6A Pilot Interview

Alex Frei is an international artist who has danced all over the world, and taught most recently at Tring Park School for the Performing Arts. He is now in the German touring production of Cats as Alonzo and previous companies, to name just one, include Ballet Jazz in Montreal.

I decided to do this in a mildly short hand note form but then I edited my notes to be more understandable.

1.     What Qualities did you learn from being a professional that helped you to be an effective teacher?

-         First-hand experience of actually being on stage, includes dealing with body condition, injuries, accidents, mishaps on stage, slips etc etc.

-         Improvisation in a performance situation in case of choreography blank, or someone else’s mistakes

-         Dealing with Environment ( touring)

-         Support and sympathise

-         Supporting artistic growth and development

-         Support the responsibility that the performers have towards the artistic achievement

-         Teach them about company and theatre ethic and etiquette

 

 

2.     If you had to teach full time and leave dance behind forever what would be the thing/s you would miss the most?

-         Partnering

-         Because nature of our profession requires intense physical but Mental strength, the personal connection you feel with the company (family) is what supports you even though it’s difficult

-         You miss the personal experience. You then have to accept that it’s about the pupils

 

3.     What challenges face young dance teachers these days?

-         Bitter older colleagues

-         Respect and Authority

-         Learning how to assert authority, without having a dictatorship. Have an easy going relationship with the students but there should always be a feeling of respect that you are the teacher so they have a leader to follow

 

4.     Do you think that having a qualification in teaching/professional practice is more, less, or equally important to having practical experience as a dancer and as a teacher? Why?

-         Equally, because an RAD course, for example, teaches structure but having said that there’s some issues where no book or structure beats experience like how to deal with difficult colleagues!

 

5.     What do you think are the good points of British Training and the things that other areas of the world do better?

-         Good- syllabus, and structure, hands on experience with young students. Safe practice and wellbeing. Emphasis on being rounded artists

-         Overseas- They don’t molly coddle, less patronising. Too soft now and Children’s rights can get in the way of the bigger picture.

Alex’s answers stayed true to the trends that I picked up from other tools such as the survey, this suggested that my data is accurate and true to the feelings of the individuals that have taken part.