This is a Course in Translation Not Imitation

ABSTRACT

In this student reading, I use examples from dance technique classes to bring attention to the choices that students make when learning new movement via observation and repetition. Based on these examples, I frame learning in technique class not as a process of imitation but a process of translation. In doing so I hope to advocate for the intellectual practices and opportunities for student agency embedded in dance technique learning.

KEYWORDS:

• Technique
• learning
• critical thinking

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. “Intelligence” is a complicated concept to define as it is used by different fields in different ways (Sternberg 2020). In education, intelligence is often associated with a student’s ability to recall facts and engage in internal reasoning about abstract relations (Joel and McGrew 2018). In my own work I take an ecological and evolutionary perspective that considers intelligence, and cognition more broadly, to be a facility through which organisms perceive and respond to social and material contexts in order to successfully grapple with a complex and changing environment (Barrett 2018).

2. According to Meltzoff (2002), during imitation the observer must perceive the demonstrator and separate out which actions should be imitated. For instance, in a dance class the teacher is often speaking while demonstrating but the students know to not imitate the speech while repeating the phrase. Similarly, if the teacher sneezes or scratches their shoulder during demonstration, students generally do not imitate these actions. Following, or simultaneous with observation, the observer uses visual information for the development of an action plan, a cross-modal coordination, which is then executed through motor control. If there is a delay between demonstration and execution by the observer, then memory and representation are also brought to bear in the imitative process.

3. Note that this example applies when the teacher has not provided direct verbal or physical cues as to which option they are looking for. If the teacher for instance, calls out the word “reach” with each step they might be indicating maximum stride length is desired. If, though, they have an arm stretched to the side indicating lines should stay in spatial unison, then they might be indicating that a uniform 24” is preferred. It seems easy enough in this simple example for the teacher to communicate their intention but when the dancing becomes more complex than simple steps, then not all intentions can be explicitly and easily communicated.

4. Note also, that in these examples the underlying purpose of the exercise is for the student to follow the teacher’s example. The series of steps could also be framed as opportunities for students to explore their own curiosities and intentions, in which case the options for action multiply.

5. There is, of course, more than only movement information to assist in the translation. The words the teacher uses, the melodies and rhythms the teacher sings, the emotional tone of the demonstration, the music of the accompaniment, the activity of other dancers, etc. are all part of the overall experience on which the dancer draws.