Friday 28 February 2014

I don't want to be noticed!

First of all to my fellow MAPPers please accept my apologies in advance for Sunday as unfortunately I will not be at the Skype meeting. I will be attending a course all day. THis course came up which I really wanted to do but at the same time wanted to engage with you via dialogue and sharing. This morning when I dropped off my little ones at school I got chatting to one of the parents about usual stuff as you do. She knew that I teach part contemporary dance part-time and proceeded to tell me about a friend of her's whose daughter dances contemporary in an after school club setting locally - it turned out to be one of my students. Apparently this student is a lovely dancer who loves to move and wants to dance but there is a conunndrum she faces because she is very academic and as a result is being steered into choosing academic subjects for the start of her GCSE studies next year. Nevertheless she loves to dance and as a solution attends dance classes after school which is great as I feel that dance can only add and enhance more to her studies and will make good use of her mind in movement and the complexities and creative challenges dance will bring enhancing her studies. This reminds me of a friend of mine who did ballet all her life from a young age and never gave it up despite doing all academic subjects at school and at university where she studied chemistry and pharmacology and in her spare moments did class both in the local town where she found a class and when she came back home during holidays to London went to all of the usual places to keep up her ballet classes. Upon finishing and graduating from University went on to dance with a degree in her hand !! It was heartening hearing from my parent friend that this student really loves dance - however one of the things I noticed with her along with others in my class is that along with her colleagues they all sometimes appeared closed off and shy when in class and it was hard to read body language at times especially when during exercises and tasks when I ask for feedback. The reaction sometimes is the folding of the arms indicating that they are guarding and protecting their bodies, being afraid of some of the material which was out of their comfort zone - but in some of the movement tasks they lit up. Another time when I showed them a DVD clip of a Horton Technique warm-up series there was stunned silence and a ripple of nervous laughter covering their faces with their hands to shield their embarrassment. I had thought "Oh my... I've really put them off now!.." My friend commented that she like her own teenage daughter does that in order not to be noticed and is at that stage where they feel so uncomfortable about their bodies- which struck me because I got a sense from some of the students in my class despite the myriad of challenges and excuses even getting them to class is that they love to dance because it makes them feel... So.... my reflective question is that despite not wanting to be noticed and stick out from the crowd as different and blend into the status quo of other teenagers at school does the space I hold for them in the studio and during my session allow for them to 'feel' and in so doing not be noticed? or different? Does the space allow for that to happen? Does what I teach them despite being quite strange and new allow for them to explore movement that is different inviting them to be themselves or find themselves or their own language and interpretation in the movement? I find myself saying quite often that it is okay to get the movement wrong, that is how you learn and the space is safe for them not to feel the pressure of getting it right. For me the studio is a space where a process happens whatever the outcome and not worry about being watched, judged or seen to be different or noticed differently. I suppose for this student and for others not wishing to be seen in their initial response in class is a mask to their real desire to feel and my job therefore is to hold that space solely for them to feel and embody themselves through movement. It was strange but then I suppose I went through a similar phase of not wishing to be noticed but then I managed to get myself noticed on stage because it was there that I begun to 'feel'.....! Have a great Skype meeting everyone. Hopal

1 comment:

  1. Really interesting observations and reflections Hopal, thanks for sharing. Absolutely, I feel that the studio has the possibility to be that space where young people (or any people) can be safe to explore and to begin to feel, begin to find themselves in ways that are not possible, or at least not easily accessed in other parts of life/society. Creating an environment conducive to learning, a nurturing space where this can happen is and from your writing is happening, I believe is to your credit as a teacher. The analogy of a house only being a home because of the people in it comes to mind. The studio as a building can in many ways be quite terrifying for people, but what you bring to the studio as a teacher/practitioner/artist/person is what makes is that safe space, able to nurture, support and guide young people through life through dance. More food for thought there for your research, in terms of conducive environments, the holding space of the teacher/studio relationship...
    Sorry to miss you on the group skype tomorrow, enjoy your course though, look forward to hearing how it went. Skype next week one evening to catch up? Let me know when's good for you.. Helen

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