Maria K. DUDINASaint Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
3, Theater Square, Saint Petersburg, 190000, Russian Federation
Department of Ballet Direction Associate Professor
e-mail: maria.dudina0410@gmail.com
ORCID: 0000-0002-7503-5326
Contemporary Dance: Boundaries, Definitions, Character Features of the Educational ProcessAbstract: This article is an attempt to formulate the distinctive features of the phenome-non of contemporary dance and offer a clear internal differentiation: contem-porary dance as a set of techniques and contemporary dance as format of artis-tic statement. The first part of the article, these two aspects of contemporary dance were analyzed and compared with those in other varieties of dance forms and related arts. Related to contemporary dance are techniques that recognize the authority of a number of principles: 1) anatomical awareness and the appli-cation of anatomical knowledge in practice (the so-called «applied anatomy»); 2) safety of the dancer’s movement; 3) inheritance of modern dance tech-niques; 4) the use of the laws of physics (gravity, inertia, centrifugal and cen-tripetal forces, etc.), and not opposition to them; 5) application of somatic practices as the foundation of the technique.
The features of contemporary dance as form of artistic thinking are high-lighted, such as 1) advanced technologies (application of contemporary dance techniques); 2) current range of topics; 3) emancipation of the object (human body); 4) variety of forms of composition; 5) expansion of boundaries; 6) fo-cus on communication instead of depiction and fixation of reality.
In the second part of the article, a model for training professionals in the field of modern dance is proposed, which differs from the current one in other areas of choreographic art. The experience of organizing a higher education program «The Art of Contemporary Dance» at the St. Petersburg State Rim-sky-Korsakov Conservatory is described, a description of the functioning of the program is given, and the author’s «Charter of Dance Education» is proposed, the postulates of which are implemented in this program. The cornerstone of the charter is the postulate that the task of the educational system is not to «teach» students anything, but to create the most fruitful environment in which students learn themselves. All disciplines of the professional cycle and the gen-eral art block serve to create a fruitful educational environment.
This implies the point that providing students with freedom in the learning process entails the formation of responsibility (personal, civic, artistic). Free-dom and responsibility are directly proportional to each other and are in a cause-and-effect relationship. Accordingly, assuming to instill responsibility in students, it is necessary to give them freedom, and as the former grows, more and more «let go of the reins».
Higher education programs in the field of contemporary dance are intend-ed to become an area for consolidating scientific knowledge about the desired phenomenon and flagship institutions for the dissemination of this knowledge and the introduction of the latest technologies in a wide field of the contempo-rary dance industry.
Key words: contemporary dance, contemporary dance technique, dance education, choreog-rapher, contemporary dance piece, St. Petersburg Conservatory, Flying Low Technique, Passing Through Technique, Gaga Movement Language, choreog-rapher, Merce Cunningham, Joao Fiadeiro, Pina Bausch.
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For Citation: Dudina, M. (2022) Contemporary Dance: Boundaries, Definitions, Character Features of the Educational Process. International Journal of Cultural Research, 4 (49). 58–69. DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_4_58
DOI: 10.52173/2079-1100_2022_4_58
