TEACHING PHILOSOPHY  
 
TEACHING STATEMENT DANCE TECHNIQUE                                  Karola Luttringhaus
 
teaching_philosophy.pdf 
 
“The body in its construction and function claims priority as a starting point for any true understanding of how to move safely and well.”
                                                                         Frey Faust, The Axis Syllabus©

As a movement teacher I am responsible for the safety and well-being of my students. It is my responsibility to inform myself of current research findings as well as diverse approaches to movement and bring these to the classroom for review, exploration, and discussion with my students. It is my responsibility to present myself, my motivations, goals, and knowledge honestly and clearly. It is my great joy to respond to students' questions and concerns and take their larger picture into consideration and adapt my teaching to their long-term career goals. It is my utmost imperative to inspire, support, inform, and empower my students so that they may become well-educated eloquent movers that can make informed decisions regarding their future training, health, and risk-taking.

For my BII – The Body's Intrinsic Intelligent movement training classes students will engage with theory such as anatomy, physics, biomechanics, and kinesiology by means of discussing images, reading research papers, watching instructional videos and joint function animations, exploring or building anatomical models from clay, drawing, journaling, writing assignments, and of course through movement. I help my students understand how the many individual parts of the body collaborate with one another and orchestrate collectively to facilitate complex movements and dancing. Touch and palpation exercises, and mindful movement practices help increase proprioceptive sensitivity and awareness so that the student can become more articulate, secure, adaptable, fluid and efficient at harnessing potential kinetic energies. Class exercises usually flow across the floor in a continuous manner and I often invite students to improvise with the suggested movement phrases because it is an important practice toward developing adaptive listening and response skills as opposed to set reflexes. The goal is to teach the student to develop the sensitivity toward finding new movement pathways, toward breaking out of old habits, and toward recognizing what it feels like when efficient alignment is maintained or lost. We practice safe transitions, and fall management patterns.  Each class contains improvisational elements as well as movement propositions to explore and dance together in unison, in formation, and in response to, for, and with one another.   It is my goal to demystify athletic movement and teach my students easy and reliable ways to access abilities they previously did not think they possessed. Ultimately the student becomes less reliant on outside feedback. All students deserve equal opportunity to learn in class as well as  in performance settings and I make sure that the roles I cast for choreographic projects are distributed methodically, fairly, non-preferentially, and non-hierarchically.  

It is important that I make sure that the students understand what a certain exercise is meant to achieve and why, and how it contributes to our learning about optimal skeletal placement. In order to assess my effectiveness and student learning I use a number of tools, quizzes, individual and group projects, writing assignments, and presentations. As a mid-term exam I find  the task to demonstrate and describe (in writing) a short movement sequence in as much detail as possible to be very effective for assessing student learning. Progress toward self guided inquiry becomes evident also through their overall movement quality and the sophistication of the questions asked.

Students learn best in a respectful, courteous, safe, playful, and curious learning environment, where they experience agency and can collaborate and explore with one another. Dividing larger classes into smaller groups to discuss and tackle creative movement assignments which we then share with one another is a great way to achieve this engaged state of playful learning. I always begin class with a check-in and a closing circle so we can all discuss goals and experiences.  
 
Dance is an activity that touches people deeply and personally. Changing the ways we move and the ways in which our bodies find alignment is fundamental to physical, emotional, and psychological stability, and to our overall health. Changing bodies are vulnerable to self doubt. It is still common for dance students to develop eating disorders and struggle with body dysmorphic disorders, which is connected to the ableist, racist, misogynist and otherwise unfair and biased techniques and systems within which we still live and study. 
My goal is to empower students and equip them with sound information about self care, injury prevention, and a sense of their rightful autonomy and authority when it comes to being the guardians of their own health and well being.
 BII - THE BODY'S INTRINSIC INTELLIGENCE 
Effortlessness, Alignment, Experiential Anatomy, and Dynamic Posture

EFFORTLESSNESS

​BII classes look at anatomy, bio-mechanics, and physiology of movement. The approach is creative, experiential and prioritizes individuation. There is some overlap with somatic practices and mindfulness training. My movement research and teaching is strongly influenced by the Axis Syllabus and the amazing individuals, teachers, and artists that explore diligently with passion and creativity the fascinating and life changing world of the body in motion. It is my overarching goal to achieve a sense of EFFORTLESSNESS in movement that elicits a feeling of 'swimming through space', full bodied, gentle, fluid, spontaneous, adaptable and articulate expression and cooperation. BII forms the foundation for my movement technique classes with college students, professional dancers, and non-dancers. The topics explain the focus of the class and the activities are tailored to the level and goals of the participants.

While exploring the shared paradigm of the human body in motion, I always begin from the underlying premise of individuation. Each person's level of experience, their abilities or disabilities, injuries, and emotional capacities and changing needs will be taken into consideration.

Some of the major topics that are addressed in BII classes include:
  • joint function: spine
  • joint function: hip joint (pelvis)
  • joint function: atlanto occipital articulations
  • joint function: shoulder and arm
  • joint function: foot and ankle (leg)'
  • arches of the body (foot, hand, lordoses, kyphoses)
  • undulations & spiraling pathways
  • walking mechanics 
  • ramping (getting from standing to laying down to sitting and back up to standing)
  • rhythmicality and polyrhythms of the body (and music)
  • rolling and crawling
  • falling and rising
  • tensegrity (fascial system, soft tissue, biotensegrity)
  • every-day tasks (picking things up, sitting at the desk, etc)
  • the heart
  • breathing
  • alignment and dynamic posture
  • aging
  • effortlessness
  • chronological bio-architecture
  • gentle waking​
DIVERSITY STATEMENT

diversity_statement.pdf

Here are some bullet-points:
  • I attend diversity training self-motivated 
  • I attend conferences on decolonial studies and indigenous approaches, disability studies, feminism, anarchy, critical race theory, racial capitalism, gender and women's studies, animal rights, etc
  • influenced by Sunaura Taylor, Judith Butler, Bell Hooks, Paulo Freire, Toni Morrison, Kim Tallbear, Robin Wall-Kimmerer, Vanessa Watts, Shiv Vishvanathan, Robin de Angelo, and many, many others
  • I am white: I am still digging my way out of all this programming
  • I am a woman: I can relate to some struggles and continue to experience misogyny and oppression
  • I am gender non-conforming: I don't like gender categories and gender roles,...and I would rather people do not ask me about my pronouns or make generalizations or assumptions about me. I understand that for many people differentiation, categorization and acknowledgment of categories are meaningful, respectful, considerate, and important and I offer safe spaces for sharing this information.
  • I offer and support the disclosure of gender pronouns if people desire to share. I do not put anyone under pressure to disclose anything about them that they do not wish to share or feel does not belong into the professionalism of the classroom environment.
  • I encourage and am available for open discussion. 
  • EDI is crucial in academia (so many reasons)
  • The ableist, sexist, racist environment is everywhere including in institutions of higher education
  • I do my best to create a safe space in my classroom​
  • I offer diverse art, and viewpoints, guests, readings, and experiences
  • I have the awareness of inequalities, biases, injustices, oppression in systems, institutions, society, myself and I am aware that I have blindspots. I work to educate myself and seek to discover my blindspots.
  • I support and practice non-violent communication methods
  • BII-movement approach is essentially accepting people for who they are. I am trying to enable every student to move freely and powerfully and make them aware of some of the physical, emotional, and social pressures in movement education and in the performance world: I create possibility for making informed choices
  • I respect my students
  • I decentralize power in the classroom, and in the moving body
  • I redefine dance
  • I listen to my students and respect their opinions and needs,their experiences and authority over their own lives
  • I create new language around movement that seeks to decolonize the body
  • auditions: I accept everyone, I distribute lead roles, chorus roles, on-stage and back-stage  evenly and fairly. I know how to and teach my students how to highlight a person's strength and unique charisma on stage, while also giving each student the opportunity to learn the same material. I am strictly against elitist, preferential treatment of students (where the "best" students always get the lead roles, and not everyone has the same educational opportunities) for the benefit of the reputation of the department. I can afford to do so because I believe in my choreographic skills to create excellent works with people of all levels of virtuosity.
  • choreography: I create piece for everyone, no favoritism, or repeated lead roles to the same people, no classism in class, and I consult with students about the process, the topics and the casting process.
  • I coordinate and curate festival and community outreach, thematizing issues around Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion,  
  • critical engagement around my theories of articulation & disarticulation in dance: recognizing and discussing the relationship between joint function, bone relations and oppressive dance structures and practices and decolonizing dance through allowing the body to articulate within its healthy parameters, starting from acceptance, care, passion and love as opposed to elitism, competitiveness, discipline,obsession and sacrifice. Imposition is not needed in dance education. The dancers that study with me improve tremendously and their technical ability flourishes quickly and with self motivated dedication to their practice.
TEACHING METHODOLOGY

A statement will be updated soon. Here are some bullet-points for now:

Feminist and Daoist pedagogy principles
  • reformation of the relationship between teacher and student
  • empowerment
  • building community
  • allowing for embodied ways of participation
  • no mind-over-matter methods
  • respecting he diversity of personal experience
  • challenging traditional pedagogical views
  • play is important!
  • group debriefings
  • selecting culturally diverse material
  • decolonial ideas within new teaching structures
  • don't assume
  • facilitator
  • all abilities, no ableism: especially in dance!
  • phenomenology
  • teaching and learning as: practices of freedom
  • experience
  • my viewpoint
  • open for discussion and critical engagement
  • Paulo Freire
  • Bell Hooks
  • Marshall Rosenberg - Non-violent communication
  • learning happens on its own when the conditions are right
  • self guided work opportunities and topics adjusted to student need and interests (everything is inter-connected, so usually I can get their needs met and mine)
  • mutual respect
  • self respect
  • free speech
  • self expression
  • open discussion of teaching potentials and shortfalls
  • co-crafting learning goals and activities with students
  • supporting students individually on their unique journeys
  • acceptance and love for all body types
  • individuation: the blueprint for movement research is each students own movement paradigm and physiological reality: respect what is, find what is and how it works
  • decolonize the body: dismantling gender and body image stereotypes
  • Grading is the most difficult: I am working within a grading institution and many students want to be graded. I constantly discuss this with my students, try to take the pressure out of grading, make it accessible and relatable and reasonable, and I constantly reassess my grading templates, doing away with grading whenever possible when it comes to the learning experience. 
CHOREOGRAPHY & DESIGN 
​

Developing a new work is a process of love that is endlessly rewarding to me. I am enchanted by visceral and fierce kinetic expressions, by spaces that offer transformation, and by materials that resonate within the characters and the story. I love for the space/set design to leave room for the players, so that intricately interwoven relationships and strong personalities can develop and merge with the environment, the lighting, the sound and the costumes to something intimately connected and meaningful. As dancers/choreographers we have an impact on our society and I emphasize the importance that our work bears, not only on individual and private lives, but on our society. Dance is an influential tool as it facilitates a platform for intelligent, emotional and critical exchange and learning, as well as the development of complex social networks. I am a detail-oriented, investigative and philosophical director, basing my work on a search for uncovering layers of the subconscious. Intellect and instinct are at work in equal measure, an ongoing exchange between creativity and analysis. Exploring the precipices of human emotion, I am drawn to friction, confrontation and vulnerability. I do not fear beauty. I avoid illustration. I crave a deep look into the soul of a work and I need absolute honesty within each work. With that, art can change our hearts.

I am interested in visceral and kinetic voices that trace the changeable electricity of thought and sensation that underlies human interaction and interpersonal relationships. My work is athletic and detail oriented and so are my classes. I teach choreography as a complex arrangement of options which are identified as located somewhere in between the visual arrangement of energetic lines created by bodies in space and the underlying motivations/expression, hence: the psychology of movement. We study body language and interpretation skills. My emphasis lies on the exploration of honest, real expression and interaction. 

Books I recommend and use for teaching:
​https://www.axissyllabusforum.org/literature