Dance History & Teaching

When I first heard the now infamous George Bernard Shaw quote ‘those who can, do; those who can’t, teach’ it stopped me in my tracks and made me contemplate my life choices. Am I teaching because I cannot do? Not seconds later was a resounding No! in my mind. The original quote from Aristotle much better sums up the realities for many teachers, ‘those who know do, those who understand teach.’

 

As a teacher of dance for many years, the bristling George Bernard Shaw quote just doesn’t hold water. The corporeal aspect of dance imbues an inherent knowing, enabling the dancer to pass on their bodily knowledge. And I believe that we only truly know something when we can teach what we’ve learned. Teaching is a constant learning, that leads us back to the doing. So, the quote should really be ‘those who know do, those who understand do what they know and teach.’

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I teach contemporary dance and choreography to youth through professionals and work with somatically based dance principles as well as the conditioning practices of Pilates, Gyrotonic®, and yoga, providing holistic tools to support the body

 

As an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersections of dance, theater, musicals and vocal studies, I’ve found myself working extensively in the theater world teaching movement skills, choreography and movement direction

 

Artistically I gravitate to feminist themes in performance, most recently with my dance theatre solo Performing Valeska based on the life of avant-garde performer Valeska Gert

 

This project led me to scholarly research at London's Roehampton University exploring topics of dance reenactment, dance reconstruction, and performative haunting

 

My research interests in dance history recently inspired me to create the website dancestorspodcast.com, to dive deeply into dancers of the past and gain new insight into their worlds and artistry

 

Teaching dance technique, somatic practices, choreography and dance history fuels my passion for teaching in the performing arts and I am enthusiastic about sharing this knowledge with the next generations of artists