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Liisa Pentti Eligible Member // Teacher
IDOCs » Practice of perception when teaching autistic young people
Since September 2015 I have been teaching three groups of autistic people between 16 and 29 years old. During these classes the tuning of the perception to a specific “frequency” is important in a situation which establishes itself entirely through ephemeral behaviour outside the usual workshop-codes.How to apply this mostly non-verbal approach towards teaching and practice without a strict goal more generally to the field of dance thought thinking of the body as an open and somewhat borderless source. -
2016.02.15

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Since September 2015 I have been teaching three groups of autistic people between 16 and 29 years old. The groups have been set up according variety of their communication skills. The teaching has led me to explore the communication in an environment where my normal teaching procedures and practice as a process based on students' self-reflexion is not functioning. Our communication during the classes is based outside the verbal and social norms of a regular class and the expectation from my side towards the students is also varied and different.

 The tuning of the perception to a specific “frequency” is important in a situation which establishes itself entirely through ephemeral behaviour outside the usual workshop-codes.

I like  to think that the aim of these classes as (un)necessary. The motivation for the classes is to create an atmosphere where participants can find ways to enjoy dancing without other goals. How to find a pleasure in moving through music, touch and physical communication and most of all, hopefully to enjoy the freedom and unexpected sensations in their otherwise quite institutionalized lives.

 At the moment I´m looking into how to apply this mostly non-verbal approach towards teaching and practice without a strict goal more generally to the field of dance. Thinking of the body as an open and somewhat borderless source can guide us even further in a research of the ongoing perception of bodily emergency and in the possibility of refinement of the cognitive skills and their articulation.

 

We are currently making a documentary film about the process which is directed by Sari Antikainen and myself  which can be presented it as part of the  lecture.


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