A little hat tip to Artsjournal.com for sharing a link to an article about class at Stanford University titled “Dance 123: Hot Mess & Deliberate Failure as Practice.“ The course catalogue description lists it as “…a dance class in how we become the worst dancer possible.”
The goal is to teach students to accept failure as part of the creative process.
“What happens,” he asks, “if we accept failure as a creative virtue?” By letting go of perfection, students might discover something unexpected and quite beautiful, he says. From dancing at an elite level to rock-climbing for 30 years, Ketley has “obsessively” explored movement. He designed the course after using chaos in his own process and watching thousands of other performers: “I noticed a type of brilliance when people relinquish control.”
Why is dance the right medium? “It’s fun,” he says. “So much of our dance training is claustrophobically serious. Happiness, in a repressive culture, is transgressive.”
A number of the students interviewed talked about how liberating the class experience has been for them, allowing them to break out of their shells and bolstered their confidence.
The article made me try to recall if there is any improv training in dance the way there is in acting. Ballet training has always had a high level of enforcement of performance and aesthetic elements, but I wasn’t sure about jazz, modern, etc.
Improvisation in dance may exist but not embraced experimenting with chaos to the degree acting improv has.
