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Theatre, Dance and Performance Training

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Doing, re-doing and undoing: practice, repetition and critical evaluation as mechanisms for learning in a dance technique class laboratory
Erica Stanton Available online: 14 Mar 2011

To cite this article: Erica Stanton (2011): Doing, re-doing and undoing: practice, repetition and critical evaluation as mechanisms for learning in a dance technique class laboratory, Theatre, Dance and Performance Training, 2:1, 86-98 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19443927.2011.545253

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Doing, re-doing and undoing: practice, repetition and critical evaluation as mechanisms for learning in a dance technique class laboratory
Erica Stanton

This article identies ways to encourage students to realise their movement potential through their own active participation: to repeat movement material, to make mistakes and to identify their own strengths and weakness. A dance technique class provides a useful forum for dancers to explore their potential, confront their limitations and start to recognise their own learning through trial and error. In proposing that a technique class is a laboratory, where problem solving and nding out about out how things work are emphasised, opportunities arise for students and teachers to work productively with their abilities and their limitations, to value movement for its own sake and to question its context and meaning. Other perspectives are proposed for learning to dance by reecting on the legacy of the Limon technique, examining its impact on other dance techniques and scrutinising its core values. Effort, exertion and perspiration are all functional aspects of the movement in this technique and become, in their disclosure, part of a dancers expressive potential, as the how of dancing becomes privileged over its what.

Keywords: dance training, trial and error, Limon technique, problem-solving, risk

Introduction
This article reects on learning through doing, where the doing presents some difculty to the participant and the result may not necessarily be achieved immediately. It draws on a range of teaching experience, but focuses predominantly on the teaching of the Limon dance technique in conservatoire and university settings. In embarking on this approach, the patience and tenacity required for dancer and teacher should not be underestimated. Add to this the difculty in the recognition of learning, or the indirect association between learning and performance (i.e. what is made
Theatre, Dance and Performance Training ISSN 1944-3927 print/ISSN 1944-3919 online 2011 Taylor & Francis http://www.informaworld.com DOI: 10.1080/19443927.2011.545253

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visible), then the assembly of a technique class becomes nothing more than a rather unstable alchemy. This problem is summarised by Robert Bjork (1999, p. 436), Substantial learning can take place during periods when few, if any, changes in performance are apparent; and substantial changes in performance during training may be accompanied by little, if any, learning. Sherrie Barr (2009, p. 33) highlights another interesting problem regarding the tension inherent in learning dance technique: Class . . . is a precarious balancing act betwixt art and craft. Whether intentional or not, the merging tensions interfere with the acts of learning and dancing. There is no doubt that dance technique classes have not always been places for self actualisation (Maslow 1962, p. 31), but, these merging tensions provide a very interesting locus for investigation and whilst they can be earthed somewhat as dance techniques start to emphasise their function over their form and the acknowledgement of these tensions can help to put perceived difculties into perspective, they should remain overt rather than covert during class. In the dance class as laboratory, an experimental system can be set up, where movement structure, movement behaviour and the interconnections between doing, observing and verbalising form the mechanisms for students to learn to dance and simultaneously to identify how they are learning to dance. In November 2006, the role of dance technique in higher education was debated at a Palatine seminar hosted by De Montfort University, UK. Practitioners were prompted to question the effectiveness of the traditional hierarchical approach, where the teacher presents an expert model to be imitated by learners, and to identify more useful and relevant practice. In teaching dance technique as part of degree programmes in the UK, the need to establish experiential learning environments that are not teacher dependent (Stevens 2006, p. 1) was noted and, subsequently, studentcentred approaches have become very much at the forefront of discussions about practice. What has yet to emerge is the full range of content that is available from learning a dance technique and how this can be accessed, experienced and recognised by learners. In entering this domain, I realise that a delicate balance is in operation: in pursuing learner autonomy, care needs to be taken not to dismiss the effectiveness of observing an expert, nor to undervalue the benet of watching another learner learning the same material: participants learning performance of a novel, complex motor task was facilitated after they observed another individual learning to perform that same task (Mattar and Gribble 2005, reported in Grafton and Cross 2008, p. 63). In emphasising a heuristic approach to any discipline or skill, the attention of the doer needs to be brought to the act and fact of the doing and acknowledgement needs to be given to the purpose, hazards and rewards of the activity. For dancers, hazards can be perceived as the biggest block to their learning and can manifest themselves as physical, and/or psychological. As a teacher of dance for over three decades, I would assert that my own hazards lie in judging what interventions are appropriate for each individual learner in my class and determining the form and function of the class to suit a particular group. The relationship between risk and responsibility is complex and teachers have come to identify the multifaceted identity of the dance technique class, which seems distant from earlier, simpler, motivations

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for teaching dance; for example, in Alwin Nikolais assertion that, teaching makes clear the reason to move and the motional identity that results from this experience (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 24). In accepting that performance in movement peaks when there is a balanced correlation between enjoyment and challenge (Csikszentmihalyi 1990, Jackson and Roberts 1992) and between the unknown and the familiar appetitive versus consummatory experiences (Dewey 1968, cited in Schulkin 2004, p. 63), then optimal experience in the learning of technique relies on the careful management of a number of variables. This article suggests that the role of a teacher of dance technique has become much more complex as she attempts to nd a meaningful dance curriculum that meets the needs of different groups of dancers, facilitates a conducive learning environment and experiments with ways that the specics of a particular dance technique can be acquired, assimilated and proliferated.
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The problem with doing As a young pianist many decades ago, I recall the perseverance that was required in acquiring some kind of piano technique. Scales, broken chords and arpeggios had to be learned, played from memory and executed at the whim of a teacher or an examiner. Velocity and accuracy were sought through repetition and trial and error; often with weeks of error before discernible progress was made. I did not question any of this; it was what was required in learning to play the piano. It was a means to the end of being able to play music, which was my reward. In the many contexts that dance technique is offered as a medium for learning, or a mode of enquiry and where this is not necessarily a means to become a dancer, then what is it for? Furthermore, when the focus of a technique is not for a dancer to function within a choreographers repertoire, then what is the intrinsic value of dance technique? How does learning in dance technique resonate in other areas of a dancers learning? How can a teacher make this overt in the dance class? The relationship of dance technique to the dance practitioners world of work was also discussed at the Palatine seminar hosted by the Dance faculty at De Montfort University in 2006. In her report from the seminar, Jayne Stevens (2006, p. 1) summarises, The integration of technical practice with studies such as choreography and movement analysis was seen as a potentially useful way forward. This proposes a holistic approach to learning through and about dance, but it still leaves teachers with the problem of the intrinsic value of dance technique; if it is not the means to create performers, but is a means of education, then what sort of education is it? Further strategies become needed in order to clarify the other curriculum of the dance class. In reecting on my own practice as a technique teacher, looking at the norms, values and ways of behaving which are prevalent in the Limon technique class, I have been investigating how these implicit ethics can become informative to the student dancer. In framing the technique as a laboratory and working with principles and not codes; creating problems to solve, rather than setting pre-ordained goals, students can be encouraged to discover a movement experience without being shown a goal or outcome.

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In engaging with a process where there is not a prescribed point of arrival, it becomes possible to learn something about yourself as you learn a means to dance. Where this problem-solving process also involves interaction with peers, then social intelligence is also called into play. But I am proceeding with some caution here, as the information that I am reliant on in this process is from immediate feedback in situ and once out of context, it is difcult to dene as reliable evidence of the process.

Practice making permanent Sonia Rafferty (2003, p. 15) proposes a clear assertion that, Class is the most important element in the training of a dancer, the repeated experience of daily learning can be seen as a preparation for performance and the means by which the capacity to perform is maintained. This has been the custom and practice of our working lives as dancers and, inevitably, movements that we have learned during training will be performed time and time again. But, rather than repeating movement in response to visual cues, at what point in their training do dancers trust the movement and start to use a more internal cuing system stemming from kinaesthetic/proprioceptive information? Repetition is an inherent feature of learning any movement skill. In dance, however, this has to go further than mere mechanics. The aesthetic goals for dance technique are not achieved through mindless repetition. Neither is this repetition intended to produce an exact replication of movements; since individual dancers will each be working with different equipment, the results of the movement are not intended to be the same. In learning new movement, a dancer usually emphasises the process of using an external visual cue (demonstration by the teacher) to stimulate the body into action. Allowing the dancer time to de-emphasise this process and switch to the reverse, where a physical action sends a sentient response back to the brain (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 62) creates a situation where a dancers own movement heritage (somatic experience), or their life experience can be brought to the forefront of their dance identity. Recent studies in neuroaesthetics provide informative ndings on the relationship between seeing and doing: they propose the idea that when we watch an action, we simulate the movement using the same brain network that we use to execute it (Calvo-Merino et al. 2008, p. 919) and that the brains response to seeing an action depends not only on previous visual knowledge and experience of seeing the action but also on previous motor experience of performing the action (Calvo-Merino et al. 2006, p. 1907). It is important to note that this activity of seeing and doing is social a shared experience; a dance class is a community of learning where there is a balance between the individual and the group. As Jay Schulkin (2004, p. 129) notes, there is no loss of the individuals primary sensibility in suggesting that common mechanisms are active when I see you do something and when I do it myself, nor in the fact that my experience is something special. In addition to the interplay between observation and action, the process of assimilating movement through redoing benets from external feedback video analysis or peer observation as well as from self-evaluation. Dancers

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need to identify that they know movement kinaesthetically and that this sense of the movement can be retained. Their awareness of the repetition also needs to have a built in monitoring device: . . . . Does this feel the same as it did yesterday? How do I account for this difference? (Time of day? Temperature of the studio?) Is the difference caused by fatigue or injury? Has the movement sequence shifted? (Is it bigger or smaller? Has the speed or dynamic changed?)

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In the dance class as laboratory scenario, I generally ask the question, How is your equipment working today? in the rst few minutes of the class, in order that the dancers are clear that the class is for and about them and that they will need to let me know at various points in the class how they are functioning. They will also have to apply their knowledge and awareness of their own function to experiments, which will conclude with the discussion of an identied movement problem with a lab-partner or in a small group.

Undoing The observation, repetition and analysis of movement creates a process where a movement, or a sequence of movements, eventually becomes habitual, but then a new problem emerges: this habit may not necessarily be healthy or useful to the dancer. In creating a xed neuromuscular pathway which results in undesirable or unsafe instrumental use, a further challenge is presented to a teacher that of undoing the results of previous training. Claudia Gitelman notes that in her training with Alwin Nikolais, dancers were never physically manipulated when movements were incorrect and that Nikolais relied on language to rectify movement problems, Students failings, he charged, were caused by conditions they placed on movement because of habit or psychological interference (Gitelman and Martin 2007, p. 33). Other practitioners advocate tactile help and, indeed, many somatic practices rely on the sense of touch as a benecial learning tool, and in a dance form like Contact Improvisation, physical proximity and bodily contact are essential to its function. These forms also construct carefully heightened states of sensory awareness as the body is prepared for movement and in this process offer mechanisms for unravelling movement traits or comfortable practice. At what point does a teacher address the possibility of undoing? When you observe something unhelpful from a dancers prior learning or training and see that it interferes with their dance potential, how do you nd appropriate strategies to undo it? Dancers like to hold onto habits as they are accustomed to them the repetition of the habit has created a movement memory which has been fully assimilated. This aspect of a teachers responsibility is possibly the most difcult, since it requires her to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of anatomy, physiology, biomechanics and psychology, and to use this knowledge diplomatically. Feedback in dance

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technique classes has operated under the unfortunate term correction, which resonates with negativity. In reaction to this, some teachers choose not to use feedback at all during class they give material and allow participants to navigate the material without intervention. This devolution of responsibility is still unusual, since a teacher usually has a strong desire to facilitate learning and to identify suitable interventions for the group and for individuals within it. In the elusive process of undoing habits, even nding a true, vertical midline to your stance can feel like a major ordeal in my rst ballet class as an adult, my teacher asked me to stand a little further forward on my feet: my weight was behind my mid-line and the small shift I was required to make felt enormous. After a few weeks of experimenting with a new stance, I was then given feedback by my Cunningham teacher that my weight was too far forward when I was in motion. As a result, for several weeks I felt all over the place as new movement patterns were assimilated. I still recall my discomture not so much from the physical or kinaesthetic difculty but from the psychological one caused by feeling unusually clumsy and uncoordinated. I felt that I was a lesser dancer and it was not until a year later that the rewards of this healthier alignment came in to play. As a consequence of this experience as a dancer, I recognised the importance of being in the right place relative to the force of gravity and forces caused by my own motion. As a consequence of my response to this situation as a learner, I now try to convey information about changing familiar movement patterns to dancers without it feeling as though it is a singular problem (Is it just me that cant do this?). In a lab-class, we can apply litmus tests; in nding a true alignment, with a partner, we can observe her movement from standing on the whole foot to standing with the heels just off the oor. What do we notice? Is there a similarity in our action? From here it is possible to illustrate issues concerning the centre of gravity, weight transference and weight distribution through the foot into the oor, but since it has been a feature which is noticed by the group, rather than being applied to an individual, then accurate peer observation skills are developed at the same time as self-awareness of stance, verticality and weight transfer. Kathryn Daniels (2009, p. 9) suggests that these types of movement explorations can be integrated into technique classes or addressed in separate classes intended as laboratories for technique analysis. My own preference is for the activities to stay within the aesthetic domain of the technique class, but that the lab activities can necessitate a longer technique class (two hours instead of the more usual hour and a half). The procedural knowledge which results from approaching movement through problem solving supports students sense of self while encouraging them to be more active in their own learning (Barr 2009, p. 42). This puts a heightened importance on the constructive nature of feedback and also on the possibility of error, trial and improvement and associating new information with prior learning. The process of learning is constantly in a state of ux, since a dancer is continually adapting to her movement environment and examining her relationship between interior sensation and outer manifestation of her dancing. Movement as the outer form and motion as the inner experience (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 58) and an interesting objective for a technique class is to nd the consonance between these two states.

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Multiple foci in the dance technique class In the delivery of dance classes, teachers may have already moved away from the tradition of demonstration and replication. All eyes may not necessarily be on the teacher during class, as participants observe each other, observe their own function, or discuss and perform set material in small groups. When teaching, I am looking for ways to provide verbal, visual and sensory cues to assist learners to construct meaning from [students] past and present kinaesthetic experience (Fortin et al. 2002, p.170). Activities for group learning can be prompted by questions constructed by the teacher or the students: for example, to sense timing, spatial or qualitative issues as an internal dialogue:
How does this weight change work? How does this transition feel? How do I transmit that feeling? What do I wish to be attentive to in this movement? When you look at this, what do you see? Or, perhaps more importantly, When you look at this, how do you feel?

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The skills that can be learned in the lab are heightened by the process of observation: learning to dance by effective observation is closely related to learning by physical practice (Gazzaniga 2008, p. vi). Since observation involves communicating feedback with language, words must be carefully chosen. I have been spending some time trying to develop an awareness of language and meaning in Limon technique classes, in order to see if the specicity of words can inform the qualitative outcome of movement. For example, if I explain that the purpose of a given movement sequence is to sense rising and falling (which is a journey with an implication of continuity, of ebb and ow), then performing the movement as up and down does not satisfy the identity of the movement. It should not feel like up and down, as its function is not to convey up and down. The goal for this would not be successful rising and falling, but to nd out the possibilities of rising and falling in a variety of ways, of understanding the interplay between potential and kinetic energy. Asking students to consider meaning actively whilst moving is an attempt to nd what Alwin Nikolais would have described as sentient perception (Nikolais and Louis 2007, p. 25 ) or what Gill Clarke (2007, p. 3) might allude to as the engaged state of undivided attention. The immediacy of doing something, then talking about it, observing someone else doing the same thing and then doing it again oneself, creates a cycle of learning possibilities. These are not reliant on the teacher, who then has an opportunity to stand back from the work in progress and reect on what the students are doing, construct follow-up activities and devise group or individual feedback. This cycle, where there are other interventions apart from those made by the teacher, has other benets, as observation training, self-efcacy and selfreliance are all attainable as part of a process which creates a dancers autonomy. I would also suggest that there is an additional undoing process at work here, as learners begin to view the role of the teacher differently. Healthy movement discourse between teacher and learners needs some

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fallibility of the expert model. Teachers can make mistakes and these should be encouraged.

Somatic practice and the particularities of Limon technique Limon technique emphasises the potential and kinetic energy of the moving body using an awareness of the bodys mass and volume in relationship to gravity. It is musical, uses a wide range of dynamics and is inherently human,
I danced with Jose Limon not because it was a job and I was a dancer, but because he brought me to a way of dancing that was as close to a spiritual experience as I ever had. . . . Some of the most important concepts stemmed from his respect for the human body and his ability to use it to its fullest capacity without abusing or distorting it. (Lewis 1984, p. 35)

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As a dance technique which uses the premise that movement is dened by a dancers relationship with gravity, Limon technique encourages a dancer to allow herself to be propelled by an immutable external force and in doing so, a basis for movement exploration and a reason for doing it are created. Dancers disclose their frailty when yielding to gravity, but in their striving to overcome it, the indomitable nature of the human spirit is also revealed. Jose Limon explains this eloquently as he describes his intent to work with mans basic tragedy and the grandeur of his spirit (Lewis 1984, p. 152). In the proliferation of falling and using the body to recognise natural forces particularly that of gravity painful errors can occur, and in the functionality of a technique with the laws of physics in operation, Limons assertion that, a dancers medium is sweat (Lewis 1984, p. 57) is very much in evidence. The valuable contribution to dance training made by somatic approaches and improvisation-based techniques has promoted deeper learning and afforded approaches which are tailored to individual dancers. These developments have allowed older dance forms to be considered in a new light and I perceive the Limon heritage to have found a way of continuing to develop in this respect. As a technique that has never been codied, it has been constantly open to external inuences; for example, Ruth Curriers extensive musical training and Betty Jones image work derived from Lulu Sweigard (Danielson 2008), and, more recently, the integration of Alexander technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis (Jennifer Scanlon, Laura Glenn and Nina Watt respectively) (Danielson 2008). In establishing a different environment for learning dance technique as a process of doing, redoing and undoing in a laboratory setting, the issues of learning and teaching become less concerned with the roles of those involved (who is doing what to whom?) and can focus more on the questions and concepts which arise out of seeing how movement works. Without making the procedure too reductive, in the case of Limon technique, the principles to be investigated in the laboratory are the consideration of the bodys mass and volume, the inuence of gravity and the potential to harness the interaction of the two. This built-in science of movement can be investigated through practice and allows the technique to evolve and to adapt to the different needs of dancers. At the Limon Institute in New York,

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workshops are dedicated to Principles of Limon. These are taught by a number of different teachers, to reect the possibility that dancers can have different points of view. These workshops take a particular focus, for example, breathing, using weight, opposition, fall and rebound. After almost three decades of teaching Limon dance technique, I am aware that nding ways to keep it fresh and relevant and at the same time truthful to its founding principles is challenging. The accumulation of my teaching experience ts inversely with the decline in my physical capabilities, and now I am required to become more ingenious in the way that material is presented as technique. For some time now, technique classes have no longer needed to be designed to full a choreographers vision and during this time, release techniques have proliferated, with teachers being able to develop their work from functional anatomical principles and mind/body philosophies using sensitive and inclusive styles of presenting movement. In this environment, Limon technique has found itself superseded by release techniques and, in some cases, mistaken for it. Release classes emphasise ease of motion, efciency and uidity, but this prompts some reservations and indeed, some questions. Where is the risk? Where is the exhilaration that comes from achieving a movement that you had perceived as difcult? If ease is seen as the goal, then what is the point of the journey? Helen Kindred (2007, p. 4) observes: the risk is that a technique which is by its nature inwardly focused on ones own body, breaking down and reforming patterns of moving, has a tendency to become an interesting internal process but results in a very closed product. Dance classes still need to be perceived as having purpose beyond the health and safety of the dancer and whilst dance can feel good, this does not give it intrinsic value. Dancers learn to perform and to express themselves through performing and through having the materials to create their own dances. The mastery of a neurologically and kinetically endowed body in which the purpose, meaning or value of that motion is inherent in the motion itself (Nikolais and Louis 2007, p. 6) needs a collusion between art and science, where the dancers are made aware of the aesthetic framework they are using whilst they are deploying the functional aspects of moving.

Recognising difference When dancers repeat/redo movement out of its original context, this can lead to interesting speculation about the provenance of movement. A simple example of this is undercurves, which are a distinctive feature in the Nikolais technique:
The undercurve is conceived as the lower half of a sphere, it is a continuous half-circle. The locomotion of an undercurve involves the triple action of the leg: plie transfer of weight lift. (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 150)

In departing from the functional analysis of the relationship between the dancer and the oor, the successional interplay between feet, ankles, knees and hips during the execution of undercurves, may be recalled by a dancer as having been executed rstly in a sporting context as an effective method of

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weight transference with a quick change of direction. In various dance techniques, undercurves may be recalled as having served a spatial premise, a preparation for falling or lifting another dancer, a simple method for transferring the weight at lower level, or a method of gathering momentum. Encouraging dancers to recognise movement in a variety of contexts can locate the then and now of dance too: an examination of undercurves can encompass a breadth of movement ideas from Mary Wigman to ballet. The recognition of differences between dancers in class and between the function of movement, the terminology used to describe it and its aesthetic context, can help to locate strategies to give dancers responsibility for their learning. Some examination of their prior learning is helpful and some ingenuity on the part of a teacher may be required in order to nd ways to use this productively. A rst class with any new group of dancers is always a diagnostic one who are these dancers? What are their strengths? What would they like to improve? What goals can be dened through shared negotiation? This is equally true of the teachers heritage and their reasons for teaching the way they do. In my own case, my early background in sport makes me susceptible to emphasising that dance should exert your body physiologically. Overcoming inertia is crucial to the physical state of dance and our challenge is to nd kinetic quality (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 12) and avoid our attraction toward the easy life [our] tendency to fall back on pattern (Nikolais and Louis 2005, p. 8). I have to guard against disfavouring dancing which values the concealment of its physiological cost and accept that some dancers are used to the illusory qualities which are encouraged by some ballet training. I am also aware that having been taught Labans movement principles from the age of 11 (in the context of Modern Educational Dance, Modern Education Gymnastics and sport), I expect dancers to be able to analyse dance from this framework and be able to see these basic principles at work in the movement. Furthermore, since I was not exposed to a dance technique class until I was 19, I have a particular empathy with learners who are late starters. And so, given my own heritage, however professional I might wish to be in the context of my teaching, I will be partial. But, this partiality is overt rather than hidden so that difference can be put into useful practice. Dancers can begin to see their teachers as human as equal and imperfect and also begin to understand that the concept of the idealised body is outmoded. Differences in opinion about what is happening in a dance class are important loci for learning (and not just about dance). These differences can be extrapolated by problem solving and observation tasks where in all probability there will be more than one answer. What should be equally emphasised, however, is that the process of dancing in a Limon class, where the mass and volume and motion of ones own body is pitted against the inescapable force of gravity, needs a complicity on the part of all participants in order to recognise that there is also a shared experience which is a Limon class. (How do I know Im in a Limon class? How do I recognise that the dancers around me understand and can execute this way of moving?) The network of communication that is set up during the lab class reinforces the idea that class is a shared social situation. The particular technique being studied creates a community where outcomes are determined both by the identity of the movement material and the ways in

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which this is recognised by individuals and sub-groups within the lab-class. In order to provide a purposeful framework for learning in this context, the technique being studied has to reveal both its distinctiveness and its commonality.

Re-branding the future potential of a dance technique class? What might we see as the objectives of dance technique classes in the future? Are they tools to produce a responsive dancing body, one that engages with and challenges static representations of gender, race, sexuality and physical ability (Cooper Albright 1997, p. xiii)? Or are they also a location for enquiry? It would be interesting to see if the acquisition of dance technique can also be a means to enable dancers to differentiate between responding and interpreting. Could dancers be aware of their ability to address several activities simultaneously as they are dancing:
What is this movement? How do I do it? How do I know I am doing it? and perhaps more elaborately, Why am I doing it?

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The possibility of re-branding the dance technique class could create fruitful avenues of inquiry. With the proliferation of somatic practices and their integration into the contemporary dance class (Fortin et al. 2002), the application of scientic research such as Albert Banduras (1997) theory of self-efcacy to dance, and the emergence of Dance Science as an area of study in the vocational and university sectors, teachers of dance who are attentive to the changes in the learning styles, and/or capabilities of students, are looking to nd ways to push the boundaries of their practice. Kathryn Daniels (2009, p. 8) proposes a model for Dance Technique Education for the 21st Century, encouraging a move from training, which encourages skill acquisition, to education which addresses development of the whole person. In my own technical discipline, the preservation of a legacy has come into play, as the latent past of movement studied in class can be brought to the fore (or not) during practice. It may be that some technique teachers will focus their energies on animating a technique which has not enjoyed the mainstream focus of, say, Graham technique, over the past 50 years. Our practice might be informed by a resurgence of the JoossLeeder technique, for example, which would seem ideal given its inbuilt pedagogic sensibility. Sigurd Leeder had, great sensitivity in his use of imagery, an endearing sense of humor, and an ingenious choreographic ability and in class, sequences were devised to instruct, to stretch the understanding and to be enjoyed by the performer; emphasis was not on an image to be portrayed to an audience (Hutchinson Guest 2006, p. 163). In examining fresh possibilities for dance technique, those approaches which do not rely on choreographic repertoire will need to identify the intrinsic value of their form teachers need to have good reasons for their classes! The safe and effective use of the dancing body needs to be balanced with the exploration of individuals expressive potential and this involves risk.

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If a technique class is refocused onto training the potential for communicating, then some aspect of this class would need to identify what it is that is being communicated. The processes at work in a dance technique class and their impact on the learning and teaching of dance can be identied and examined fairly easily in context. The reective mechanisms that encourage the discovery of experiential evidence of a laboratory dance class are more illusive, but they are crucial in the denition, delivery and maintenance of the phalanx of dance work and are conducted as (and with) action rather than words. It will be interesting to speculate how disciplines across the arts are perpetuated through the acceptance of repetition as an essential practice. Knowing that it feels right, learning to pay attention and nding clearer relationships between our sensory modalities can provoke a broader educational perspective in which:
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More importance is placed on exploration than on discovery, more value is assigned to surprise than to control, more attention is devoted to what is distinctive than to what is standard, more interest is related to what is metaphorical than to what is literal. (Eisner 2004, p. 10)

References
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