|
 Nurturing
the Whole Teacher
By Nancy Wozny
An interview with Bill Evans
Bill Evans is the epitome of a teacher’s teacher. He caught
the teaching bug early in life as a developing ballet, modern,
and tap dancer. Along with his performing career, Evans has
made a far-reaching and distinctive mark on the
dance-education world. The Bill Evans Summer Dance Intensives,
which began in 1977, draw both novice and experienced teachers
to State University of New York at Brockport from all over the
map. In 2005 Evans received the National Dance Education
Organization’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1976 he was
awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for his choreography. The
former artistic director of Bill Evans Dance Company, artistic
and executive director of Bill Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble, and
author of Reminiscences of a Dancing Man: A Photographic
Journey of a Life in Dance, Evans is currently a visiting
professor at SUNY Brockport.
Development of the self is a big part of Evans’ work with
dancers and teachers. In this recent interview, he talks about
his history, methods, and lifelong mission to nurture the
dance-teaching process.
◗
You started teaching as a teen. What made you want to teach
at such a young age? What did you learn from beginning so
early in your dance career?
Bill Evans: I wanted to be a teacher from at least age 8, when
I started taking dance lessons. A few weeks later I started
teaching private lessons to my friend Anna Segler. My life
seems complete when I feel that I am making a positive
contribution to those around me. What I learned by starting so
early is that I only need to be one step ahead of my students
to be useful to them, and that I can learn something that
interests me more deeply by attempting to teach it.
◗
You studied ballet, tap, and modern dance, in what order?
BE: I started tap and ballet at the same time, age 8 1/2.
However, the ballet was quite limited until I turned 15 and
started studying with Willam Christensen, founder of San
Francisco Ballet, the University of Utah Department of Ballet,
and Ballet West. I studied jazz and Spanish as a teen and also
in college. I first participated in modern classes at age 18.
◗
Let’s talk about your life as a tap dancer. We don’t see
many modern dance/tap dancers. How do they go
together?
BE: I have been a tap dancer for so long that I organize my
entire life around rhythm, no matter what I am doing.
Therefore, my modern dance is very much about rhythm, no
matter what else I am exploring. I have written about how my
modern-dance technique was informed by my tap dancing in my
late 20s and early 30s in an essay called “Teaching What I
Want to Learn.” The free flow of tap dance, the sense of
release in the hips and involvement of the whole body in every
movement, and the Shape Flow [the practice of allowing the
body to change form in relation to itself rather than
designing it into specific forms] of tap have informed my
dancing and teaching as a modern dancer.
When I perform as a tap dancer, I incorporate everything that
seems useful and appropriate from my modern work. I have
choreographed many works that fuse modern and tap.
◗
What are the gifts of tap dance education to all kinds of
dancers?
BE: Clarity of and responsibility for musical phrasing;
dynamics; freedom in the hips, knees, and ankles; use of the
whole leg as a conduit of energy from the core; ease rather
than unnecessary force; and awareness that the body is a
musical instrument.
◗
Teaching is one thing, and teaching teachers is quite
another. What made you want to help teachers teach better?
BE: Teaching is my passion. Therefore, I’ve devoted much of my
life to trying to become a better teacher. When I offered my
first workshop exclusively for teachers, I discovered a whole
new level of satisfaction. Teachers are deeply appreciative of
t he
gifts of my perception that I am able to share with them, and
they are highly demonstrative. I discovered that teaching
teachers multiplies the impact of my work, since participants
in my workshops in turn pass on what they derive from my
classes to their own students.
◗
What happens when you put a roomful of teachers together?
BE: Many teachers feel isolated, and they blossom
in an environment where they are surrounded by other teachers
who understand their challenges and questions as well as their
bliss. In my teachers’
workshops an amazing amount of peer teaching is going on.
Every teacher brings something unique, and I facilitate
a process through which each participant is able to share with
others. Participants in my workshops develop networks of
support that they draw on throughout the years.
◗
Can you talk about your notion of “wholeness” that you use
in working with teachers?
BE: In much of my own technique training, my teachers trained
my body but often didn’t want to get to know me as a thinking,
feeling, sensing, and intuiting whole person. Since I proceed
in most situations through my feelings/ emotions first, I felt
only partially recognized by such teachers and often wasn’t
able to function at my best. I invite my students to bring
their whole thinking, sensing, feeling, and intuiting selves
into each class, and I provide opportunities for each to
function from their different intelligences
(verbal/linguistic, rhythmic/musical, visual/spatial,
mathematical/logical, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and
naturalist).
◗
Do you have any specific strategies for doing this?
BE: I ask for reflective writings from participants in my
classes on a regular basis. Often we’ll all sit for a “quick
write” immediately after a session, before we engage in
discussion. Through these writings I learn more about my
students, and in my responses they learn more about me. I also
have conferences with each student on a regular basis, and my
door is open several hours a week for them to come to me with
questions and concerns. Also, I ask questions in each class
and encourage every student to answer me verbally. I assign
each student a “study buddy” [and] give numerous assignments
throughout the semester in which [they] are required to work
together. They watch each other and give feedback in almost
every class. I often ask them to tell their buddies what they
are doing well— what comes alive in them as viewers as they
witness their buddies moving. I vary the images and language
through which I present material from class to class, to try
to meet the different learning styles of different students.
◗
Let’s talk about the communal atmosphere that happens in a
dance class. Why do we get to know the people we move with so
well? Do you agree that dance is particularly good at building
community?
BE: I worked for 16 years with a colleague at the University
of New Mexico, but it was not until the 14th year that we
bonded. After years of working together daily and interacting
in hundreds of meetings, I invited her to dance in one of my
pieces. In those rehearsals and performances we reached a
level of communi cation
that had not been available to us before. Since 70 percent of
our communication is nonverbal, we reveal truths about
ourselves while dancing that we might conceal at other times.
I believe that one of the main purposes of dance class is
ceremonial or even tribal. People come together to connect to
the earth and move together for a common purpose. Superficial
differences lose their significance when we are communicating
on such a basic level.
◗
What is it about the privilege of being a dance teacher
that allows unique access to a person’s development?
BE: I truly feel blessed to have discovered my calling as a
teacher early in my life. Because we are facilitating our
students’ growth in an area they often are passionate about,
we usually have their undivided attention. If we can gain
their trust, they are often willing to open themselves
completely to our guidance. We have unparalleled opportunities
to guide young people toward positive change.
◗
How have you drawn from the modern legends to develop a
more generic modern technique?
BE: I have absolutely drawn from the styles of Graham, Limón,
Cunningham, Nikolais, and other modern masters, and also from
different styles of ballet. I have incorporated much [of what]
I have learned as a tap dancer and as a jazz student of Jack
Cole and Matt Mattox. I have also integrated knowledge gained
from African and Indian dance forms. In short, I have drawn on
everything I have experienced to create a system of training
dancers that offers variety and balance, musicality, and tools
for the individual student to discover [an] expressive voice
as well as develop technical virtuosity.
◗
How do you sneak mini anatomy lessons in during a technique
class?
BE: I teach experiential anatomy and applied kinesiology
within the technique class. I use anatomical terminology from
the first day of class. Children are especially open to
learning anatomical terms and do so with amazing speed. I
bring a skeleton to technique class regularly and point at
bony landmarks. I use names of major bones and muscles as I
talk about what is involved in the exercises I am teaching. It
isn’t long before even beginning students have a basic grasp
of major bones and muscles.
◗
If teachers don’t have a modern-dance background, how will
they fit into the teacher-training program and not get lost?
BE: I deal with underlying principles and concepts that have
to do with the human
body moving; therefore they apply to all forms of human
movement. I try to meet each student where they are, rather
than asking them
to come all the way to where I am. Since I am a ballet, jazz,
and tap dancer as well
as a modern dancer, I can modify my vocabulary to suit the
strengths of an individual student.
◗
You are trained in Laban Movement Analysis and Bartenieff
Fundamentals, which together are called Laban/ Bartenieff
Movement Analysis. In Europe, Laban work is the basis of most
modern-dance education. In the United States we mostly find it
in dance academia and not in the private sector. If you had
two sentences to explain this, how would you describe it to a
dance teacher who had never heard of it?
BE: Laban Movement Analysis gives us a framework to see,
understand, and discuss human movement, in the subsystems of
effort (qualities), shape (the body’s process of changing its
size and shape), and space (personal and
general space and pathways through them). Bartenieff
Fundamentals is a system of movement re-education based on the
developmental movement patterns that each of us experiences
from the moment of conception.
◗
How has your experience in Laban work shaped your teaching
and the development of your technique?
 BE:
What really sets my technique apart from other systems is its
basis in Laban
Movement Analysis, anatomy, kinesiology, and physiology. Laban/Bartenieff
Movement Analysis gives me different lenses through which I
can perceive, understand, and make meaning of human movement.
It gives me access to understanding and appreciating all human
movement, rather than approaching movement through style (a
series of repeated choices). It gives me tools to understand
and make meaning of human movement, appreciate personal
uniqueness, and help students who are struggling with
inefficient movement patterns.
◗
Can you briefly describe Bartenieff Fundamentals? How do
you think they help dancers warm up and teachers understand
movement better?
BE: Bartenieff Fundamentals is equally useful to ballet, jazz,
tap, and modern dancers. It is based on the developmental
movement patterns that begin at conception and continue
through at least the first 18 months of our lives. In our
adult lives, these developmental movement patterns become
patterns of total body organization, images through which we
can organize the neuromuscular system for healthy and
efficient functioning. These fundamental patterns are Breath
(cellular and lung), Core-Distal, Head- Tail, Upper-Lower,
Body-Half, and Cross-Lateral. By approaching training through
these developmental patterns, I lead my students toward
becoming more deeply aware of their bodies and toward creating
balances within the neuromuscular system. These balances are
keys to healthy functioning and longevity.
◗
How do you impart this information without trying to cover
too much ground in a short time period? BE: I have
integrated Laban concepts and language in all my teaching:
conditioning, modern technique, ballet technique, tap,
improvisation, composition, repertory, etc. I often have
private-sector teachers in my summer programs. Several of
those in my certification program are private studio teachers.
They have embraced the Laban concepts fully and have
incorporated them throughout their studios, even in tumbling.
The key is teaching material clearly and developmentally,
rather than making judgments about which style is superior.
◗
How soon can teachers start applying what they learn? Laban
has a very specific vocabulary. Are there handouts to help jog
the memory?
BE: Most teachers learn enough in their fir st
six-day intensive to start applying the concepts immediately.
It is not so important initially to understand the specific
category as it is to understand the underlying concepts and
start exploring them and finding ways in which they are
meaningful and useful to both teachers and students. I do
provide handouts. I also encourage teachers to read a book on
Bartenieff Fundamentals and one on Laban Movement Analysis. It
is important not to wait until you have a perfect
understanding to begin using these concepts. Laban was always
playing with ideas—exploring them to see how they might be
useful. This is what I encourage each teacher to do.
Bartenieff often reminded her students that there are many
possibilities and that learning is an exploratory adventure.
◗
I understand that you get lots of returnees.
BE: Most of them will return. In fact, at least half of the
participants in a typical summer course are returning
[students]. Most teachers come to me on the recommendation of
other teachers who have found my summer programs useful. Some
have returned as many as 15 summers.
◗
Let’s talk about the other somatic elements in your teacher
training. Suzie Lundgren, a Feldenkrais practitioner and
modern dancer, is teaching. I think it’s great that somatic
disciplines are getting off the mat, but how? What does it
look like?
BE: Suzie teaches courses in Awareness Through Movement within
one of my summer courses each year. She also participates in
my Bartenieff Fundamentals and technique courses and offers
her perspective in discussions within them. In my
teacher-preparation programs, she gives feedback and
facilitates sessions in which teachers create their own
exercises and combinations. Some of the principles she
emphasizes are the need for variety, so that we don’t fall
into endless repetitions of the same ways of moving; letting
the body solve some of our movement problems for us, rather
than intervening immediately when something is not perfect;
and working within a comfortable range. She reminds us about
skeletal structures and encourages us to imagine our bones
moving freely.
◗
Suzanne Oliver, an Alexander teacher, is teaching as well.
Alexander Technique helps dancers become more aware of how
they might be overusing themselves. How does she integrate
that work into a dance class?
BE: Suzanne teaches ballet in one of my summer
programs. Her teaching is informed by her knowledge of
exercise science— anatomy, kinesiology, physiology—and also
her perspective as an Alexander teacher. She encourages
attention to ease and lightness and lines of energy within the
body as she teaches. She helps us understand that conditioning
doesn’t mean going for the burn but developing endurance,
stamina, strength, and flexibility by working fully, gently,
and in harmony with the body’s needs.
◗
How does your choreography factor into your teaching?
BE: I have never been able to separate the “teacher me” from
the choreographer me from the “performer me.” Each of them is
active in each class and rehearsal. I choreograph an extended
phrase of movement in virtually every technique class, giving
participants an opportunity to really dance. These phrases are
based on the principles we have been studying and on the
overarching themes of balanced mobility/stability,
exertion/recuperation, full access to the kinesphere and
dynamosphere, and finding personal expressive voice. I follow
my intuition to create movement patterns that are appropriate
for the people in the room, drawing on modern, ballet, jazz,
and other dance forms to give the dancers a satisfying
artistic experience.
◗
You mention that overarching themes and underlying concepts
unify your approach. Can you name a few?
BE: Life is movement. Movement is change. Since change is the
only constant, we learn to open ourselves to the possibility
of positive change, remembering that there are always many
possibilities and that there is no one way to be connected and
efficient. Technique is not working if it shows. The goal is
to reveal individual uniqueness while giving students the
tools they need to honor the integrity of the choreographic
work, be a part of the ensemble, and develop a unique
virtuosity.
Bill Evans/Brockport Dance Intensives for Established,
Emerging, and Future Teachers take place at State University
of New York College at Brockport. Intensive I: July 1–7, 2007.
Intensive II: August 5–12, 2007.
Bill Evans Pedagogy of Dance Technique: Hands-On Workshop for
Selected Students (by invitation only) takes place August
12–17, 2007, also at SUNY Brockport.
For information on these and other programs, contact bevans@brockport.edu
or visit
www.billevansdance.org.
Photo captions (top to bottom):
Bill Evans in 2006. Photo by Jim Dusen.
Daily technique classes in the Summer Dance Intensive end with
Evans joining class participants in a unifying circle. Photo
by Keven Elliff.
Evans teaches a modern technique class at the 2003 Summer
Dance Intensive. Photo by Keven Elliff.
Evans takes a hands-on approach in a Bartenieff Fundamentals
class for teachers at a 2002 Summer Dance Intensive. Photo by
Keven Elliff.
Dancers in the University of Wisconsin Dance Program perform
Evans’ Walkabout in November 2005. Photo courtesy University
of Wisconsin-Madison.
Bill Evans (foreground) onstage in Albuquerque, NM, in 1999,
with longtime Bill Evans Rhythm Tap Ensemble member Skip
Randall. Photo by Pat Berrett.
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