it’s not fresh, but it’s fruit
solving the basics is a rite of passage in contemporary dance. independent (re)discovery is the first step to being a ‘practitioner’.
when teaching dance to ‘non’-dancers (or as a interdisciplinary subject) we tend to give the solutions. because they lack experiential knowledge we ‘boost’ their journey.
i’ve found that careful boosting results in equal levels of achievement (dancers/non-dancers). so why don’t we boost the dancers?
science students are not expected to rediscover the principles of their practice, so why arts? that’s not to say students should be given everything, but we should offer more.
there isn’t a book that covers the general principles of contemporary dance praxis (theory and practice). why? what if i want to start learning the principles of deconstructivist, revisionist, or expressionist (etc.) choreography.
they should be presented in such a way the they student can adapt them for the ‘why’ of a work. understanding ‘points in space’ is not an end in itself, it helps you achieve other things.
we shouldn’t look for innovation with our students, but potential. i’d rather they achieved in the long term (as an artist) than the short term (as a student).