Lessons from Kay Clark: Seeking Answers to Today’s Questions in RDT’s Archive (Part 2)
PART 2: ON TEACHING AND PEOPLE
By: Kara Komarnitsky
Many graduates from college dance programs, myself included, end up teaching a lot more than they are performing or choreographing, but many more hours of my degree program were spent performing and choreographing than teaching. At one point Kay writes, “A teacher of technique has to have a real philosophy about what he is teaching to give a direction to his work.” Kay’s notes on teaching reflect her many years of experience and a depth of knowledge that are like treasures for someone who is trying to find their own philosophy about what they are teaching.
Demonstration then exercise is demonstrating. Demonstration into exercise is getting them started. Demonstration with exercise is following.
I really enjoyed this diagram that Kay drew to describe the relationship between demonstrating and following. She writes, “Following an example is not as deep. There are no beginnings and no ends to followed exercises. There is a nice, lively alertness to followed exercises. If following leads people to see then it is useful.”
Kay reminds me that what we teach is equal in importance to how we teach it, and that those teaching methods may change depending on where we are trying to lead people. The ways that we teach mirror the ways that we want to relate to each other and intentionality with this process is necessary to develop a movement practice and rehearsal environment that fosters positive growth.
ON PEOPLE
Kay spent time doing a lot more than making and teaching dance, just as I also spend more of my time managing personalities, navigating funding networks, and writing emails than I thought I would when I decided to pursue dance. Kay was well known for her strong work ethic and organizational skills and she had a finely tuned sense for how to manage different types of people in any situation to prioritize the development of the group and get things done.
Creative people savor that time to play with a new idea, a new movement, a new role in an unguided fashion. Leave them alone for a while.
Noncreative people feel uncomfortable with this time. They feel unsupported and lost. Tell them what they can think when they need to know.
Professional dancers encompass both types of people. It is hard to direct both types simultaneously. There is also the emotional factor that can turn one type into another category.
By graduation from college (and certainly often by a very early age) people have been typed or have typed themselves into a category of creative or uncreative. They are very often wrong. Give some tools for change. Be careful of terminology.
If people can be creative but sensitive to when to adapt to others, you’ve got it made. Don’t reward people with praise who are being nerds to others creative growth and feelings. Don’t forget to reward those people who are superbly subtle in the way they “make things work.”
Creativity = regeneration = independence from pressure.
Her notes reflect on the complexities of working within an artistic democracy during the time RDT was challenging the standard model of dance organizations. Today, there are few dance companies left that only perform one choreographer’s work and project-based companies are more and more collaborative. Kay’s discoveries for bringing out the creativity in everyone feel invaluable no matter what role I may take on in a project.
RDT challenged more than ideas about artistic direction, Kay and Linda were pioneers of fundraising models, education programs, and audience engagement campaigns, all of which are vital systems to building an arts-oriented community. Kay writes about what was successful in cultivating the realization of a creative vision: “Give someone’s idea enough support so they can at least explain what the thing is. Throw in some empathy and imagination, then criticize and be realistic and gather facts. Get criticism in as early as possible so that everyone can adjust to modifications.”
Idea + support + criticism = realization
Idea + criticism + support = realization
Idea + criticism = no realization
Idea + support = realization but probably could be better
Idea + support = realization + criticism = paranoia
Kay’s process as detailed in her notes centers the relationship between criticism and support to realize an idea and reminds me how necessary it is to involve outside perspectives in our process, even when it can be scary to ask for feedback. To be successful and reach wider audiences with our work, we need to take into account more than our own view as often and as early as possible in the artistic process.