Classical and contemporary dancing as practiced and investigated in the modern context is my absolute creative jam.
This article was originally part of my Theory and Criticism work for my MFA in Dance in 2014, and critical pedagogy and artistic practice continues to be relevant to my teaching, coaching, and creative practice over a decade later.
My perspective has continued to expand with my maturation, experience, and ongoing education, so articulating my philosophy and approach is an ongoing challenge.
Since my graduate school years, I’ve made updates based on my qualitative in-studio encounters and from others who wish to honor the tradition of dance, including classical ballet, while also supporting the whole dancer and society in a contemporary context.
Inspired by the work of Katy Pyle and Ballez and recently came across Anna Morgan‘s research which seems to resonate, to name just a couple examples of ongoing work in this area.
Reflective & Critical Practices in Dance
As with my article Sourcing Ballet Somatically – Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating Movement Techniques, this essay is based on one I wrote during graduate school, taking the approach of critical pedagogy to investigate practices in empowering dancers in the teaching of dance technique and practice of the performing arts.
In that same article, I provide a brief history of ballet education that provides helpful context, and share Henry Giroux’s definition of critical pedagogy as “the educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive action.” (Giroux, 2010)
Teaching artists and choreographers can approach pedagogy and praxis critically, with the aim of empowering dancers and students to think critically and make connections, applying knowledge to all areas of their lives.
My Perspective
I have been an intersectional feminist for decades because oppression affects people disproportionately according to gender, race, class, country of origin, religion and many other marginalized identities. Regardless of degree, discrimination impacts EVERYONE in society negatively, through internalized bias, unachievable standards, goals misaligned with our values and inner knowing.
Alongside my public school education in Hawai’i, I participated in pre-professional ballet and dance training from the age of 5, going on to conservatory education at North Carolina School of the Arts, performance on the continental US, Hawai’i, and Europe, an MFA in Dance Performance & Choreography from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, leadership in the Performing Arts as the President of the Dance Coalition of Oregon and more.
Though my dance training has been broad-based, including renowned international teachers, there is still a pervasive hierarchical structure to classical dance that has far-reaching impacts and some dancers, companies, and educators continue to explore.
Given my vision and mission, this will continue to be an area of research, contemplation, discussion, and experimentation as I continue in the field, and I look forward to engaging with you about it too, here in the online space and in person.
Dancing Feminist Essay
As I shared (in 2014) in my interest area presentation and handout, “What are the political implications of dancing?” I can relate to Aristotle, in that I am a philosopher with a stone in my shoe, I always feel it when I walk, urging me on to deeper investigation.
I was influenced by Laurent Deveze’s talk at the Festival a Corps 2014, “What does the dancer want to say?” particularly his alignment between politics and art. As the Director of the Institut Superieur des Beaux-Arts and a former cultural attaché to Los Angeles, Deveze draws on multiple disciplines.
From Deveze’s lecture, which was accompanied by a slideshow of works of art and covered a wide swath of world history, I gleaned five major themes of what has been and can be said with dance:
- Socialization, coming together, celebration
- Power, domination, exclusion, maintenance of order
- Prayer, communion with god, spiritual practice
- Self-expression, communication
- Resistance, activism
In one way or another, I have participated in each of these modes: line dancing at weddings, participating in religious processionals, venting deeply-felt emotions, showing my expertise as a teaching artist, and sticking it to the man. Of particular interest at the moment are the methods of resistance via dance, as an expression of feminist activism, or the political implications. Dance can be deeply disruptive, transformative, and emancipatory. Indeed, the very flow, or disrupted flow of the dance can be seen to threaten the future of dance itself!
(“Introduction: The political ontology of movement“)
Deveze drew the distinction between pyramidal power and circular inclusion that I believe is at the crux of the politics of dance.
Opening New Potentials for Living
In the introduction to “Dance and Politics,” The political ontology of movement Andre Lepecki discusses how,
“The act of partitioning and the affirmation of the new would define art’s relation to politics and thus turn both into co-determined, corresponding activities aimed at the formation of ‘dissensus’ – a concept (or ‘element’) that for Ranciere is at the core both of art and politics, since it is tied to the rupturing of daily habits, to the creation of ontological-perceptual disjunctions, eccentric movements in language and sensation, to the disbanding of circulatory imperatives tied to linguistic and behavioral clichés for subjectivity.” (Lepecki p.154)
Lepecki further cites Agamben, who stated how politics and art share a preoccupation with “opening up potentials for living life.” (Lepecki p.154) Education also shares this aim!
But how does a dancer, choreographer, or teaching artist actually go about opening up these potentials for living life by disrupting the status quo? There are several, probably many, ways that dance enacts resistance and change, including engaging in emancipatory choreographic working processes of choreography and education, and providing distinct political messages in one’s work. I will briefly address the former here.
Addressing patriarchy, set gender roles, balance of power and representation will provide further areas for exploration.
Choreographic Collaboration
As a choreographer and dancer, one can choose to engage in non-hierarchical working structures to dispense with the hierarchical pyramid and attempt to engage in an inclusive circle of creation. Isabelle Schad touches on the difficulties of collaboration in “Embryology as Choreography,” particularly the section On Emptying Out Words and Current Tendencies in Dance and Performance:
“They become both: a reality of working and a fertile ground for misunderstanding and commercialism, in which meaning is lost […].It is therefore not only about finding truthful solutions for how to work with each other without anybody losing her/his body of work, but also about discovering strategies to transform and resist the conditions of the market.” (Schad p. 280)
The issue of non-hierarchical collaboration is very complex and can itself be co-opted by the market, but it opens up new artistic and political possibilities so is worth the struggle. Especially since, as Schad observes in the section On Trying to Resist: “I am also continually astonished by how much people like each other. Dancing and dancing together becomes a pleasure. This very archaic and deep pleasure is located in the body.” (Schad p.281)
Addressing Hierarchy in Education
In addition to choreographic collaboration, the educational realm is another fertile ground for political difference-making by way of dance. Critical and feminist pedagogy considers issues of race, class, and gender that “define and play out in the educational forum.” (Wootten p.123) Claire F. Wooten asks, “How can we invigorate the transformative educational agenda of post-secondary education in a studio environment dripping with an imperative of compliance?” I struggle with this issue so much in my own work as a dance educator and feminist, and sometimes it feels as if my desire to educate students on dance technique (particularly ballet but also modern dance) and my desire to free them to become creative and critical thinkers, are at cross-purposes.
Do I exercise heavy-handed authority to keep the order and make sure we stay on task at the cost of creative experimentation and new discoveries? Or do I create an open forum of educational collaboration and risk chaos?
This trend continues to this day, particularly in higher education, but also online and in other communities, where choreographers teachers aim to balance exploratory concepts with sound technique training and extraordinary performances.
Wootten suggests several methods for “Navigating Liminal Space in the Feminist Ballet Class,” hinging on the recurring themes of feminist pedagogy: authority, experience, and collaboration.
I have been working to integrate Wootten’s feminist pedagogical methods with increasing success over approximately the last year in my teaching practice:
- Authority- mastering recall and performance of set class material, developing personal style through improvisation, assisting one another as partners and colleagues, reflecting on and assessing their own work
2. Experience- acting as peer coach/tutor, improvising, self-evaluating
3. Journaling- exercising observational, problem-solving, and interpersonal skills, reflexive
Questions for Reflection
- How can we (artists, educators, students, community) promote respect and equality at the same time as expressive excellence?
- What values and principles are key to your creative work?
- What examples of innovative work in the performing arts do you wish to emulate?
- Which artists, choreographers, theorists, and writers should I check out next?
Resources for Further Exploration
- Sourcing Ballet Somatically – Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating Movement Techniques Article
- How (and Why) to Take Dance Notes – Class, Rehearsal, Performance Writing to Grow & Create Article
- Real Criticism – Fraught to Fabulous, Fine to Fugly Feedback Examples Article
- Current Notebook Lineup – Analog Journals for Creativity Article
- Goal-Setting for Dancers Article
- Happy PRIDE Month! Celebrating Diversity, Identity & Justice – Leaping Out of the Closet (again and again) Article
- Dance Teaching Portfolio from my secondary teaching credential program at UH Manoa College of Education including my Teaching Philosophy
Works Cited
- “What does the dancer want to say?” Laurent Deveze, live lecture, Festival a Corps 2014
- “Navigating Liminal Space in the Feminist Ballet Class,” essay by Claire F. Wooten, “How can we invigorate the transformative educational agenda of post-secondary education in a studio environment dripping with an imperative of compliance?
- “Embryology as Choreography,” essay by Isabelle Schad
- Introduction to “Dance and Politics,” by Andre Lepecki
I stand for full self-realization, respect for diverse identity and personal & artistic expression!
Further topical explorations, special workshops and collaborations in dance, coaching, creative living and more coming soon.
Thank you for reading, for being, and for dancing with me, in spirit or in fact!
Take care of yourself and keep moving mindfully, let me know how if I can be of service, would love to see you in my email newsletter or on social media as well.
Blythe Stephens, MFA & Bliss Catalyst
they/them or she/her
Creator of A Blythe Coach @ablythecoach
helping multi-passionate creatives dance through their difficulties,
taking leaps of faith into fulfillment through coaching, yoga & dance education
