Problems with Ballet: Steps, style and training

The acquisition of pedagogical expertise in dance : a constraints-led approach

“…The different modes of structuring movement have different implications for ballet (Foster, 2010) and contemporary task organisation (Erkert, 2003). Relevant to this discussion are suggestions that pedagogical acquisition in ballet is attributed to persistence in preserving codified movement vocabularies (Birk, 2009;Morris, 2003), whereas in contemporary pedagogical acquisition is associated with using a variety of movement vocabularies (Foster, 1997). These differences concerning task organisation, suggest that dance teachers' pedagogical acquisition might be influenced by each different genre.…”

“…This ballet learner's dependency on ballet teachers emphasises the importance that ballet teachers have over ballet learners and suggests that experiencing ballet teachers teaching supports the replication of previous teachers' behaviours when ballet learners become teachers themselves. However, significant limitations have been identified in the literature from dance teachers reproducing previous teachers' behaviours such as: having a focus on teaching technique as subject matter (Dragon, 2015;Morris, 2003), lack of knowledge about pedagogical goals (Warburton, 2008), and lack of reflection about teaching and learning processes (Fortin, 1993). These limitations, as explained later in this thesis, suggest that the experiential nature of learning how to teach by reproducing previous teachers' behaviours, rooted in traditional dance teaching (Dragon, 2015;Lakes, 2005;Schnitt & Schnitt, 1987), might limit dance teachers' acquisition of pedagogical knowledge and skills.…”

“…Morris has argued that standard ballet training has been teacher led, with the student a passive learner. Ballet teachers' practices have always been influenced by traditional ballet cultural values, which have determined ballet's movement vocabulary and training; however, the ballet teachers' practices resulted in creativity losses in both dance performance and the making of dances (Morris, 2003).…”

“…As argued by Morris, many ballet teachers have in the past aligned their teaching and training processes to meet cultural, aesthetic, and technical requirements which conform to a vocabulary of movement established by traditional ballet. Ballet teachers' preference was given to codified movement, which would invariably be perpetuated at the professional level by the students taught under this regime, when they became teachers themselves (Buckroyd, 2001;Morris, 2003).…”

“…As argued by Weber (2009), the traditional style of ballet training which is based on movement replication aiming at an ideal, leaves the individual with no way of changing the set behavioural patterns. Both studies (Torrents, et al, 2011;Torrents, Castañer, Dinušová, et al, 2013), exemplify how task and individual constraints interact, and suggest how the constraints-led approach may be used as an effective strategy in order to address creativity problems generated by traditional teaching methods in ballet (Johnson, 2011;Morris, 2003) and to develop ballet dancers' versatility without compromising ballet teachers' traditional values.…”