Thayer Jonutz and Professor Rebecca Wright Phillips, Dance

Dance instructors teach using different methods. The three most common pedagogical practices are by imitation, imagery and the use of kinesiological principles. Teaching by imitation consists of showing the student what it is you are trying to teach with very little verbal communication and then having the student mimic you. There are different forms of imagery and I chose to explore sensory imagery specifically. Sensory imagery is the use of all the senses: sight, touch, hear, smell, taste. Teaching by sensory imagery consists of using the five senses to bring out different qualities in the movement. Teaching by dance kinesiology targets very specific muscles of the body and different principles and laws that govern movement. Which one of these three techniques is the most effective in a dance instruction situation?

The methodology that I chose to use to find an answer to this question is as follows:

1. Creating a short movement phrase that consisted of elementary to intermediate level moves in it.
2. Forming three groups of two people that were novice level dancers.
3. Setting up three different 30-minute sessions with each group. During the first session, I taught all three groups by imitation. With Group One, I continued to teach by imitation during sessions two and three. With Group Two, I taught the phrase by sensory imagery during sessions two, and three. With Group Three, I taught by use of dance kinesiology during sessions two, and three.
4. After each session, I took at least 10 minutes to ask each group the same questions. Some of these questions were: How did you feel?, What was helpful?, What was Frustrating?, Were you able to pick up on any nuances in the movement? And which parts were impossible to pick up on?

With the imitation technique, we found that the repetition was helpful because more and more could be learned each time. The subjects felt like they had the dance combination when watching me do it but discovered that they were totally lost when they tried it by themselves. One of the frustrating things for the subjects was the lack of memory that they experienced. Also the coordination of some moves was difficult to execute because they experienced difficulty with the previous move. Directional changes were the most difficult areas to pick up on in the sequence because whenever I would turn they would become lost when their back was turned to me. With the imitation group, they were more concerned with the overall structure than specific details.

With the sensory imagery group, I found that some images were very effective and some didn’t work at all. The ones that were most effective were the ones that caused an internal reaction of some sort or were directly related to a specific move. An example of one that caused an internal reaction is as follows. I had the subjects close their eyes and imagine the most peaceful place that they could. When I could sense that they were completely relaxed I unexpectedly hit a large base drum as hard as I could. This action startled the subjects and caused a quick contraction in the abdominal area that could be felt internally. In part of a movement phrase there are quick jumps that travel either to the side or to the back and are executed with very little bend of the knees. I used this imagery to help the subjects feel where the jumps should initiate. An example of imagery that was directly related to a specific move is as follows. There is a move in the phrase where the dancer moves from the scapula/shoulder area down to the end of the fingertips with a flicking action. To bring out this quality, I poured some water on the back of the subjects’ hands and instructed them to flick the water off as rapidly as they could and see the drops fly off the end of the fingers. This allowed the subjects to associate the move with something and allowed them to make a connection with the droplets of water sliding off their fingers and the flicking action of the move. These two examples employed sight, touch and hearing. The examples that I used to involve taste and smell didn’t work because it was very difficult to relate these sensations to specific movements.

The kinesiology group was by far the most successful. With this group I either showed them specific muscles to use or explained principles of movement or I used a mixture of both. At the beginning of the movement phrase there are a series of slow, controlled hops from one leg to the other. To gain the desired effect I first showed the subjects some muscle charts of the Tibialis Anterior. I then had them dorsiflex their feet so that they could see the muscle and palpate it. Next I explained the principle of eccentric contraction, which is when one allows his/her muscles to give into gravity but simultaneously resists it enough to slow the effects of gravity. The dancers needed to employ eccentric contraction with their hip flexor muscles to control the landings and also concentrate on using their Tibialis Anteriors to do the same. With this knowledge the subjects were able to improve very quickly. Something else happened as a result. This was the very first thing that I taught because it was at the beginning of the phrase. In the middle of the dance phrase there was an even larger leap from one leg to the other. The subjects, without me telling them, were able to apply this knowledge to the larger, more difficult move. This was a major breakthrough.

My conclusion is that imitation works but has many limitations. Sensory imagery works sometimes and can be quite effective with establishing nuances if the right senses are tapped into. Kinesiological principles are highly effective because specific muscles are targeted and scientific knowledge is used to explain movement. I think that imitation should only be used to help students gain an overall picture of a phrase. Kinesiology should then be used to break down individual moves and to teach correct principles. Finally, sensory imagery can then be used as an artistic layer, to help dancers to feel and sense the movement internally.