Teaching WhatYou Want to Learn distills the five decades that Bill Evans has spent immersed in teaching dance into an indispensable guide for today’s dance instructor.
From devising specific pedagogical strategies and translating theory into action, to working with diverse bodies and embracing evolving value systems, Evans has considered every element of the teacher’s role and provided 94 essential essays about becoming a more effective and satisfied educator. As well as setting out his own particular training methods and somatic practice as one of the world's leading dance teachers, he explores the huge range of challenges and rewards that a teacher will encounter across their career. These explorations equip the reader not only to enable and empower their students but also to get the most out of their own work so they are learning as they teach.
This is an essential book for anyone who wants to teach dance and movement, from professional and academic settings to amateur artists and trainee instructors.
Author(s): Bill Evans
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 233
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of contributors
Foreword
INTRODUCTION
1 The Backstory
2 Why This Title?
3 Citing My Sources
Chapter I. Notes to Self
1 Remind Yourself That You Love to Teach
2 Embrace Evolving Values
3 Teaching’s Not Easy, But If It’s Your Calling, Nothing Else Will Be As Satisfying
4 You Always Have Something to Offer
5 It’s OK to Be Unpopular
6 It’s OK to Say You’re Sorry
7 Follow Your Personal Aliveness
Chapter II. Underpinnings
8 Planting Seeds
9 Crystallizing or Paralyzing Activities or Experiences
10 All Students Are Smart
11 Preparing Students for Their Future, Not Our Past
12 Honoring Personal Uniqueness
13 Knowing Themselves to Adapt to Different Styles
14 Students Don’t Need to Be Fixed
15 We Are All in This Together, But Each of Us Is Having a Different Class
16 Learning Is Active
17 Thought Creates Action
18 Inefficient Movement Patterns Are Not Moral Weaknesses
19 Replace. You Can’t Just Erase
Chapter III. Cornerstones
20 Positive Self-Talk
21 Compete or Excel?
22 High Challenge But Low Threat
23 The Value of Refined Repetition
24 There Is No Meaning Without Context
25 Learning Can Be Serious Fun
26 Uncover to Discover
27 Never Work Harder Than Your Students
28 Teaching The People in The Room
29 Learning From The Living Body
30 The Mind-Body Organizing Power of Intent
31 Movement Occurs in Phrases
32 Neutral Alignment/A Change in The Part Creates a Change in The Whole
33 Brace, Collapse or Give and Take/ Yield and Push to Reach and Pull
Chapter IV. Language
34 Words Matter
35 Invite
36 Allow
37 Reach and Other Integrative Verbs
38 We Are Not Objects
Chapter V. Guidelines and Strategies
39 Noticing Each Student in The Learning Circle
40 There Is No Front in Our Classroom
41 Wrapping Words Around Perceptions/Pair and Share
42 Teaching Through Touch
43 Balancing Portions of The Class
44 Investigations Not Exercises
45 Planning Backward
46 Managing Time
47 Previewing The Whole, Differentiating The Parts and Integrating the Entire Investigation
48 Addressing The Cause, Not The Result
49 Opening Rituals
50 Closing Rituals
Chapter VI. Body Specificity
51 Lung Respiration
52 Cellular Respiration/We Are Mostly Water
53 Breathdancing
54 Dynamic Alignment/The Pathways Through
55 Body-Part Phrasing
56 Asymmetrical Body Sides
57 Plié Is So Much More Than Bending The Knees
58 Turn-Out Is Not All About The Feet
59 Turn-In/Balancing Muscular Exertions
Chapter VII. Anatomical Imagery
60 Allowing The Pelvic Outlet to Open
61 The Pelvis Is Not Square
62 Open-Chain Pelvic-Femoral Rhythm/Thigh Lifts and Leg Swings
63 Pelvic Shift Happens
64 Let’s Liberate Our Elbows and Knees
65 Walking Feet/Foundations and Levers
66 The Feet Reorganize Continuously in Each Plié
67 Tripods in The Feet and Near the Hip
68 Honoring Spinal Curves
69 Celebrating Spinal Possibilities
70 Successive Spinal Sequencing With, A Partner
71 Arm Circles/Scapulohumeral Rhythm
72 More Arm Circles/Gradated Humeral Rotation
73 Arm Circles With Shape Qualities
74 A Few Samples of Inner Speech
75 Axes of Rotation/Spreading The Workload
Chapter VIII. Converting Theory into Action
76 Riding The Dynamic Pelvis Through Space
77 Undercurves
78 Upper-Body Strengthening
79 Undercurve-Inversion Dance
80 Overcurves
81 Playing with Possibilities/Improvising to Learn Technique
82 Exploring Polar Opposites
83 Playing with Weight Centers
84 Shrinking Is As Important As Growing
85 The Interdependence of Mobility and Stability
86 Quantitative or Qualitative Strength and Flexibility
87 Recuperating Without Stopping
88 Spatial Imagery—Tensions, Pulls and Intents
89 Changing It Up Spatially
Chapter IX. Assessment and Variety
90 Formative and Summative Feedback
91 Assessment Dialogues
92 Study-Buddy Choreography
93 Assessment Improvisations Across The Floor
94 The Spice of Life
Chapter X. Teaching Dance through The Multiple Intelligences, by guest author Don Halquist
1 Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence
2 Visual-Spatial Intelligence
3 Musical-Rhythmic Intelligence
4 Interpersonal Intelligence
5 Intrapersonal Intelligence
6 Verbal-Linguistic Intelligence
7 Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
8 Naturalist Intelligence
Appendix A Resource Texts
Appendix B Embracing Non-Eurocentric and
Multicultural Perspectives
Appendix C Applying Concepts from The Laban/Bartenieff Movement System and The Franklin Method of Dynamic Alignment through Imagery
Appendix D My Take on Bartenieff Fundamentals
Appendix E How The Body Changes Its Form
Appendix F Movement Qualities
Appendix G The Geometry of Movement
Index
