Respect, Trust and Flow



Whilst viewing Helen's blog this week, Helen posted a video of Itay Yatuv 's contact improvisation with his daughter Sophie. I have little knowledge of this genre of dance but respect the study of it. Gaining trust in partner work comes across in so many genre's of dance like Pas de Deux in Ballet.
I have to be honest and challenge Itay's video. I watched his video with baited breath and felt uncomfortable. My initial thoughts were 'where is the health and safety?' also little Sophie had a dummy in her mouth which to me is a hazard. I explored some more of his video's posted on facebook to see if I could get a better understanding. Itay was performing some contact improvisation with another child. Again my thought was not on the movement, I just kept thinking 'I hope he has good insurance'. Throughout my teaching we are often taught and apply in class no jewellery, hair up and correct uniform. This asserts discipline and shows respect to the teacher and others.

As my challenging technique can be blunt, I feel maybe I should question Itay's method. 'How can a 2 year old connect?' I would love to hear you thoughts? I personally cannot compute this in my brain. In his video he mentions Sophie falling in a park and other adults running to her aid. I agree with his teaching here. Sophie will not injure herself seriously by falling. If anything it allows her to make mistakes, fall and find her balance. But for contact improvisation, I felt this was very risky and would choose not to practise this in my teaching style.

In my teaching style I am often challenged as I have a 'tough love' approach. The above picture is 'Abby Lee Miller'. Abby is very much challenged in her teaching style. She often quotes 'tears are for your pillow' and 'everyone is replaceable'. Quoted in the picture 'Many princesses, one queen' This is relatable to many things in and out of the dance realm. This type of teaching probably appeals to me based on a hard up bringing and then being a small fish in a big pond at stage school.

Not everyone would agree with this. Does personal upbringing come into this? Has the child version of you evolved into something else or are you the same? We are always exploring and learning in dance, expression in performance and opinions. We are shaped by our experiences, but how did this happen?




Comments

  1. Agata Lawniczak12 March 2019 at 16:29

    Hi Jade, great reading your blog! Thank you. I also find it fascinating how we as human beings or dancers or anything else evolve and develop, how experience shapes us (and we shape our experiences?). How we develop our teaching practice and how this also changes or not. I also think its great that there are so many different kind of teaching approaches and teachers, as each learner is responding to something different, or even sometimes the same learner responds to differently to an approach depending where she is at in her learning journey.
    In relation to your question on how a two year old can connect. I have a two year old son and he loves to be thrown and rolled around, in some way he is always "connecting", (and I even think its not something he "does" its something he "is", if that makes any sense?) I think it's about trust maybe? He trusts us and he trusts himself. I wonder if this way of "connecting" is something, that we actually unlearn or forget, when we get older (maybe there are also just not so many opportunities to connect with others in that way when you get older). I can only speak for my children, so I am very curious to hear other peoples experiences. Maybe contact improv or dance in general is one way to reconnect to that trust and responsiveness we have as small children.

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    1. Jade Nunn12 March 2019 at 18:03

      Thanks for your response Agata! I like your thinking of your son it’s how he is not what he does. Maybe it depends on the child and parent relationship too. I agree with your theory on the adults. I suppose children haven’t lived as long as us and therefor have less fears maybe this could be a factor or even a question. Thank you for your insight. X

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  2. Marianella Desanti- Dancer, Choreographer and Teacher12 March 2019 at 20:29

    Hi Jade and Agata, I would love to join in too...my son and I have had a similar experience too. We would put mats on the floor and I would just sit and let him climb over me, and roll, and tumble and grab onto me...and fall backwards and giggle and scream in delight. I do think children, especially babies and toddlers have a different connection with space and their bodies. My son is a very active and physical boy. I believe allowing him to roll and discover his body kept him safer by discovery than trying to contain him. I also believe there is an intuition and knowing between parent and child of the timing and type of play of our own children. I would never handle someone else´s child in this way, but my child I would and even crazier ;)

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    1. Jade Nunn13 March 2019 at 06:46

      Thanks for your insight Marianella I agree in the handelling of other people’s children is very much spoken about in dance you have to be so careful these days. I think contact seems to work but I’m still not won over with video. Maybe I’m too reserved or maybe the video pushes the boundaries of ‘contact’. Thanks again :)

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  3. helen16 March 2019 at 11:28

    An interesting response to my blog Jade. The focus was really about respect and trust and I was simply thinking this through movement, hence the TEDtalk which also does this. This thinking through movement is crucial on the Professional Practice programmes and when we are looking at our practice as research. How do we explore concepts, theories, these could be touch, connections, trust and play through our movement practices? Maybe a question to mull over in relation to the MAPP programmes. In relation to ethics around contact (not specifically the practice of contact improvisation, but touch through movement practices more broadly) there are some great articles from Fiona Bannon 'The Ethics of Touch' and Erin Manning 'Politics of Touch' which may be interesting. If you like, the short moment of contact improvisation between Itay and Sophie in the TEDTalk could be seen as a pebble being thrown into a pond. It is then the ripples of the water created by the pebble that spread outwards into a wider territory that are important to look at...

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