment people have secrets, but only in their thoughts.

Debbie, who was helping me, shared the fact that it reminded her of "1984" by George Orwell. So we thought about it for a while and decided to call the piece "101" in reference to the room 101 in the book. This is the room where people get punished by having their worst nightmare realised.

So the piece became even clearer:
- group section (showing oppression and lack of individualities)
- duet, solo with group in background (expressing how the group feels inside)
- group section (oppression leads to revolution)

The darkness of the subject never seemed to be a problem for the dancers. It is nice to explore dark ideas every now and then. The ending suggests a positive future without making it too obvious.

By the end of the Sunday we had a piece. There was still some cleaning and rehearsing to do but the piece was there. The dancers worked really hard. I didn't give them any break apart from a 30 minutes lunch. They were so good, patient and understanding with me. I am very grateful to all the people that helped during these two days. Debbie, who invited me in the first place, was amazing. She was so good at pointing me in the right direction and giving ideas. I feel I have learnt a lot through this experience. This was really a great opportunity.

Thank you Commotions!

Teaching in a vocational school

I've just been teaching students in a vocational school in London as part of my post grad diploma. I am  currently pursuing a Master of Arts in pedagogy. Although I already have the French teaching diploma (DE) I want to know and discover more. The reason why I went back to studying is to challenge myself and learn more. I have a lot of experience in dancing and teaching but it is nice to be observed and pushed into new areas.
I have been writing down my thoughts after teaching each classes. I thought I'd share them with you.
Here they are:


It was very nice to teach these six classes. It allowed me to see the evolution in the students and to give more personal feedback as I got to know their habits and weaknesses. As I am used to teaching company class it was good for me to work in a completely different environment. The class, in a student context, allows us to spend time searching and exploring while usually in a professional context the purpose is to get ready for the day ahead. In that sense it was a great discovery for me and it is something I need to remember as it is important to adapt the style of teaching accordingly. In a student context I should allow myself to give more time to the students and stay longer on an exercise. I also need to remember that I can take time to break down a difficult exercise into two exercises.

I really enjoyed having to work on myself and particularly on the aspect of "interruption". I constantly interrupt myself in the middle of showing an exercise. I have this need of giving information to the students as I am demonstrating instead of showing it once and then breaking it down. I managed to get better through the weeks but it is something that I will have to work on for a while as it is deeply engraved in me. Once I have managed to show the whole exercise without speaking I need to make sure I don't give too much information afterwards. It is important that I decide what I want to concentrate on so that the quantity of verbal information doesn't become overwhelming for the students.

An other aspect that I want to work on is the idea of giving positive feed back when there is no reason for it. Quite a few times I told the students that it was really good when it clearly wasn't. I do think it's important to keep the atmosphere nice and positive but I have to find the right balance between that and lying. The unnecessary feedback is absolutely not constructive and could probably become destructive if the students start switching off as they get used or even bored of hearing positive things only.

The other pattern that I seem to have is in the amount of time I give to the students to practice. I interrupt them after a short practice to give feedback and then let them do it again. Most of the time I could, not interrupt the practice so that the students have time to discover things on their own and use the time to give one on one feedback. However if I do end up interrupting the exercise I should maybe give only two notes instead of a huge overwhelming amount.

Teaching these classes was a very good experience and it reasserts my love for it.

Big School Project end

This is it! I have finished the project last week. I managed to put on, a one hour production with 100 kids. I am really proud. It was hard and stressful but it was worth it. Most of the kids were quite sad that it was all over.

Since my last post I have been working on setting more and more of the choreographies. As the weeks passed the show was taking form. The media department was able to show me what they had done which allowed me to adapt the choreography.
In the after school sessions I worked with the time travellers. I came up with a script and we worked on it together. The three students would suggest changes so that they could say and learn their lines better. We worked on basic acting skills such as projection, articulation and timing.

Three days before the show we put everything together for the first time, the time travellers' scenes between each dances and the projections. I made a couple of adjustments with the time travellers. I had warned them to be ready for small changes at the last minute. It was very good that everything was ready at least a week before the show because when we got on stage to rehearse, the students could concentrate on all the new information they were getting. They didn't have to think about the choreography as they new it very well. They could work on their focus, their spacing and their entrances and exits.
These little details make a very big difference in the quality of a production.

The day before the show we did a dress run which went very well. It was a long day for the students. Technical rehearsals and dress runs can be hard for young ones as there is always a lot of waiting. The kids get easily bored so you have to make sure you have a good amount of staff to look after them and keep them busy.

On the day of the show we managed to do a rough run through, but not on stage. It allowed the students to have the choreography fresh is their heads.
The show went very well. The time travellers were brilliant and all the choreographies were beautifully danced. The projections were amazing and everything came nicely together. The audience (parents and school staff) loved it. It was rewarding for everyone. The hard work paid off.

One of the feedbacks I received was the fact that you could really see the kids' input. This is something that is very important to me and I am glad that people were able to see it. I questioned myself a lot on that matter. I could feel that some people along the process thought I should be teaching the students more moves. That is not what I wanted to do and I am glad I didn't. The choreography was made by the students and I. I came up with many ideas and moves but so did they. It was a collaboration.

The point of this adventure was to develop the students' creativity and it did. I had the last word on everything and I directed the whole thing but I got helped by the people dancing in it.

It might have been easier and less stressful to just come to each sessions and teach them every single move of the choreography but I strongly believe that it wouldn't have looked as good.

I am glad I kept going that way and didn't give in because the result was stunning.

Big School Project (2)

The project is going very well. I've started devising and setting with the students and I am very happy with everything they've come up with.

I had a session with them yesterday and was very worried that they wouldn't remember anything from the previous week, but they all did! Some of them struggled a bit but they all got there in the end. Remembering a choreography is difficult but, like anything else, it's a matter of practice. When done on a regular basis it seems really easy but most of these kids have never done it before.

Yesterday a friend of mine came to see how much work I had done and how the project was going and she was very positive and supportive. She thought the students looked good. We tried ideas together to set a theme for each group and a general idea for the show. It was so useful to have someone there watching and saying "yes you're going in the right direction, so keep going" because even though things seemed to be going well it is nice to be reassured.

I have now written down a "script" for the show so that everyone involved in the making can work together (media, dance, English department). I have four choreographies, one for each group. I have made up a story about 3 kids who are time travellers and each stop in time is represented by a choreography. The time travellers will come on stage in between each choreography. I have been given extra time after school to work with the time travellers.

Now that I have a theme for each group and that I've started making the choreography, the main job will be to make sure we manage to put together the dance and the media. It is probably going to be the hardest part of the project, but I won't have to worry about that until nearer the performance day.

Big school project

I have just started a new project with a technology college. It's a big challenge. I have four groups of about 25 kids aged between 9 and 15. Most of them with no dance experience. I see them once a week every week and after four months we need to have a show ready. It is very exciting and challenging. I have taught many workshops to similar kids but I never had to take on such a big project.

The show has to be about the history of the college as we will be celebrating its 140th anniversary. There is a media artist working with me. He is going to work with the kids as well. We also have the English Department involved. They will provide us with material such as poems, texts, etc. The show will be performed in the college so not on a proper stage but in a hall.

We're only just starting. I have seen the pupils three times so far. My aim is to get as much choreographic material from them as possible. It would be too easy to come and teach them every move. I want them to be creative and involved. It's not easy though. One of the groups in particular really needs to be spoon fed. So, for my next session I have decided to teach them a little choreography that they will have to transform. Other groups have been extremely creative with very little input so I think it will be easy to get something out of them.

The main reason why it is such a challenge isn't because they don't have much dancing experience. It is, I believe, because they are doing it as part of a school subject. They didn't really choose to be involved. The other thing making it a challenge is that each of the sessions are 50 minutes long. It is a very short time within which I have to warm them up and then create and rehearse a choreography. I have been talking with the teachers to maybe have some longer sessions.Creating with kids takes time.

The first three sessions went very well. I had them improvise, learn a choreography and make up their own. So from the next session on, we need to start devising choreography. The making of the show begins!

Authority

I am just back from 2 weeks in the south of France teaching basic anatomy to future dance teachers.

It's a group of women ranging from 15 to 35 years old. Most of them choose to come to this 2 weeks intensive program. They get to refine and discover a variety of topics from ballet to music and anatomy.

Because the majority of them is here willingly and because a few of them are either the same age or older than me, it is easy to quickly become friendly. They are good students and we spend a lot of time together during two weeks. We joke a lot and because they feel comfortable, they tease me or laugh at me which, of course, I don't mind. I think that it's healthy to be able to laugh at yourself. The only thing is, that at the end of the two weeks, I will decide whether or not they pass on to the next level. I have an authority over them.
The question then is, how do you find the right balance between a good authority (laugh with my students, comfortable working atmosphere) and a bad authority (no control over the group or a dictatorial control)?

During these last two weeks everything went very well but for the first time I started questioning the meaning of the authority (power) I had over these women. I was joking with all of them but then had to make sure they worked enough to get their diploma.
How do you tell someone with whom you've been having a good time, that they didn't get their diploma and that they need to come back next year?

I had teachers, in the past, who would always keep a very strong dividing wall between themselves and us. We would never have laughed at one of them. I don't want to be like that, because when I was a student I kind of forgot that my teachers had lives outside the dance studio. This dividing wall, they used, made us forget that they were human beings.

I just hope that the students understand that a comfortable working atmosphere (where you can laugh at me) doesn't mean we're friends. I won't give any of them their diploma because we're friendly with one an other. That's why they need to know we're not friends.

The idea of authority and power reminds me that as teachers we have responsibilities.

Improvisation

After reading a post on this very good blog http://studio180dance.com/blog/ I got inspired to write about improvising.

Improvising is a very important thing to teach and a very hard one too. It's one of those things that you have to enjoy doing yourself before you can share it. You also have to be ready, as a teacher, to try and fail a few times before getting it right.
It is important for three main reasons:
-Because it is the best creative tool and it is the best way to create new material. When you find yourself doing the same choreographies year after year maybe it is time to improvise.
-Because it is accessible to everyone.
-Because it can be used for a wide variety of things.

First timers are usually the hardest ones to teach as there is so much for them to discover. You have to convince and reassure them as they will feel very vulnerable. There are two very important rules in improvising:
-no self censoring
-no judging (yourself or others)

Setting an improvisation task requires to have an aim. Concentrating on this aim you can then create any tasks. The most simple one being something like:
lets cross the room (giving a beginning and an end) but we have to stay on the floor (imagine the ceiling is 30cm high).
The aim here is to discover levels (the level of the ceiling can change as we cross the room). We can do the same thing with quality of movement or rhythm, etc.

The aim can be as simple as wanting people to dance. The great thing about improvising is that anyone (I really mean anyone) can do it, if they're willing to. You just have to find ways to make people move.
You can react to something (picture, theme, poem, colour, etc)
You can tell a story
You can place body parts in the space
The possibilities are endless. The only thing you require is an open mind and a bit of imagination.

Every time I lead a creative class with first timers I improvise with them. It helps them feel less self conscious . It is often very rewarding to see people discover how much they like it.

For pros, I concentrate more on how to challenge them. They are used to improvising and they need new tasks and ideas to explore. Most of the time the aims are the same only the process of discovery changes.

As a professional dancer myself, I have rarely worked with a choreographer that hasn't created through improvising. Most choreographers use improvising as a creative tool.
Some will teach you a phrase or combination and then ask you to personalise it. The exploration the dancer goes through, to change the phrase, is an improvisation.
Some will set a task with which you can play.
Some will film you improvising on music and then pick up the movements from the video.

Improvisation is a subject that could be discussed forever. So many books have been written by so many experts. It is worth having a look at them if you're a novice. I would love to chat and exchange ideas on improvisation (tasks, games, etc) so feel free to comment.

Teaching Teenagers

I have had the great pleasure to teach many teenagers and it is by far one of the most challenging things I have done. The challenge lays in many aspects.

The rare times I haven't enjoyed teaching teenagers was when they were forced to come to a dance workshop. I would arrive in a school and have to lead a creative workshop and find out that most of the students didn't know I was coming or had no wish to discover something new. At first I spent the whole workshop trying to get them to do something the way I had planned it but it never really worked. I would often end up with my voice and my energy gone and with a very poor result. I decided to change drastically what I was doing.

The most difficult thing is the beginning. Trying to have them face the same direction and then learn even a small exercise doesn't work. It is far more efficient to have them follow your lead and copy you as best they can. I include all the things I want them to do (weight transfer, pliés, using the breath, etc) but without really mentioning it. I never use any technical terms such as pliés, demi-pointes, etc.
The warm up is now very quick and energetic. A bit like dance on the verge of becoming fitness. I found as well that it is best not to bring attention to a single one of them to soon. So I avoid the "Let's watch Jessy cause she is doing it very well!" sort of thing (under 12 love doing that).

Once they are warm I usually start a creative task but I talk about it in very specific terms. The word "improvisation" doesn't really work. They find it very scary so I replace it by "Moving around" which may seems a bit degrading but it doesn't last long because once they get comfortable with the task I quickly tell them that what they are doing is improvising.

Obviously this is for teenage first timers. I am describing a one off workshop situation, not a group taught on a regular basis. Although I think quite a lot of things can be applied to both.

One of the major things with teens, whether new to dance or not, is the relationship that they have with their bodies, particularly girls. Their bodies are changing fast and they're not comfortable with all these new features. (hair, breasts, spots, etc) So I try not to give creative tasks that use the body as an instrument (measuring space with your limbs, folding unfolding your body into the space, writing your name, etc) but tasks that bring their attention to the outside world (reacting to a colour or picture, copying someone, expressing a feeling, etc).

I haven't had the chance yet to follow the same group for a long time. I have only done it twice, teaching in a dance school for future pros. The thing that I particularly enjoyed was their speed at learning everything. I was able to witness their progress during six months. Of course they were taught all day, everyday, so it is normal to progress fast. But it is something I started noticing in one off workshops as well. The notion (weigh, quality, rhythm, etc) I concentrated on during the workshop felt learnt, more so than with younger groups.

I find that when a teenager is willing to learn, he or she can do it faster than others. The younger ones are not ready yet. I really like Jean Piaget's stages (see Wikipedia) :
-Preoperational stage: from ages 2 to 7 Acquisition of motor skills. Children cannot conserve or use logical thinking.
-Concrete operational stage: from ages 7 to 12 children begin to think logically but are very concrete in their thinking. Children can now conceive and think logically but only with practical aids.
-Formal operational stage: from 12 onwards. Development of abstract reasoning. Children develop abstract thoughts and can easily conceive and think logically in their mind.

To finish I will just say that every time I look into studies about teenagers I find out more. It is a fascinating subject. I am not a specialist on the subject. Please leave some comments and share your experiences on teaching.

Reassessment

Reassessing, although very hard, is fundamental.

I find reassessment a brilliant challenge. Every time I question something about my class I start thinking about answers and solutions. Even if I don't reach a conclusion I always feel stronger and more prepared afterwards. It triggers new ideas that I want to try out. It keeps me on my toes. I can not find any good reason why not questioning the way you do things. Obviously, like anything, it is important to do it moderately.

The danger lays in what you do after questioning your class. I noticed that small changes are often the best way to go. It allows you to back track and take an other route if necessary. Sometimes not changing anything is the best option, you only need to try again and observe more. Some students need to hear things more than once, others simply need time.

It is also important to wonder if you have asked yourself the right question.
A student once shared with me the fact that she finds some of my exercises completely useless. If I had been inexperienced I would have simply stop doing these exercises or I would have tried to change them. That's why I think the question has to be carefully asked.
Where does the problem come from? The exercise itself or the fact that I haven't explained why we are doing it? If I have explained why we are doing it, then why did one of my student not get it?
It would be too simple to blame it on youth (she was a teenager), or lack of enthusiasm. It is important that all students understand the information.
In this case asking the right question is very important. You might find that the student wasn't paying attention or that your explanations weren't clear. It's necessary to check all options, always asking:
Could it come from me?

Some of the most interesting moments to question are the successful ones.
Why did it work?
Because once you know why something works then you can push it further and play with it. It is always a shame to find a class that works and keep teaching it the same way for the rest of your career. The students change enormously from one class to the next (age, level, abilities) so we can't teach them all the same way.

To conclude I would say that it is important not to take reassessment as a criticism but as a constructive challenge. At first I thought it was important to always have an answer but I now find that it is better to look for an answer by experimenting with new things. There is no rush to find a solution to a problem. The most important thing is to keep trying to find the solution.

New blog about dance teaching

After a thorough research on the web trying to find a blog about dance teaching I decided to start my own. I am intending to use it as a place to share my thoughts and experiences on teaching contemporary dance. I am a freelance dancer living in London and I teach on a regular basis in between my dancing contracts. I can not pretend to be an expert in pedagogy but it is a subject that fascinates me. I will try to tell you about my mistakes and successes. I mainly teach technical classes but also creative workshops and every summer I train future teachers in basic anatomy. Please feel free to comment or argue against anything you read. Debating is one of my favourite hobby. Questioning and reassessing are two very important things in order to be a good teacher. And this will be the subject of my first post.