Module three - Literature Review

Rory Foster

Rory Foster trained at the American Ballet Theatre were he went on to become a ballet dance performer, teacher and choreographer within ballet. He has worked with many choreographers and fantastic ballet teachers including David Howard, Vincenzo Celli (Cecchetti Method) etc. He then began teaching professional dancers and young students where he became company ballet master for New Orleans Ballet and Chicago Ballet.

David Howard was an English Ballet dancer and teacher. He taught internationally at many institutions such as the Royal Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet and National Ballet of Canada.

Ballet Pedagogy

Whilst reading his written work I came across many points which I can relate to with my practice and inquiry.

'There are some teachers who assume that all they need to know to be successful and effective are the contents of the syllabus, which will either include methodical exercises and combinations or a guideline of ballet vocabulary. It is important to recognise that all of the training methods/systems in ballet are simply tools-specific approaches to the teaching process.'

'Knowing how to use this tool effectively requires good teaching skills. These do not come automatically through learning and memorizing a particular syllabus, nor do methodologies inherently delineate skills such as proper demonstration, counting, correcting, musicality, anatomical approach, et cetera. These skills are taught in formal training sessions, or they are learned through experience.'

I believe completely in this statement as I can comment from my own experience. In the past I have learnt from a variety of people and I know that I have learnt more off someone who understands and has been within the industry which in return gains further respect from myself to someone who has not been within the industry at all. The reason for this is because I believe that to become a great teacher within anything you do you need to have acquired knowledge from experience and gained knowledge from others within the same industry to help you become versatile and learn in a variety of ways.
This is why I would like to look further into the past experiences I have acquired from others who have provided me with tools. I will look into them and see how they have worked for me. I would also like to look further into performance and gain an extended knowledge on the performance of characterisation through dance. This will help my practice as a performer and intern will enable me to become a better teacher in the future.

'There are many who give very few, if any, individual or general corrections-they simply give class rather than teach class.'

Here Foster hits the nail on the head about many dance teachers who turn up to a class unprepared and take a class which they have thought of whilst on their way to the lesson. However this is something I don't and do not want to do as a teacher and certainly do not want to be taught by anyone who does this. In my opinion I believe, to create a great architecture of a lesson generates in a very clear structure for the class. To have a clear structure will help gain what you have set to accomplish. Many ideas for diverse lessons would need experience to put together variety of tools learnt in the past. I will look back at my past experiences to help develop a dance class the plan. The small goals you accomplish by making the class clear and structured will result by taking small steps. During training this was very helpful as it became clear to myself to know what I was working towards. Here I felt like I was learning because during the dance class we discussed ideas, thoughts etc to enhance our training.


I have really enjoyed reading Fosters work as he is very passionate about teaching and the way in which his students learn from him.

Module 3 - The Final Stretch

 

After being introduced over Skype by Paula into Module three it became apparent to me that from my feedback and conversation I need to make my vision and inquiry clearer and more specific.

Many times the words PERFORMANCE and CREATIVITY were coming into conversation. At which point Paula challenged me to answer what is PERFORMANCE and CREATIVITY?

 

 

 

I believe that I needed to go away and research both of these areas as they are so vast and big. To do this I need to narrow down what it is that I want to understand about both words and how I can incorporate them into helping me to make changes to my practice and future goals.

 

At the momet if anyone asks what I am doing and looking into will be;

Changes to my professional practice and my future goals.

This is not my final question but for now this is what I am finding out without a specific question until I have researched further.

 

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We spoke about many other tasks I need to complete as well as the Tasks within the Mod 3 Handbook. I need to make sure that I write literature reviews and look into the Author and understand if it is a reliable source. To do this I will look into the contents page to gain knowledge on the authors experiences prior to writing the book/journal etc.

 

For me to fully take in everything that had been said I have made a spider diagram with certain headings to help me out. These headings are;

- My influences as a performer and how I learnt

- PERFORMANCE

- Literature

- My own Experiences of teaching.

Here I will add to it as I progress by adding pictures, experiences, memories, literature I have come across tohelp finalise my question quicker as I will have a clearer root.