Three Voices: Researching how somatic education informs contemporary dance technique classes

Abstract

Many authors have claimed that methods of somatic education such asAlexander, Body-Mind-Centering and Feldenkrais in uence the teaching of dance. However, there is a lack of research that fully examines how this is occurring. In this study, three researchers used ethnographic methods to understand how the Feldenkrais MethodÒ of somatic education informed a series of contemporary technique classes in a professional setting in Montreal, Canada. The collaborative research process resulted in ndings organized around the themes 1) transfer of learning, 2) movement awareness facilitation and 3) construction of the dancing bodies. This study relates to dance teachers interested in somatics and also to any dance educators engaged in fostering their own eclectic teaching practices from diverse in uences. By understanding the ways in which the researchers/dance teachers in this study integrate somatics and contemporary dance, teachers may gain insight which assists them in appraising their own teaching. In this way, this study works towards a shift in the dance culture that embraces self-awareness in dance practice.

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

“…Choreographers or teachers have, therefore, a certain degree of authority in constructing the learner's dancing body (Fortin, et al, 2002). Fortin and colleagues challenged this authoritarian relationship of the teacher over the learner by exploring a somatic approach for teaching, specifically the Feldenkrais method®.…”

“…These somatic approaches are taught from a third person view point perspective, which can then become an authoritarian approach (Dragon, 2015). A key difference between first and third person view point is that importance is given to demonstration in dance classes during third person view point approaches (Fortin, et al, 2002), while in first person view approaches, such as the Feldenkrais method®, demonstration is avoided to allow for learners' sensitive exploration (Buchanan & Ulrich, 2001;Feldenkrais, 1972).…”

“…This was justified by empirical evidence from Fortin's and colleagues study that showed that from a first person view point, the Feldenkrais method® facilitated the individual's selfdiscovery, enhance body awareness, and validate the experience. Validation is accomplished by promoting a real interaction between the self and the environment, so that the individual can learn from experiencing his or her own actions (Fortin, et al, 2002).…”

“…Fortin's study, therefore, highlights the exploration of the Feldenkrais method® by teachers, where teachers and students mutually generate the circumstances in which knowledge is shaped and acquired. Furthermore, by highlighting the interaction between the dance teacher and the students from a first person view point, it illustrates how dance teachers can manipulate task constraints (i.e., the Feldenkrais method® somatic approach in reference to teaching and learning processes), facilitating the construction of the students' dancing body as well as the development of a more accurate sense of the students' environment (Fortin, et al, 2002). Fortin and colleagues' (2002) has important implications to dance teachers in higher education since it was recently acknowledged that the field of somatic education is divided in two different teaching approaches (Dragon, 2015).…”

“…Dragon's (2015) study is illustrative of how individual's constraints in higher education (i.e., teachers personal preferences for student or teacher's approaches) and in the field of somatic approaches (teachers' preferences for principles or techniques) interacting with task constraints (i.e., the focus on somatic techniques versus the focus on somatic principles) can produce different learning outputs. Together, Dragon (2015) and Fortin's (2002) papers exemplify and give support to how dance teachers can manipulate task constraints in order to achieve specific learning goals.…”