Education

DANCING ON THE KEYBOARD
by Felice Lesser

I needed an out.  If asked why there was to be no performance scheduled for the end of this year's Dalton Elementary School residency (in Coeur d'Alene, ID), I would say, The emphasis this year is on process, not project.  That was the excuse.  The real reason was that I had no idea how this residency was going to turn out.  It was the first time I was teaching dance composition to students this young, and more importantly, it was the first time I was bringing my computer choreography and animation work into the classroom.  My intention was to teach fourth graders how to choreograph dances, both in the studio and on the computer screen (using Life Forms, a computer animation program, developed by Dr. Thomas Calvert of Simon Fraser University).  It all came down to whether or not children could be taught how to use this rather sophisticated software.  And if they could, there was still that little matter of teaching kids with almost no dance training how to make a dance.  Choreography is generally something one approaches long after one has studied dance technique for years.  How much could be accomplished in ten days?

This was the second year of a two-year residency at Dalton, organized by visionary Idaho arts specialist, Jane Morgan for a core group of sixty third graders. During the first year they learned the rudiments of dance -- through a study of folk dances from different countries. The second year (with the students now in fourth grade), they would move to more formalized study, with daily technique classes -- and exercises in dance composition. Simultaneously, they would be exposed to Life Forms in the computer lab, where dance composition would be seen in another light. Dr. Calvert generously arranged for Credo Intermedium to donate the software to the school, and with a grant from the Idaho Commission for the Arts, we were on our way.

I arrived at Dalton in April, feeling as if I had never left.  The boys were a few inches taller; one or two of the ten-year-old girls were prematurely experimenting with new hair colors and make up, but were more or less the same.  Especially nice was the fact that for once I didn't have to go through the usual tests that students throw at a stranger in their midst. I had passed those the previous year.  By this time they were used to me, and were eager to get to work.  We embarked on our exploration of ballet, modern dance, jazz, and tap.  Everyone was having a great time.  Kids love the challenge, energy and excitement of dancing.  After one particularly grueling physical workout learning a rather intricate and difficult jazz combination, they were sent out to the water fountain.  As they trickled back into the gym, I noticed they were practicing -- without having been told to do so.  Within minutes the gym was filled with children lost in their own worlds, concentrating intently yet fully enjoying themselves. They were laughing and yelling out loud, one-two-three-four-shift-turn-step-touch, dancing unselfconsciously.  Those are the moments you remember.

Meanwhile, in the computer lab, they learned very quickly how to move the limbs of the Life Forms figures into poses, to link a number of these figures into phrases, and then animate them, much like a cartoon.  Once we began looking at dance composition in the studio, correlations were made between what they were doing on the computer screen and with their own bodies. The concept of symmetry was easily understood by using the mirror command.  You could pose an arm in a half circle for instance, and then using the command, make the other arm give you exactly the opposite image, completing the circle.  They were learning anatomy and kinesiology without realizing it.  I'd ask them how they'd make a computer figure do a step we were working on in class.  They'd have to visualize it -- breaking down the components of the movement, so that they could recreate it on the screen. That also added to their understanding of how to execute the step in the first place. Then there was the fun part.  Imaginations were allowed free reign.  One of the best things about Life Forms is its ability to do away with the limitations of the human body.  Gravity doesn't exist, a dancer can turn indefinitely, or jump through the roof.  Nothing is impossible.  It was interesting to watch the students try out these wild things on the computer, and then, alter them in the studio, so that their very real bodies could execute the movements.  It seemed they understood (perhaps better than I) the difference between reality and fantasy.

The kids worked in groups, collaborating on their choreography.  As there weren't enough computers to go around, four or five students were assigned to each, making it necessary to share and take turns.  Everyone had a different colored figure, a place, a voice, an equal chance to participate in the process. For me the most rewarding moments came when a student would accidentally stumble onto a fundamental concept.  It's easier to teach what unison or a canon is, or how you use a soloist with a group, when the students studies would demonstrate just those things.

I learned a lot about dance composition in those two weeks. Kids with no preconceived notions about what a dance is, will force you to question what you thought a dance was all along. And I learned more about handling what is generally quite a struggle in this country--turning boys on to dance.  I thought I had found a pretty successful way -- teaching them the fun steps (such as grand jétés and other big leaps) in ballet first,  and then once they were hooked, going back and teaching them the fundamentals of executing the technique properly.  But this residency presented me with an additional weapon.  Computer animation.  This generation is as familiar with computers as my own was with TV.  What a non-threatening introduction to dance and movement this turned out to be!  It was no challenge at all to have them create a dance on the computer.   Once they had done that, getting them to recreate it in the dance studio was no problem, whatsoever.  It was the logical next step.

In the end we did have a performance -- a demonstration of the different dance techniques we had studied in the two weeks, and then a presentation of short movement studies choreographed both in the studio, and on the computer.  The kids then brought their parents into the computer lab and showed off their Life Forms assignments.   The evening was a huge success.  But for me the very best moment came earlier in the week, after we had finished one of the technique classes.  The students had just gone outside for recess.  I packed up my dance bag, and was about to leave the gym, when I looked out the door.  There, standing alone near the garbage pails was a ten-year-old boy -- one of the students in my class.  He glanced around furtively, and when he was certain no one else was looking, he started to move -- practicing the dance combination he had just learned in class.

FLDT reaches out to students, parents, and community groups through outreach events such as our popular folk dance evenings.
(Dalton Elementary School, Coeur d'Alene, ID)

Students in Felice Lesser's "Dance Appreciation" Course at UCONN/Stamford Campus work on an experimental dance video.

Students in Felice Lesser's dance class in UCONN's UPALS Program.

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