Observation and Feedback are an Integral Part of the Teaching/Creative Process

I work as the head of dance department at The Republic of Slovenia Public Fund for Cultural Activities - JSKD. Before I took this job I worked as a freelance contemporary dancer, choreographer and teacher. The job at JSKD was offered to me because I grew as a contemporary dancer through many activities organized by JSKD.

JSKD is a government institution covering all areas of youth and non-professional (amateur) culture and art: vocal and instrumental music, theatre and puppetry, folklore, film and video, literature, fine arts and dance as an art form. JSKD has its headquarters in Ljubljana and 59 branch offices all over Slovenia, 10 of them functioning at an inter-regional level. This network seeks to foster public interest in culture and stimulate the development of Slovene youth and amateur art. It also investigates and connects non-institutional cultural activities all over the country and organizes international, national and regional education programs, presentations and reviews of culture and art created by 2,250 cultural associations.

JSKD prepares seminars for members of various professional societies as well as for enthusiasts who are interested in art and other creative activities. Festivals, competitions, seminars and workshops in different genres involve the participation of professional pedagogues, mentors and artists.

One of JSKD’s most important presentation/education program in all areas of art is a pyramid selection process, which fosters possibilities for presenting and sharing work and encourages the process of ongoing learning.

I will try to explain how it happens with dance. Almost every JSKD local office organizes local dance events where all dance groups from this town can present their short dance pieces. My job is to find professional dance artists and/or pedagogues – who we then call professional assistants and selectors for the country’s regions and give them directions on how to watch and review those dance events. This means that every selector watches all local dance events from one region, gives feedback to dance teachers who presented their dance pieces after the event, writes a review and makes a selection for a regional dance event. After the first selection on the local level we organize six regional dance events who are observed by a new selector, who does the same job and makes another selection for the national dance events (one for children – mini festival PIKA MOVES and another for young and young adults dancers called Živa, youth dance creativity festival).

The most important part of this process is conversation after the dance event between the selector and dance teachers who presented their work. Although dance selectors are highly professional and well-skilled in contemporary dance and creative dance, such conversations still only very rarely have a profound impact on the work of dance teachers. I know that a longer workshop would definitely allow for a deeper understanding of what the selectors are saying but we have to do those conversations under certain conditions (after the event, a maximum of three hours). There are other workshops under different frameworks where dance teachers can deepen their knowledge (we organize seminars and a two year program for dance teachers as part of the JSKD dance department program).

Before I choose the selectors I organize meeting where I explain the whole procedure, the selection conditions and criteria. I ask them to give constructive feedback and ask questions rather than make statements. Each selector is nominated for a period of three years. This allows the selector to get to know a specific region’s dance scene as well as develop and shape his/her work. In our experience, the selectors and teachers moreover want a change after three years anyways.

I choose selectors who have worked professionally in contemporary dance field as dancers and choreographers, who have pedagogical experience and strong verbal and social skills.

The talk/feedback sessions are usually quite delicate and regrettably feel like formal education grading. While the talk is meant to avoid such an atmosphere, it does not always work. Dance teachers usually find it hard to open up to this kind of learning process, which also means that they only rarely achieve a personal transformation.

Such an approach still very much feels like the selector is in command, instead of focusing on self-activation of participants. I would also like to see the conversation being directed more in the direction of independent work and coaching, where the selector would give the assignment and then simply assist and stimulate the conversation among participants. This way we could probably create space for dialogue as a constructive conversation, foster curiosity, reduce hierarchy and bolster responsibility, emphatic listening, questioning and exchange of methods, while strengthening compassion, support and a sense of community.

A Simple Feedback Experiment at IDOCDE Meeting I in Ljubljana

After observing a short dance piece, I asked each participant to write a short feedback on the piece. I said that feedback can include questions as well.

Then I told them to watch the piece again, focusing on space or time or relationships or body actions.

I then again asked them to write a short feedback.

Then I asked each participant to answer the following questions:

-       Who is your favorite teacher and why?

-       What does dance means to you?

-       What do you want to give to your students as a dance teacher?

-       How do you feel?

After they answered those questions to themselves we watched a dance piece and then wrote a feedback again.

Feedback results showed that:

-       First feedback is the most personal … it describes one’s own focus in dance

-       Second feedback is more descriptive about the subject being focused on

-       Third feedback contains many questions and is sometimes more poetic