ETHICS IN DANCE TEACHING-The dancer as a person
As one of my practices is dance teaching I decided to think about ethical considerations and questions I have regarding my teaching and also the teaching I experienced whilst training and from choreographers in my professional life.
I pride myself on my hard work and determination but why at times in my training was I made feel inadequate if my turnout wasn’t as great as someone else or my hamstrings not as flexible. Yet I would be working to the very best of my ability to achieve this.
The classes that I enjoyed the most and got the most out of where the teachers who knew I could do little to change the physicality of my joints but always continued to encourage me and praise my efforts and diligence. This positivity and praise in turn meant I gained more physically from the session.
I found very interesting research online from a wonderful lady named Sho Botham. She encourages teachers to look at their dancers as people,
‘Dancers are to feel valued for what they are and not just what they can do’ Botham(2004)
She believes valuing the dancer as their whole self will result in healthier, more creative and successful artists.
It is this approach that I believe is most ethical and it is the approach I wish to take as a teacher. It’s an interesting area to discuss as you could argue that the dance profession isn’t ‘fair’ or ‘kind’ and people can be ruthless so therefore treating dancers harshly in training better prepares them? Or can it break them?
What are your thoughts? Please feel free to post below.
S. Botham, Journal of Dance Medicine & Science, (2000) Vol 4, No. 4, p146, New Jersey, Michael J Ryan Publishing Inc
Hi Kate-Anne,
ReplyDeleteI'm on module one at the moment and the ethics side of things is really interesting me. I have written a blog on ethics in the arts generally but its interesting reading how you've linked it with dance teaching as that's what I do.
my blog is here if you want to check it out: https://alysmay.blogspot.com/2020/03/ethics-and-arts.html
Thank you!
Alys
Hello Alys, thanks so much for your comments I'm glad you found it interesting! I shall certainly have a read of your blog now. 😄
ReplyDeleteHey Kate-Anne. This is a very interesting post - thank you very much. I have been thinking about this a lot actually. As someone who went to a drama school where comments such as "Don't be shit" were tossed around by teachers frequently. At the time I didn't really think much of it as it was considered 'normal'.
ReplyDeleteHowever with the new #bodyconfidence movement and the #trainhappy movement I realised how these small comments create negative connotations. As a teacher I try to never use terms such as "burning off those cheat meals" or " we're here because we aren't happy with ourselves" as I have realised the negative effect on mental health in developing young minds.
Hi Kate-Anne. I loved this post.
ReplyDeleteThe dancer as a person is so important and only recently being brought into discussion. The quote by Botham is so true; the value of an artist is so much more than one component (body, technique, artistry, approach to class etc.) It is all of them combined and I would like to think it is these differences between artists which provoke creativity.
Best wishes
Lauren