Teaching Philosophy

I am a pragmatist who believes dance education brings awareness to new possibilities and initiates personal and social change. My pedagogy is influenced by a wide variety of theorists, including but not limited to: Dewey, Freire, Deleuze, Gardner, Warburton, and hooks. An effective teacher realizes they are not the sole repository of information and ideas, rather they are a facilitator.  Every student is on their own path, and the teacher provides challenges through which dancers experience ruptures, choose new directions, and chart multiple wanderings.  The instructor provides opportunities for growth.  They must see the possibilities of each student, rather than their limitations. Students choose what they learn and how they will apply this information to their lives.  Educators support students, encouraging them through difficult tasks, asking questions requiring them to search within for answers. Ultimately, the teacher must step back to allow students to discover their own direction.

Dance teaches more than technique and artistry.  It teaches self-reliance, creativity, leadership, and fearlessness.  Artists find success when they see new possibilities, adapt easily to change, and refuse to be stopped by challenges. Dancers are gifted problem-solvers.  This skill moves beyond dance and into all areas of life.  In the constant variation of global community, it is insufficient to learn facts and figures with the end goal of repeating them on tests and in a job.  College graduates enter a service-based culture, where they must discover their own niche.  They are expected to sort and synthesize the massive amount of information readily available through sources such as the Internet, with the end goal of producing a product that serves the needs and desires of local and global markets. More importantly, they are part of an intercultural community that calls for empathic relationship among its members.  In order to excel, graduates must be attentive, open, inventive, self-assured, and unafraid of failure.  These are the time-honored qualities of dancers, choreographers, and dance educators.

While technique and artistry are not sufficient in and of themselves, they are essential to a dancer’s success. Technique is the dancer’s foundation.  Like the foundation of a home, it must be precise and strong, yet not a focal point.  Effective performers must have a strong technical base in order to prevent injury and provide free range of movement. I choose to share movement experiences through Bill Evans technique, which honors personal voice within a community of dancers. As an Evans teacher, I honor all movement as somatic and therefore acknowledge that all dance education must be somatic.  Before a correction is incorporated, the student must sense the less efficient movement in the body.  Bartenieff Fundamentals, Shin Somatics, Ideokinesis, Body-Mind Centering, and other somatic approaches are particularly helpful when working to increase students’ embodied awareness. Students must focus inward, sensing their bodies as they move through space, in order to progress. Still, this inward focus must occur in community, as our relationship with our environment (broadly defined and inclusive of people with whom we relate) affects us, just as we affect our environment.

An effective teacher uses multiple pedagogic approaches.  Dancers must do more than “see and do,” rather they discover their own way into movement.  This can be facilitated through accessing students’ musical intelligence (for example, singing the rhythm of a phrase), using similes and metaphors (allow the movement to spiral like a gymnast’s ribbon, as Eric Franklin shares), using props, written exercises, drawing dance, etc.  Students must also be asked to uncover their own method of learning.  As they do this, they connect personally to movement, attaining a deeper and more lasting understanding of a given concept.

Continually engaging in creative scholarship and research is essential to guiding students’ education.  If I expect my students to create their own challenges, face their fears, and constantly push themselves technically, then I must first lead by example.  I must always take class, never allowing myself to settle for less than that of which I am capable.  I must face my artistic fears head-on; learn from every success and failure. I must open new avenues to understanding through research, presentation and publication.  Ultimately, I must travel alongside my students; explore my own strengths and limitations, unafraid of judgment and failure.  When I am a complete artist, I inspire my students to seek completion.  To paraphrase Joseph Jaworski in his book, Synchronicity, it is my responsibility to my students that I become. 

My students and I can be powerful agents of communication, change, and growth. I endeavor to open new potentialities for every dancer with whom I connect, along with a sense of agency that enables each individual to move along a path of their own choice.  We become together, igniting the becomings of others.