Interactive Technique 2.0 – Why?

To sing we must have a song in our hearts; but having lost the song, we pursue the singer. Without an intermediary we feel lost; but we must be lost before we can discover anything.

Discovery is the beginning of creativeness; and without creativeness, do what we may, there can be no peace or happiness for man.

We think that we shall be able to live happily, creatively, if we learn a method, a technique, a style; but

creative happiness comes only when there is inward richness, it can never be attained through any system.

~ J. Krishnamurti Education and the Significance of Life

“More than a paradigm, what we need is a mind capable of following the movement of life,” (Nava, 17).

“Holistic education is not concerned with ‘cultural literacy’ (“what every American needs to know”) so much as with nurturing healthy, whole, curious persons who can learn whatever they need to know in any new context,” (Miller, 7).

The VICKi Project

It is my contention (as well as that of holistic education) that self-worth, responsibility, and interconnectedness enable deeper learning than traditional models. Allowing the students to bring their inner lives into their learning encourages growth and development into rich dimensions, otherwise cut off by the standardized teaching models.

The aims of The VICKi Project are to foster dance artists that are responsible for growing in and contributing to an evolving world. Reproduction accomplishes the transference of history through the act of re-creation, and informs creation, but it is important to bring the students’ lives now into their learning. If the goal of technique class is to increase the facility of dancers, then technique education may benefit from taking into account the approach of holistic education. The VICKi Project is ultimately a technology built to enable a holistic learning environment in dance, that incorporates past and present personal experience as a site of inquiry, which I am calling Interactive Technique 2.0.

Miller, R. (1991). Philosophical foundations: Introduction. In R. Miller (Ed.), New directions in education (pp. 6-8). Brandon, VT: Holistic Education Press.

Nava, R.G. (2001). Holistic education: Pedagogy of universal love. Brandon, VT: Foundation for Educational Renewal.

It seems that current technique training relies on three things

1. the consistency of interpretation among students of instructions

2. the repeatability of physical skills to “expertise” or “excellence”

3. “technique” is a separate entity that does not require the presence of a student’s creative dance culture

Nothing is repeatable exactly. We create frames, refining and expanding our knowledge of what can occur within a frame through rigorous exploration. This is the closest we can achieve of “repetition.”

The traditional concept of repetition accomplishes physical strength, endurance, flexibility, and a host of other enablers. Repetition as I’ve described it may not be the best method for “training” – in my class, that would be revised to “cultivating” – “that something else” in dance. I believe that something else is the self expression. Then, getting to know oneself, mind-body (the “whole” dancing human being) in a changing world becomes the field of Interactive Technique 2.0. A class where students can explore their own methods, and processes alongside one another, each as relevant to one another in the class as the teacher is as a guide.