Transmitting and preserving knowlege

The First Skype conversation with Helen, Julianna and Astrid was most helpful. The topic that we covered was Module One Focus – Self and Practice. As I reflected on the conversation, I realized that I am deeply concerned with what my students learn and the way they learn. Over my years of teaching I have striven to become increasingly efficient at communicating verbally, visually and kinetically, however, I have also come to realize that I seldom use writing as a teaching tool, whether it be using my own printed words, or the students’ in the form of feedback or evaluations. 

Why transposing my knowledge and experiences into written words does not come naturally? Even though organizing my thoughts into a written form would very likely be a great addition to my teaching “toolbag”.   However, dancers do not write and very rarely do their  words get published. The reason for such a state of affairs could be historical. Indeed, in the world of ballet, the first formalized form of dance. the transmission of knowledge and technique has mostly been oral. Traditionally dancers came from quite humble backgrounds, started dancing at a young age and spent their lives on stages and in the studios.  Thus, until quite recently, the tremendous amount of knowledge a dancer acquired over a lifetime was passed on to the younger generations only through oral transmission during classes or rehearsals and, today, most of my contemporaries are still part of this tradition. Consequently, some information got lost along the way and very few dancers got a firsthand exposure to the teaching and the words of the “master teachers”. 

Then, films, videos, DVD and the internet became readily available and started playing an important role in a dancer’s learning process, but as we very well know, the recorded image is never as reliable as a direct transmission, or a written account.

We can also argue that, as teachers, the more we observe, reflect upon our personal experiences and write about them, the more we will understand the connections and interconnections with the past and the future of our craft.