When your opinions don’t hold sway with your students, consider using Heather’s approach and have your dancers listen their way in to the work of famous choreographers.
Merce Cunningham
Documenting Dance History: Two DVD Musts For Your Collection
A brief look at two documentary films that will inspire and educate your dance students. Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance and Never Stand Still: Dancing at Jacob’s Pillow are engaging, informative, essential for any dance program library, and readily available to anyone who is a fan of dance.
History Moves: Using the Creative Process to Explore Dance History
When working with students on choreography it’s possible to get them thinking beyond steps to a more robust concept of creative process that encourages thoughtful choices about all areas of production. Heather demonstrated this with her previous article. This time, she goes a step further, showing you ways to connect these ideas with dance history to enrich students’ understanding.
Profile of an American Icon: A Few Words With Paul Taylor
I feel very honored that Mr. Taylor took the time to answer a few questions about his life and work in an email interview. Paul Taylor is one of the most prominent and influential choreographers of our time. Yet, in the late 1940’s he was studying painting and swimming on scholarship at Syracuse University when amidst a series of seemingly unrelated dance experiences he was struck by a revelation or, as he describes it in his autobiography Private Domain a “flash of recognition… an unignorable hunch” that he was to become a dancer.
