Elina Ikonen // Teacher
Eszter Gal // Teacher
Francesco Scavetta // Teacher
IDOC Type:
In Folders:
Teachers of the 1st TR in Vitlycke - Center for Performing Arts
Pavle Heidler (Vitlycke)
Francesco Scavetta (Vitlycke)
Pia Lindy (ISLO)
Elina Ikonen (ISLO)
Maria Ines Villasmil (ICK)
Robin Berkelmans (ICK)
Eszter Gál (Wiener Tanzwochen)
Dancers (participanting in the morning classes and feedback sessions)
Aleksandar Georgiev, Carla Doorn, Karla Búcaro, Alexander Aarø
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TIMETABLE:
MONDAY 30 JUNE
Arrival at Gothenburg airport. Francesco comes with a car and drives us to pick up Pavle at the Central railway station. Due to the train delay we have an informal meeting at the station. We were talking about qualification trade marks of different somtaic techniques and how they applied in teachig contemporary dance.
Questions arose:
How do you cultivate your specific movement (somatic approach) studies into your own material? When and how do you start calling your teaching a method? Is there a need to name or title your work in order it to be recognized?
After Pavle's arrival it takes about 1,5 hrs drive to Vitlycke. We did shopping at the supermarket on the way there . Settling into our rooms, getting a bit familiar with the Center...
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Morning session 10:00 -13:00
Elina, 1st class 1,5h
The aim of the class was to start knowing each other and taking pauses to feel the impact of the shared experienced in the bodymind. First sitting in a circle and introdused ourselves. Then continued the same in pairs with a set timing - working with watching to the eyes, touching, dancing - constantly changing pairs. Came back to circle and felt how was it to be there again after these experiences. Everybody pausing at the same time throughout the whole exercise. The attitude of acceptance and wellcomming any kind of impact was implied. No matter how beautiful or awkward - sensation, emotion or dance - thank you, like in trager mentastics approach.
Pia: For the morning session at TR -residency I led a 90 min class which I led 2 weeks earlier as on open class in a suburb in Helsinki. These classes in Kontula are free of charge and attended by people of different age and backgrounds.
Here is the description the class: FIND THE DANCER YOU ARE! open dance classes (90 minutes) We start with simple exercises that support the exploring of your own moving and help to create your own movement material. The exercises work also as a warm up towards dance and improvisation. There is an emphasis on dance being an accesssible form of art for everyone. We can let go of focusing on technical virtuosity and aim more towards how dance enlivens one´s physicality and choreographic thinking as well as increases happiness from freedom of moving. (If you want to read more about the open class see: http://http://www.idocde.net/idocs/883 )
LUNCH TIME
Afternoon session
Themes/topics/ our needs, interests and aims
We all had around 30 minutes to introduce our work, ourselves the way we wanted. It became the ground for all what we had done in the next days. (We collected our notes in a shared dropbox folder.)
DINNER TOGETHER around 20:00
informal talks around the table
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WEDNESDAY 2 JULY
Morning session 10:00 - 13:00 > Maria and Pavle
Silent Walk:
Walking for two hours in silence with a couple outdoor. In a certain moment each of them have to find the motivation and place to perform a private dance for their partner.
Finding the place and the tempo for doing that will be part of revealing the ineerlogic of the relation with the other while going trough a path where many decisions will have to be done.
How we arrive to certain agreements among the two of us trough the body and not language?
How do we communicate and interact with each other in the environment provided?
What can we take of a process where we place ourselves into the unknown?
Sharing the proposal offered with the practice of Pavle was opening the possibilities of preparing the body and mind to start a process. This was an experience that places the participants in a very reach state of mind and creativity.
from Pavle
LUNCH TIME
Afternoon session:
starting with feedback and comments on the morning sessions (Tues+Wed)
Pavle performs the studio version of “It sleeps Behind the Sun, he said as he wept".
Eszter suggested to dance his solo back by more of us. We had danced a 2 minutes REflection REdancing.
DINNER TOGETHER
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Morning session 10:00 - 13:00
Eszter and Pavle's class
Ways to begin:
bring yourself into motion by dancing with music (a gentle push into awakening)
intention: working in small groups with touch, offering a direction from where everyone can find their own path within a group, communicate and build trust, fall into dancing together
working in trio's
one is lying on his / her back, 2 partners touching with the hands
In both roles: observing, noticing, following, responding, giving and receiving, taking in, recognizing and going with or going against
playing with the volume of the physical response and work with everything that is there at the moment
more specific directions for the persons touching:
- hands do not want – acknowledge, being
- direction through the fascia – into roundness and length and center of touch
- giving weight and direction taken into moving and being moved
after the 3rd round – roles merging → discovering the unfolding dance
note: this material can be offered in different contexts for professionals, and for non-professionals, as warm up for a jam, or for tuning into one self with partners, can offer a multi layered learning through support and being supported; addressing also: one can become aware of limits, own needs and welcoming what is there, saying yes to what ever comes
from Pavle
Closing integration by Eszter:
Stillness score (10 minutes)
Finding a place in the space, then a shape and become still (own definition of stillness). Be there, notice what changes or not through time, only move when you have a strong reason for it.
LUNCH TIME
Afternoon session:
starting with feedback and comments of the morning session
After feedbacks and comments we looked together at the paper " Some Questions to Inspire the TR Meetings". We had already talked how in our individual introductions many of the questions were touched.
Raw thinking.
1. Meta-teaching - Where is the teaching? Layers of teaching
What do you allow yourself as a teacher to do? Different roles with different groups
Teaching happening in many levels.
Perspective - seen it, been there, how do you make choices?
How does your teaching change with age?
2. Maturity of contemporary
3. Where do you place yourself in the Artist - Teacher spectrum? Teaching as an artist
Where do you place the dance and art in your own thinking/in your own imagination?
4. Why do you teach?
5. IDEAL EDUCATION - What would be an ideal Dance education from our points of view?
a short break
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OPEN CLASS TO local people 19:00 -21:00
The class started with Francesco welcomig the local participants and introducing us and briefly the LEAP project. There were 11 participants from age 30 to 80. They were all from the Tanum area and some of them visitig Vitlycke he first time!
The moving started with Robin bringing a light hearted atmosphere into the studio by playing simple games, with attention on ourselves and the group.
Already from the start the whole group was game and ready to jump into the unknown together.
Robin's part:
I wanted to create a playful and physical group atmosphere without much complexity for the people present. So I worked with movement games. Walking around and connecting with somebody or somebodies in space. First came walking around and trying to keep the same distance.
Then walking around and making the distance shorter then larger.
A bit of free movement within the score to play.
Then the triangles, in which one select two partners without them knowing and then to try and form a even-sided triangle with them. I explained that the impossibility is great, because we can then erase competitivity.The group will move like a group of fish or birds.
The last was the lying, standing, sitting exercise. Basically, one selects again two partners without them knowing and then one tries to create the situation that of the three partners, one is sitting, one is standing, one is lying down. Again the impossibility is present, yet a bit different. There's more room to play if one sees the opportunities.
ESZTER: transition from Robin's games into sensing through the skin by touching the hands very lightly and discover the feeling of the hand by the other hand...
...in standing, putting the palms together and gently slide them on each other, feel the skin, the shape of the hand, notice the sensation of touching... hands, arms and face – open the face → moving towards a partner (suggestion was: choose someone they did not know)
...exploration with eyes closed and being guided - first the environment, then the body in relation to the environment and movement
principles: sensation can become a dance, letting go (expectation, holding patterns), opening oneself to notice, moving by touch, building trust
two roles: 1st round: guider and explorer (eyes closed) – the guider takes the eyes closed partner to a place in the space, then witnessing the explorer's journey as he/she discovering it by touching it, tasting the texture, the form, the temperature, the strength etc, following his/her own interest
(taking the partner to 4 or 5 places in the studio, then changing roles, then shortly share the experience by talking)
2nd round: initiator and follower
guiding the eyes closed partner into the space, move through, travel and take him/her on a journey, through imaginary landscape, and gradually invite them to simple movements, leading with listening
(changing roles, after each had their turn, a short solo is dancer to each other as feedback of the journey)
without any break Maria took over the guidance and lead the partners into a more open dancing. Francesco was a DJ. The free dancing with many partners was a great fun!
We finished the two hour class sitting in a circle, sharing one thought or gesture with the whole group.
The local participants left with happy dancing bodies and many of them shared their positive feelings afterwards. Some of them also stayed a bit longer and asked about how the class was prepared and about LEAP and us as teachers/dancers, and IDOCDE.
LATE DINNER
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Morning session 10:00 - 13:15
Francesco's part: "white page"
“Empty your cup of tea”.
Robin in 5 sentences:
The premise: ' Mind guides chi guides body', a classic point of departure in Tai Chi Classics . Energetic work as a proposal for enriching somatic knowledge. Curious how it works with experts in the somatic contemporary dance field. Questioning if it is a practice at the fringes of somatic practice, a supplement to our body knowledge - or is it essential for of somatic development? Tuning the instrument of performance with 'white page mentality'.
LUNCH TIME
Afternoon session:
We started with feedback and comments on the morning session and that took us back to some of the topics and questions from the other day:
When you propose something - how do the people receive it? (That is very interesting pedagogically)
How can I re-adjust my practice when the students are in question.
"Students are not the problem but you are" or "You might not be in a right place"
How do you get those who don´t show up in your class to come?
Talking about attitude, humbleness and failure.
The one who recognizes the problem has to deal with the problem. And the consequenses.
Where is the teaching? Where is the learning?
What is underlying your teaching? Or your learning?
When you open the door of a studio it´s brings you to a social situation. In Maria´s words: “always check the room first! How are you today? “Read the room.” Practice awareness: “you say different things to different people” (adjust to people)
We decided that the "Raw thinking" (discussion, questions and topics about teaching) would continue during next months in our shared google docs-folder and dropbox. And this is something we´ll bring to our 2nd LEAPrecidency-week in Amsterdam in November 2014.
DINNER
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Morning session / evaluation 9:00 - 10:45ish / continue till 12:00
from Pavle
a short break
We took 60 minutes to writing and doing things needed. Eszter had given us the 3 questions for evaluation the evening before and we answered to those as well.
DEPARTURE at 13:00
And the SEA...
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