A series of visiting scholars that we had the last couple weeks got me thinking about the somewhat isolated position of dance in academia.
One of them in particular, Marcia Siegel, bemoaned the lack of literacy about dance among practicing choreographers and performers–so much wonderful scholarship has been done on the history of dance, dance in culture, theories of interpretation, etc, and she doesn’t see it manifesting in the dance world. In a way, this goes to the method of dance education: most people’s dance education consists of taking dance classes in studios, not universities, and these often don’t include the latest (or any) dance scholarship.
I don’t take as pessimistic a view as Siegel, as I know many dance teachers (myself included) who work to include things like dance history and dance science/anatomical information in their technique classes, and this seems to be happening on a wider basis than it did even just 20 years ago.
At the same time, I think we’re doing less than could be done. Here I am in grad school, immersing myself in all this knowledge about dance, and what is one of the big goals presented to me? With my MFA, I can become a college professor. But at that point, a huge population of dancers (and a huge percentage of dance education) is cut out, and the newly-educated-on-many-topics-of-dance person never reaches them. Is the academic field sort of shooting itself in the foot here?
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to teach in a college setting, and gaining the qualifications to do that is part of the reason why I’m here–but are we under-valuing the importance of studio teachers? Especially if we think it important that practitioners in the field have a sense of their context and history, shouldn’t we celebrate not only those who go on to a tenure-track position at some university, but also those who go into the dance studio, and start integrating their knowledge into a dancer’s training? Because let’s face it, it’s a minority of dancers who go on to study it in the university–if we want dancers to be educated, we can’t restrict that education to universities.
Thoughts?
November 13, 2007 at 8:14 am
This topic is near and dear to my heart. Even at the University here, the training is 95% practical, and theory/history can only be learned through electives. I LOVE theory and history, so it is sometimes frustrating to me to realize how this information has not spread as widely as maybe it should.
Then again, I think this goes to the craft vs. art argument for dance. Since dance is a craft in many ways, dancers only need to learn the technical side of things in order to perform adequately. On the other hand, in order to respect the context of what they are doing and in order to create an artistic presentation of some depth, dancers do need this information.
I think that it’s kind of like what they say in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–a tea leaf does not know the entire history of the East India Company…(nor does it need to in order to make a good cup of tea)…and many dancers approach their work in this kind of passive way–that they are an instrument for the art form to use.
I agree that it is up to the studio teachers to sprinkle theory into classes. My teachers did this, and I think that I appreciate my work very much so because of it…
Steph
November 13, 2007 at 9:37 am
You know, I’ve always found it odd that studio teachers don’t really need credentials. I guess that reputed studios tend to have good teachers (not always) who are capable of incorporating other information about dance. However, how many studios have we all seen that have the older students teaching the younger ones? Are they really qualified?
Of course, with my questions comes the idea of somehow regulating dance teachers–making them take pedagogy and such and get some sort of certificate. I think we would lose out on some amazing teachers if we did this, yet, at the same time, I think about so many of the teachers who have skills intuitively but really have no concept of the science of teaching. How much better would they be if they understood even more about what they are doing?
That’s my ramble. I guess it means that we need to recognize the importance of studio teachers and in that recognition expect more from such positions. What do you think,KHG?
January 20, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Some optimistic points… Though I did not pursue a college education before embarking on my dance career (which will become obvious as my spelling continues to embaris me thoughout this post…) More and more professional dancers do. With the increase of information we have about sport medicine and nutrition, the ease with which we can travel etc, dancers are able to dance much longer and a college education is no longer a sacrifice of such valuable years. One must also remember that in the US, colleges and universities are virtually the only source of government funding dance has, so companies frequently travel between universities while on tour in the US. Perhaps inviting more cross disciplinary panel conversations with visiting choreographers and experts in say public policy, or sport medicine, or educational philosophy etc, would invite working professionals to saturate their minds with a broader range of ideas, and inspire dance students to keep thier minds open as they embark on thier careers.
The studio teaching question is a good one, I know that Washington State has just set up a system of certification for dance teachers and other states are working on such systems as well. It would be great if more studios offered dance history or anatomy, but most studios teach highschool kids and they have to sit in classes all day at school. I know when I was that age I needed to MOVE when I got to dance class. I’m not saying studios shouldn’t have good qualified teachers, or that history and anatomy can’t be mixed into a technique class, but I am saying that the university system is more closely related to the professional world than you might think. (Think Bennington and Martha, Hanya, and Doris…) Seigle needs to give all the new research time to permiate the world, and when/if you become a university professor- YOU can choose how you integrate that info into your teaching, choreography, and community through open panel disscussions and encouraging cross diciplinary work.