Decolonising dance pedagogy? Ruminations on contemporary dance training and teaching in South Africa set against the specters of colonisation and apartheid

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-197
Author(s):  
Lliane Loots
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Dance Pedagogy ◽  
Dance Training

Navigating African Identities, Otherness, and the “Wild Untamed Body” in Dance Training and Pedagogy in South Africa: A Case Study of Flatfoot Dance Company's Dance “Development” Programmes

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. 293-299
Author(s):  
Lliane Loots
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Life Skills ◽  
Dance Education ◽  
Skills Training ◽  
Dance Pedagogy ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Performance Career ◽  
Training Methodologies ◽  
Contemporary Context

This paper offers an interrogation of dance training methodologies used as a basis for dance education, training, and pedagogy by Flatfoot Dance as it operates in the African contemporary context of South Africa. Focus is placed on interrogating the dance education work, which uses dance as a methodology for life skills training around health, HIV/AIDS, and sexuality, and the more focused training of young dancers for a performance career. All of this is navigated in the postcolonial context of looking for a dance pedagogy that speaks to the context of the South rather than appropriating a very problematic “globalised” process of defining dance training and pedagogy.

In the Shadow of (Mis)Understanding South African Dance by Some Tourists

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Rani
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Western World ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Traditional Society ◽  
African Dance ◽  
Western Influence ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
Dark Continent ◽  
Cultural Components

This article will explore the (mis)understanding of African dance by some tourists. Visitors to South Africa often look for “traditional African dancing,” and discredit the African contemporary dance forms. To understand this misperception, the author will draw from different social theories including those proposed by authors such as Hegel and Maine. Rooted in Maine’s theory, the article will explain how the Western world still perceives Africa as a traditional society whose traditions are static, unchanging, and in need of protection from Western influence. In line with what Hegel said, the generalisation of the continent of Africa as the “Dark Continent” that does not produce knowledge or has no history still influences today’s perception of culture in its countries. This article states that there is a great need for education and a shift in people’s mentality regarding how Africa and Africans are viewed and thus how its cultural components such as dance are perceived.

Akram Khan and English National Ballet

2021 ◽  
pp. 542-561
Author(s):  
Graham Watts
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Classical Dance ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Classical World ◽  
Peter Brook ◽  
Physical Theater ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way ◽  
Michael Jackson

This chapter examines the development of Akram Khan’s choreographic pathway as an aggregate of diverse influences, primarily experienced through issues of identity, otherness, and interculturalism. Beginning with the early confusion of juxtaposing classical dance training in kathak and a fascination with Michael Jackson, Khan’s career has progressed, largely through an instinctive opportunism—absorbed from the “formless hunch” philosophy of early mentor, Peter Brook—and an ongoing fascination with the exploratory possibilities of collaboration through the hybrid mixing of dance disciplines to create his own style of mood movement. This process has taken Khan from the classical world of kathak, through contemporary dance, and back into another classical discipline, ballet, with detours along the way into flamenco, the Olympics, and text-based physical theater. The chapter describes the impact of all these experiences on Khan’s contribution to modern ballet, particularly in his association with English National Ballet.

Uthoff, Ernst (1904–1993)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Jane Norton
Keyword(s):  
South America ◽  
Nazi Germany ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Dance Theater ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Big City ◽  
Professional Dance ◽  
Dance Companies ◽  
The University ◽  
A Company

Ernst Uthoff was a German-born dancer, choreographer, and company director who received his dance training from two pioneers of Tanztheater (dance-theater): Kurt Jooss and Sigurd Leeder. He was one of the original members of the Folkwang-Tanzbühne (Folkwang Dance Stage), a company that Jooss and Leeder co-founded in 1927, and Uthoff created and performed several important roles for Jooss. As a performer he is best known for his roles of the Standard Bearer in The Green Table (1932) and the Libertine in Big City (1932). In 1934 Uthoff fled Nazi Germany together with his wife, the Hungarian dancer Lola Botka, Jooss, and other company members. The troupe settled at Dartington Hall in England, where its dancers opened a Jooss–Leeder school and performed under the name Ballets Jooss. Ballets Jooss toured South America in 1941, during which time the Chilean government invited Uthoff, Botka, and solo dancer Rudolf Pescht to remain in Chile to establish a school of contemporary dance. The three settled in Santiago that same year, co-founding the Escuela de Danzas (School of Dance). Soon after, Uthoff, Botka, and Pescht established the Ballet Nacional Chileno (National Ballet of Chile), a state-financed company based at the University of Chile in Santiago. Ballet Nacional Chileno was one of Chile’s first nationally sponsored professional dance companies, and it is still flourishing today.

scholarly journals Relationship Between Performance Competence and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Contemporary Dance

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
Sarah C Needham-Beck ◽  
Matthew A Wyon ◽  
Emma Redding
Keyword(s):  
Cardiorespiratory Fitness ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Physical Conditioning ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Specific Performance ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Physiological Demands ◽  
Performance Ability ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Level Of Experience

AIMS: While a foundation of basic cardiorespiratory fitness is beneficial for coping with the physiological demands of dance training and performance, the extent to which cardiorespiratory fitness levels are related to performance ability is not all-together clear. This study aimed to directly compare aerobic capacity (VO2peak) and anaerobic threshold (AT) to an aesthetic competence measure (ACM) in student contemporary dancers. METHODS: Participants were 18 contemporary dance students and all undertook a one-off treadmill test to volitional exhaustion in the week leading up to a performance to determine VO2peak and AT. In the same week, a final rehearsal for the performance was filmed to allow retrospective analysis of specific performance competence. RESULTS: Mean VO2peak values of 47.67 ± 5.84 ml/kg/min and AT values of 43.18 ± 7.72 ml/kg/min (90.68 ± 11.87 %VO2peak) were recorded, and the mean total ACM score was 52.67 ± 8.74. No significant correlations were found between cardiorespiratory fitness variables and ACM scores. Regression analyses revealed experience level to be the only significant predictor of total ACM score (p<0.05, R2=0.12, SEE=11.91). CONCLUSIONS: The range of choreography used for assessment may limit the present study; nevertheless, as level of experience did significantly predict ACM total score, it is suggested that vocational dance training may be developing the performance and technical skills of students but not sufficiently developing their physical conditioning.

Quantifying Training Loads in Contemporary Dance

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 796-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie C. Jeffries ◽  
Lee Wallace ◽  
Aaron J. Coutts
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Sleep Quality ◽  
Perceived Exertion ◽  
Training Load ◽  
Rating Of Perceived Exertion ◽  
Stepwise Multiple Regression ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
Metabolic Equivalents

Purpose:To describe the training demands of contemporary dance and determine the validity of using the session rating of perceived exertion (sRPE) to monitor exercise intensity and training load in this activity. In addition, the authors examined the contribution of training (ie, accelerometry and heart rate) and non-training-related factors (ie, sleep and wellness) to perceived exertion during dance training.Methods:Training load and ActiGraphy for 16 elite amateur contemporary dancers were collected during a 49-d period, using heart-rate monitors, accelerometry, and sRPE. Within-individual correlation analysis was used to determine relationships between sRPE and several other measures of training intensity and load. Stepwise multiple regressions were used to determine a predictive equation to estimate sRPE during dance training.Results:Average weekly training load was 4283 ± 2442 arbitrary units (AU), monotony 2.13 ± 0.92 AU, strain 10677 ± 9438 AU, and average weekly vector magnitude load 1809,707 ± 1015,402 AU. There were large to very large within-individual correlations between training-load sRPE and various other internal and external measures of intensity and load. The stepwise multiple-regression analysis also revealed that 49.7% of the adjusted variance in training-load sRPE was explained by peak heart rate, metabolic equivalents, soreness, motivation, and sleep quality (y = –4.637 + 13.817%HRpeak + 0.316 METS + 0.100 soreness + 0.116 motivation – 0.204 sleep quality).Conclusion:The current findings demonstrate the validity of the sRPE method for quantifying training load in dance, that dancers undertake very high training loads, and a combination of training and nontraining factors contribute to perceived exertion in dance training.

Jay Pather Reimagining Site-Specific Cartographies of Belonging

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-44
Author(s):  
Ketu H. Katrak
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
New York ◽  
South African ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Site Specific ◽  
Classical Dance ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Indian Classical Dance

This essay examines Jay Pather's site-specific workCityscapes(2002) within a theoretical discussion of the conjuncture and disjuncture of space and race in South Africa. Jay Pather, a South African of Indian ancestry, an innovative choreographer and curator of site-specific works, creatively uses space to inspire social change by providing access and challenging exclusions—social, cultural, political—of black and colored South Africans during apartheid (1948–1994) and after. A progressive vision underlies his avant-garde work expressed via a hybrid choreographic palette of South African classical and popular dance styles, Indian classical dance, modern and contemporary dance. His choreography is performed across South Africa and the African continent as well as in Denmark, Mumbai, and New York City.

Martha Graham's House of the Pelvic Truth: The Figuration of Sexual Identities and Female Empowerment

2010 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrietta Bannerman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Modern Dance ◽  
Female Students ◽  
The Body ◽  
Contemporary Dance ◽  
Martha Graham ◽  
Sexual Identities ◽  
Dance Training ◽  
To Come ◽  
The 1960S

Martha Graham writes in her autobiography Blood Memory that she was bewildered, or, as she puts it “bemused,” when she heard how dancers referred to her school as “the house of the pelvic truth” (Graham 1991, 211). We might perhaps agree with Graham that this is not the best description for a highly respected center of modern dance training; neither does it match Graham's image as an awe-inspiring and exacting teacher, nor does it suit the seriousness with which her tough technique is regarded. But the house of the pelvic truth does chime with stories about Graham's often frank method of addressing her students. She is reputed to have told one young woman not to come back to the studio until she had found herself a man. At other times she would tell her female students, “you are simply not moving your vagina” (211). Add to this other stories about the men in the company suffering from “vagina envy” (211), and it can be readily understood that the goings-on in the Graham studio gave rise to its nickname, “house of the pelvic truth.”In British dance circles of the 1960s, it was not rumors of the erotic that attracted most of us to Graham's work or persuaded us to travel to New York in search of the Graham technique. There was little in the way of contemporary dance training in Britain at this time, and we had been mesmerized by the beautiful and rather chaste film A Dancer's World (1957), in which Graham pronounces: a dancer is not a phenomenon … not a phenomenal creature.… I think he is a divine normal. He does what the human body is capable of doing. Now this takes time…it takes about ten years of study. This does not mean he won't be dancing before that time, but it does take the pressure of time, so that the house of the body can hold its divine tenant, the spirit. (1962, 24)

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