Hello everyone,
I hope we are all getting settled into our new modules. Hopefully, this is the first of many blog posts which I endeavour to create over the next few months.
As I scour literature connected to my interest in spatial imagery, I find myself opening hatches which shed light upon intention, attention, and consciousness in the environment of teaching and learning.
Perception? I don't know yet.
I have always strived to allow emotion and affect to exist within my teaching practice; to marry technical rigour with something which is also personal - sensory, temporal, and kinaesthetic. I want my dancing to be relevant, and I also want to teach relevance. I want my students to experience rather than to demonstrate.
To be rather than to show.
Question: how can we be tactile without touching?
Have a read: Todd, M.E. ([1953], 2018). The Hidden You. Eastford, CT: Martino Fine Books.
Hi Ben, thank you very much for this beautiful post and the almost poetic question. I love how you speak about relevance in your dance and teaching.
ReplyDeleteA couple of my students prefer dancing in the dark...meaning they ask me to switch off the light and I can only see their silhouettes in the light which is shining in from the streets....they feel safe in the darkness; focusing solely on the emotions that are leading their dance and although I can hardly see anything I can feel their presence and whole being so intensely. Maybe the less stimulus around us the easier we can feel, perceive..even be tactile without touching. I am thinking of two people facing each other but with their eyes closed and then starting to move/dance and try to be led by their intuition, breathing etc...limiting the senses could enhance being tactile without actually touching...
I hope this all makes sense ;-)
Looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you.
Maria x
Hi Maria, thank you for your response and apologies for the space since!
DeleteFunny you mention the darkness - I played with this with myself in classes just last week. It seemed to bring a calmness, a focus, and a sensitivity to the movement in the air. I think bodies affect darkness differently to how they affect light, which makes everything more noticeable and the dancing more precarious.
In my recent interviews, I have seen a theme in the idea that, without touch, tactility can exist in the air and also when 'opposition' occurs between bodies in space or in force.
I will keep checking in on here :) Thank you Maria x
I will try again Ben, apologies it did not work the first time. This response has morphed from my original entry, which was more emotionally centered. If those thoughts come back to me, I will return to add on to this content :)
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of not demonstrating and allowing the students to find and feel the movement vocabulary.
It makes me think about the way Erik Franklin uses imagery. Or how Ruth Zaporah uses various improvisation structures to allow the dancer or actor to connect deeply and explore their own expression.
Irene Dowd uses the image of spheres in her work with functional anatomy. One course I took with Irene she used a model of the spine, skeleton of just the pelvis and spinal cord, with coloured tape to give a visual representation of what muscles are involved - kinaesthetic learning paired with visual representation. Then she add cuing for the shapes she asked us to make with the body. Brilliant combination.
Using the floor can be a way to get tactile feedback without actually touching our students.
I love the idea Maria mentioned - giving a sense of privacy by turning the lights down or out to allow dancers to explore "as if nobody's watching".
Giving myself time before I start teaching to feel a sense of groundedness and use breath work to transition from one moment to the next has always helped me feel more present - a sense of just be-ing.
Looking forward to reading more of what you discover.
Thank you for sharing,
Sheahan
Hi Sheahan, thank you for writing here and for re-finding your original thoughts!
DeleteI am finding various ideas on imagery in relation to anatomy, function, alignment, proprioception (including those from Irene Dowd) which are very interesting and rather endless! I believe that these studies often have 'mastery', quantifiable knowledge, or something measurable on their agenda, which is a realm I am trying to keep just on the periphery of my study. Instead, I am investigating the experiential (potentially very private) aspects of imagery; thoughts in space, the sensitive, the momentary, perhaps..
Thank you for your specific examples in relation to Dowd, Franklin and Zaporah - this has been a lovely re-ignition for more specific research into the practice of others around the world. I am intrigued by Ruth Zaporah!
Creating time before we teach is also key, I agree. It is easy to not have that time or to underestimate its benefit.
Thank you, Sheahan x
Hi Ben. You ask how can we be tactile without touching? I want to add to that, how can we be emotive without emotion? These face masks have almost killed the ability to connect on any level with children, no matter the age.
ReplyDeleteBack to tactility. Zoom classes had me pondering the same question. I’m afraid there is nothing I can share that I’ve researched, but I did find self application helpful - clearly explaining how to the students. Sometimes lying against something - a kitchen bench, even the floor promoted an awareness, as did balls/scarves or other objects relevant to the theory at the time. One of the best ‘tactile’ responses I had was with my little ones, I asked them to bring in their favourite stuffed toys to watch their dances - worked a treat! They had great pleasure is arranging their audience - not quite the dance 'tactile' response, but a tactile response all the same. My seniors however were obviously not that simple.
I appreciate your sharing inattention, attention and consciousness, especially as I'm lamenting the increasing loss of retention within students. Food for thought... all best with your studies Ben :)
Hi Lorraine, thank you for your thoughts.
ReplyDeleteYes - how can we be emotive without being emotional. I've also been asking 'how can we talk about time without it becoming about duration' and 'how can we talk about sensing without being distracted by feeling'.
You have painted lovely pictures regarding the use of additional physical teaching aids. This makes me wonder whether the dancer needs to be able to touch something in order to feel related or relatable?
x
Hi Ben, it sounds like a nice topic you're investigating in. I am curious to know whether this idea came up as result of 'respectful touch' guidelines in your work place or just a personal inquiry related to touch? In the last three years I am delving into the physiological effects of touch. It is interesting science books explain it as a internal sensory-nervous-motor response to external stimuli. I found literature comparing external with self-touch suggesting the response is different according to the person stimulating it. From a pedagogical perspective, I guess the query rests on we need tangible sensorial experiences to enhance our kinesthetic knowledge. If you look at various body abilities you may find the kinestetic experience lays upon our own body knowledge. Different people have different responses. So there are two aspects you may look at: individual knowledge about touch and material texture that enhances the kinesthetic experience, whether it may be the floor, another body, a pen, etc. As long as we are alive, or better, because we are alive, we can experience and show to ourselves the depth and intricacy of our materialistic aspect of touch. Best wishes with your project
ReplyDelete