6A Observation

I decided to do my observation on a rehearsal of a professional dance school’s senior dance show. This is because the teacher taking it was a great role model for me, and I would like to eventually move into the territory in which choreographing numbers for dance shows is included.

 It was a great experience for me, like all of her classes and rehearsals; it was a master class in respect discipline, knowledge, control and skill.

The first thing I noticed was how the students all revered her as a teacher, I think this was due to her extensive professional experience as a First soloist of London Festival Ballet, now English National Ballet. The reason I think this is because the assistant teacher was someone without any professional experience at all, and she seemed to just chime in unnecessarily and the students, rudely, ignored all of her corrections and notes; admittedly to my amusement so did the main choreographer. Unfortunately for the assistant choreographer this must have been a tactic to overcome her inexperience by being forceful and dominant…it fell on deaf ears… I took note!

The next thing I noted was the discipline with which she worked, never straying in thought to another issue. The choreography just kept being put on the dancers and then going back to refresh and dance through right up until the last minute. I believe this is because she wanted to simulate a company environment, to educate the young dancers on the reality of a rehearsal.

The teacher displayed great control over the room instructing multiple groups of dancers at once, one’s she wanted to go to another studio and practice, one’s she wanted to sit and be quiet, one’s she was finished with and one’s she was choreographing on currently. I found this to be a fantastic skill in time saving and people management. Vital to keep people busy enough to keep them occupied, rested enough and to ultimately reach the goal of the rehearsal.

Her knowledge of styles and techniques of classical ballet was vast; she had ample knowledge of the genre to give artistic intention to the dancers typical to the movement type and corresponding technique whether it was Bournonville from Denmark or the English adopted Italian style Cecchetti.

I discovered that observations are great for the area I am inquiring into, Teaching and Education, as it happens in a very hands on practical way so what better way to learn about it (other than to be hands on personally) than to watch, unbiased, like a performance and take note of all the things that worked and things that didn’t (again much like a performance) both for the show and for the students.