SHOULD WE LISTEN TO STUDENTS IN DANCE?
It's been an absolute blast to discover literature that was completely unknown to me and realize how much of this related directly to my dance practice. I found myself testing ideas and thoughts after reading in my dance classes which albeit were mostly online, permitted a more theoretical approach as opposed to a focus only on the physicality of things.
I found myself discussing with students about the nature and quality of movement, listening to their opinions and gathering a very good idea on how they viewed their dance practice. Interestingly I also realized that the voices of students in dance are not often heard. Why was such an archaic system still in place and was it favouring a good training in dance as a whole?
I remember that listening to a dance teacher was key to dance class. In fact, I cannot remember many instances where I felt I could ask a question during dance class. Listening to the corrections of others was my way to work on my own development, but, what about dance teachers listening to students?...The average Ballet, Jazz or Contemporary class is very traditionally teacher led with very little contribution from students. Somewhat, it seems a very unbalanced learning process and if you add cultural factors and learning styles...you need to truly re-think your pedagogical approaches in a 21st century space.
Throughout the enquiry I found that the most important quality was in fact to be able to listen well, really pay attention to what participants did or didn't say, to observe their body language, their hesitances, their excitement and facial expressions (I was able to interview participants with the recommended social distance and with no masks). During this time I was teaching young people and implementing ideas I was engaging with in the literature, and it completely transformed my teaching experience, specially with the reduced interaction online.
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