Philosophy for Children in a Dance Context - p4c teaching applications to performing arts education

What role can “gently Socratic” philosophical inquiry play in the context of performing arts education?

I consider myself fortunate to have had the honor of participating in Dr. Thomas Jackson’s PHIL 492: Philosophy with Children (p4c) course in the Spring of 2015, one of the last courses in my work towards my MFA in Dance. The concepts and techniques have continued to prove valuable over time, so I wanted to share as a resource for fellow educators, performing artists, and dancers.

Due to the time in which it was written, some pedagogical theories and strategies that I mention in the essay below strike me now as a bit out-of-date now, 10 years later. Additionally, rather than a polished essay, the final project was presented as an oral presentation, but the spirit, valuable theory and useful practices are there and I appreciate the reminders of how to integrate such curiosity and joint exploration into diverse subject areas.

Continuing to refresh and grow my artistic and teaching practice continually and glad to have similarly interested educators and learners here to share your insights!

Rufio the cat helps with preparing for Fall courses and a new School Year

Reflective & Critical Practices in Dance

As with my articles Sourcing Ballet Somatically – Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating Movement Techniques and Emancipatory Dance – Dancing Intersectional Feminism, 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.

Teaching artists and choreographers can approach pedagogy and praxis critically, with the aim of empowering dancers and students to become better thinkers, make connections, and apply knowledge to all areas of their lives.

My Perspective

I have been a performing artist and philosopher for the duration, passionately pursuing movement and academic curiosities through a high school diploma in Ballet, Bachelor’s in Philosophy, Master’s in Dance, and professional and personal explorations.

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.

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.

What p4c Means for Dance Education

In the revised version of Chapter 73 of Developing Minds: a Resource Book for Teaching Thinking, “The Art and Craft of ‘Gently Socratic’ Inquiry,” Dr. Thomas Jackson states that “P4C seeks to develop children’s ability to think for themselves and to learn to use that ability in responsible, caring ways.” (3) Philosophy for Children (P4C) is a toolkit and approach to working with children–or really any group of people–that places value on community, inquiry, philosophy, children, and thinking. It is our view that this approach can revolutionize education as well as society and all of human interaction. Ashby Butnor quotes Gadamer: “‘shared inquiry should make possible not only insight into this or that specific thing, but, insofar as is humanly possible, insight into all virtue and vice and the whole of reality.’ While this may be a bit too lofty an aspiration for our own critical communities, the role of our shared inquiries is no less important.” I don’t think this goal is too lofty at all, and wonder why we should ever shoot lower?

As my summative assessment in p4c, I would like to synthesize what I’ve been learning about P4C this semester with my ideas and experiments in critical, feminist, emancipatory pedagogy and philosophy. With a background in dancing and life coaching, I teach ballet, modern dance, creative movement, jazz dance, and musical theatre here at UHM and in the community, and since I have been pursuing my MFA in Dance Choreography and Performance these last 3.5 years I have been particularly interested in dance education and pedagogy. In teaching my university level classes, I have sought to provide excellent dance technique training along with an educational emphasis on the learning process and applicability to all areas of life, rather than simply a technical product. It is a challenging balance.

I have had the honor of teaching dance classes to all age groups here on O‘ahu, and specifically teaching Dance 121 (Beginning Ballet Technique) and 131 (Beginning Modern Dance Technique) classes at UH these last two years have provided a teaching and learning laboratory with valuable and positive feedback. My goal as a teacher is to develop self-knowledge as well as content knowledge and skills, since as Bill Evans said in his article in the National Dance Association’s Focus On Dance Pedagogy: the Evolving Art of Teaching Excellence, “Cultivating Openness to Continual (and Positive) Change”: “I don’t teach technique, I teach people.” In order to best understand the people I am teaching each semester, at the beginning of each course, I do a thorough Needs Assessment for my students, including questions about their goals for the course and dance and movement background, as well as a Learning Styles Questionnaire which I learned about in my GA training and is in the UH Teaching Handbook. This simple assessment identifies the constituent preferred learning styles of the class and identifies for me some tactics which may prove especially effective in teaching these individuals, as well as helping them strategize how to go about studying this new subject. We discuss whether they agree with the assessment, ultimately trusting their own experience, and acknowledge that it is just one among many devices available to create greater self-awareness.

The Learning Styles Questionnaire reveals that a variety of learning preferences exist in each of my classes, in different proportions. Students can apply this self-knowledge in all of their coursework, as well as life beyond academia. Freshman undergraduates, graduate students, and even faculty members in my courses have shared the value of taking the time to investigate their learning styles and the many learning techniques available to them. The key is not to limit my teaching methods to target most students, but to both expand my pedagogical approaches and their learning styles over the duration of the course. The approach challenges my ability to make the information clear and deepens all students’ understanding of and experience with dance technique.

Specific instructional strategies which I have implemented to address various learning styles or preferences include: evocative imagery, speaking and demonstrating from different places in the room, changing spatial perspectives (not always facing the mirror), having students close their eyes and experience internal processes, writing on the board, note-taking and journaling, handouts, video [and live performance] viewing, movement analysis and problem-solving, performance critiques, peer feedback and coaching, tactile feedback exercises, use of props, being clear about the reason for each technique, having students vocalize questions or responses, student improvisation, composition, and performance, musical education and use of different musical styles. Another approach I would like to implement in the future is to video the students dancing and provide the opportunity view and critique the recorded dances.

Many students benefit from supplementary visual and linguistic aids, which they can refer to outside of class, so it has been helpful to provide key vocabulary and concepts written out on the board (which we discuss and students can copy down or photograph), as well as handouts with new vocabulary, pictures, drawings, and diagrams. In my own technique training growing up, and in higher education, I haven’t received many of these aids, but in other coursework they have proven invaluable, so I have applied that knowledge to my own teaching. I can review these supplements with the students and refer back to them, and it helps them get a handle on the concepts being taught.

I believe in the value of reflective practice, and so provide opportunities for students to “digest” and extend their learning through journaling. The journal provides the opportunity to take notes on course material, as well as respond to prompts over the course of the semester on topics such as goal-setting, evaluations, feedback/”corrections,” diagramming positions and movements with stick figures, and spatial notation. The journal also provides an opportunity for dialogue between myself and the students outside of class, since some may be too shy to speak up or time may limit our chance to engage at length during class time.

In my teaching, I provide varied descriptions and images (my favorites are food metaphors) to evoke movement qualities, patterns and initiations. I also vary the location that I teach from in order to make sure everyone gets the chance to see and hear clearly and ask questions. By providing a multitude of images to illustrate movement, students can investigate what imagery works for them, and I also use different vocal qualities for my teaching and vocalization exercises for students to enhance their learning.

Students in all of my classes are required to view dance on video and in live performance and write critiques of what they see. This is so useful as it provides perspective on what is possible through dance movement, different techniques and choreographic choices. It enhances students’ ability to observe and analyze movement and inspires them to keep working at their technique. The critical process of observation, description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation engages higher thinking skills. [Feldman Model of Criticism, which I learned from Betsy, will talk about the criticism and higher-level thinking in the question about life skills]

As we progress through the technique course, I provide simple experiences in movement analysis (Elements of Dance, LMA, “Basic Movements” such as reaching, rising, turning, gliding) to help students get perspective on how individual techniques fit into the larger scheme of movement possibilities, as well as develop skills in analytical thinking.

Tactile feedback is a time-honored and very useful tool in providing kinesthetic learning experiences. Making sure that students are comfortable with being touched [and if not, providing a non-touch version of the exercise so that all students can participate], I provide gentle input through touch, building physical and technical awareness. I also have students work together in pairs to enhance physical perception [for example, pressing up into a partner’s hand to feel length in the spine, exploring spinal flexion and extension, exploring scapular motion, etc.].

Peer feedback and coaching helps develop observational skills, as students build facility with dance concepts, are able to articulate their feedback in a different way than I do and may be better able to “hear” and implement input from peers. We focus on observation skills, positive reinforcement, and gentle constructive criticism. ALL feedback is for all students!

Finally, improvisation, composition and performance are other instructional strategies that enhance technique mastery and learning skills, and I will discuss these in more detail in the section on choreography. [Question #3]

COMMUNITY
INQUIRY
PHILOSOPHY
CHILDREN can become compassionate and able to make good judgments
THINKING critical, curious, open-minded

Blythe sits and smiles in front of a bright pink wall

Questions for Reflection

What does inquiry bring to the creative and educational context?
What do you wonder about?
What does dance mean to you?
What do you want to know about dance & art?
How can we go about discovering answers?

Works Cited

Costa, Arthur L. Developing Minds: a Resource Book for Teaching Thinking. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001. Print.
Schmitz, Nancy Brooks., Sandra R. Weeks, and Bill T. Jones. Focus On Dance Pedagogy: the Evolving Art of Teaching Excellence. Reston, VA: National Dance Association, 2010. Print.
Wootten, Claire F. “Navigating Liminal Space in the Feminist Ballet Class,” Congress on Research in Dance Conference Proceedings 41.S1 (2009): 122–129. Web.

Resources for Further Exploration

Sourcing Ballet Somatically – Pedagogical Approaches to Integrating Movement Techniques Article
Emancipatory Dance – Dancing Intersectional Feminism 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
Dance Teaching Portfolio from my secondary teaching credential program at UH Manoa College of Education including my Teaching Philosophy

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

Philosophy for Children in a Dance Context – p4c teaching applications to performing arts education