Dance is connective. I move, and in moving I create knowledge of myself, of my interactions with others, and of the world. I teach my students to play the interchange between the mobility of falling and stability in balance. As researchers of subjectivity, dance artists integrate the living realities of nature and culture: the kinesthetic and philosophic interchange between bone, blood, muscle, and aesthetics is alive in dance. I teach my students to describe movement, to make meaning of it, and to draw conclusions for their own dancing. The field of dance can help our knowledge systems evolve to match the changes of our time. The human community is facing potent environmental, social, and technological transformations. I teach my students to invest sustainably in their dancing, seeking efficient kinesthetics.
Western culture has brought us depth and specificity of knowledge, yet often our academic fields of research are disparate and dis-integrated. Solutions to the problems that we face as a global community cannot come from a single discipline or mode of perception. In my teaching and choreography I continually seek collaboration with others. I have taught in tandem with music, writing, and mathematics professors. The questions of contemporary life require the ability to respond to the world in interdisciplinary ways—integration of knowledge supports an interdisciplinary responsibility. For example, I perceive the internal ecology of my body as a microcosm within which I participate in the interdependent systems of our shared planet. My ability to directly relate my body and the earth affects my actions and views toward each. I teach my students to interact in movement with each other and their environment thorough site-specific choreographic projects, partnered dancing such as contact improvisation, somatic investigations of touch, and class discussion.
As an educator I value the development of an engaged citizenship through awareness and the clarification of intent. My definition of virtuosity follows: in virtuosic dancing clarity of intent and clarity of actualization converge. This virtuosity is a quality of engagement, and is not tied to any singular aesthetic. Pedagogic practices aimed at creating virtuosity should support students both in clarification of their intent, and temporal awareness of what they are doing, assisting them as they determine whether their intent is being realized. I ask my students to notice how they dance, when they dance, and how they know when they are dancing.
In order to contribute to interdisciplinary knowledge and action, my guiding practices and pedagogy have an integrative, connective intent. A premise of my teaching is that connectivity within and between people begins with how we engage. I assist my students, no matter what their level of experience with dance, to attend to their unique interests, actions, and experiences. Then, I look for ways to connect as a community—to each other, to our world, to varied disciplines, and to changing technologies. A common midterm assignment in my technique class would include identifying an anatomic, metaphoric, or connective pattern of interest, investigating it through movement, and then performing this practice for the class with time for feedback. The coherence of contemporary dance arises from its connectedness to other systems of knowledge through the material of movement. When my students leave my class, I want their dancing to come with them.
Teaching Philosophy
