Marissa WalkerJanuary 22, 2013Dance 366Emerging Dance PhilosophyEducation is the process of learning and acquiring information. Education calls for a wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual after studying particular subject matters or experiencing life lessons that provide an understanding for something. Education gives us the opportunity and power to succeed. Where do we get this power? From the knowledge we retain. Knowledge is power. Education does not have a single purpose; it serves multiple objectives, and the relative importance of each of these objectives can be very personal.Teaching is a position of trust and authority which must be handled with wisdom and effectiveness. Ones own personal needs and interests must be put aside in order to better serve the students. (Page 7, Lockhart/Pease). My role, obligation, and responsibility as an artist and educator are to help my students gain all the correct knowledge possible to be able to be successful. In order to help them be successful I as an educator and artist must be patient, understanding, helpful, enthusiastic, organized, encouraging, and take responsibility. Taking responsibly is fulfilling your role in life. Teachers have theresponsibilityto be a goodrolemodel in and out of the classroom. Teachers need to impart knowledge of their subject matter to students. This goes beyond simply stating the knowledge that they have gained through their own education. Instead, teachers must possess an aptitude to teach the material through different methods based on the needs of the students. Magaret Skrinar reports that a teachers lack of information about how students learn cold actually detract from their learning and performance abilities, potentially turning future dancers away from the field. (page 87 Enghauser) My role is to teach students that there is no exact way to dance and create art. There may be obstacles to overcome, but it is required by all dancers, learners, teachers, humans. I am to help them come to understand how to solve their own obstacles and have fun in the process. One of the most important things is to help my students gain the desire and skills for lifelong learning.The students role and responsibility in the learning process is first to show a sincere desire and ability to act. Their ability to be open, change and improve needs to come into play as they receive feedback, then apply it. They need to explore their uniqueness, accept being an individual and celebrate it instead of hiding within the crowd. I expect them to be alert, assertive, opinionated, prepared, and organized. Dance is an excellent way to express emotions, state views on life, and yet remain an individual. Contemporary Dance is the exploration of total body movement. It is the form of dance that enables you to move freely, to express yourself, sometimes in a structured manner, sometimes just with the flow of creativity. It is a way to express personalized vision and the way you see the world. Contemporary dance draws from ballet and modern dance. It takes the elements of space, time, energy, and technique to give you a voice in movement. Technique is a procedure used to accomplish a specific activity or task. Technique defines how to move your muscles, and which muscles to use in what way in order to make your dancing look the way it should. It can be the art and way you perform each step scientifically speaking. To prevent falling, you must use proper technique which allows you to perform harder elements. Learning technique for dancing isessential and a fundamental key component to carry forth an artistically pleasing piece. Composition is the choreography, the act of designing a dance. It is the use of body, space, time, and energy. Its theme is to take ideas and organize them into dances. Sometimes being improvisation or structured. As the choreographers we try and combine different elements into a whole. You will be drawing from your personal cultural experiences, either replicating familiar and comfortable patterns or exploring and exposing new, challenging patterns. ( page 71, Schrader) Improvisation is simultaneously an act of ones inner emotions reacting to the environment. It is the expression of individuality and development of innovative movements. We are the sum of our experiences. Our individual perceptions do affect the creative process. (page 131, Schrader) My philosophy of improvisation is to help students gain the self-confidence needed to be able to freely express oneself. I hope to be able to give them the positive encouragement they need to be insolent. I just want a positive fun environment where the students can enjoy learning and freely expressive themselves. Overall my philosophy of education is to create an environment of two way learning. I will continue to find new ways to create composition while still maintaining the technique that is necessary to helps students progress. I plan on putting my self-interests aside to benefit other students. I expect my students to find an innate desire so that their individuality will present itself through contemporary dance.

Work Cited

Rebecca Enghauser, MFA: Motor Learning and the Dance Technique Class, Science Tradition, and Pedagogy. Journal of Dance Education

Constance A. Schrader, MA: A Sense of Dance, Exploring your Movement Potential. Human Kinestics.

Aileene S. Lockhart, Esther E. Pease: Modern Dance, building and teaching lessons. WM.C. Brown Company Publishers. Dubuque Iowa 1982