"Established" level technique—areas of focus & the notion of "style"

In this "established" or intermediate level of dance technique my focus for teaching is to offer other perspectives on dancing—specifically how to consider the interaction of the senses in our ways of moving, learning, and living.

—how a visual image might offer new insights on anatomical function and structural alignment;

—how tactile information (touch/sensation) can deepen or augment a visual image;

—how sound and rhythm/pulse connect to breathing, and to our underlying instincts and emotions...

This level of technique differs from the advanced level in that I may not cover as much material, i.e. spend more classes working with the same sequences or teaching shorter, less complex sequences. I may introduce material that is more moderate in its shifts between planes/levels and in its demands for flexibility, control and nuance (stylistic detail). However, all my material to varying extents concentrates on musicality and rhythmic variation, drawing on visual imagery and imaginative ideas,  and bringing attention to how we use our vision and our three-dimensionality in our dance performance.

Dancing is a personal statement and a cultural act—who we are and where we have been (or long to go) resides in our bodies and contributes to our individual "style."

My dance "style" is a hybrid fusing contemporary dance, physical theatre and post-modern aesthetics. There is a deep underpinning in my movement vocabulary of my own musicality and love of rhythm/syncopation (extensive background in tap-dance and music practice and theory) and my pioneer modern styles dance training (Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey via my University teachers) mixed with my interest in the everyday in movement (have had direct experience working with Judson/Post-modern greats Steve Paxton, Deborah Hay, Lisa Nelson, Eva Karczag).

In a teaching context I try to engage and inform students on a range of levels, re-articulating ideas from different perspectives (visual/imagery, kinaesthetic/tactile, aural/rhythmic, anatomical) to broaden their access to or ‘ways in’ to my dance material. In a choreographic context I am interested in extending this approach to facilitate a creative exchange with my dancers, one which enriches my choreographic process and which can support each dancer’s performance narrative.

I have felt a significant pull toward Indian culture, specifically to yoga practice. I was introduced to it at University (my dance teachers) along with jikyu jitsu and qui gong and have been practicing more intensively (i.e. 4-6 times per week) over the past 10–12 years. As my physical practice deepened so has the mental rigor and breathing. I have also spent a considerable amount of time in India over the past ten years and other traces of that culture have seeped in. I studied some Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance) and Kalari Payattu (a South Indian martial art form) and have found the detail and specificity of gesture and the directness and strength both a challenge and a place that I could enter into fairly easily. The uprightness of Indian classical dance is almost diametrically opposed to my style of rolling, release and floor work but there is also a theatricality and virtuosity that appeals and which sits well with me. I have always been strongly influenced by an eclectic range of musical styles (Celtic also features in my repertoire/heritage) and my trips to India have built my collection of Indian music (Sufi, classical and Hindi/Bollywood). When in India I taught contemporary technique and choreographed a contemporary work on Indian dancers and I think it is the combination of ‘living’ in a culture and having to work out how to collaborate artistically across cultural landscapes that pushes your expressive capacities—you have to analyse and communicate (and often question) where you’re coming from with your western aesthetic, and you have to find ways to meet their physicalities and rituals (of which there are many!) creatively and sensitively.

Whereas your "introductory" level classes may have been about finding basic commonalities with your fellow dancers—of alignment, strength and stretch, use of space and time—now I encourage you to consider your individual aesthetic and potential, your particular inflection in how you interpret and perform the material—to investigate your uniqueness.


Images: Dianne as a tertiary dance student, Adelaide, 1986; dancing with Mallika Sarabhai, Ahmedabad, India, 2006.