Debbie Marper-Gibson

I had been discussing my course tonight with my husband. I commented that my MAPP colleagues and I all came from different backgrounds of the Performing Arts and didn't always agree on aspects of whether a dance work had merits or not. He, not coming from a dance background, said, that he hadn't enjoyed the album Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield to start with but on listening to it several times he had discovered the different layers within it. It made me think of the different layers that exist when we look at choreographers, their dance pieces, genres and how we build on them. When I first went to collage and started teaching I thought, I hated contemporary dance. Why is someone dancing in a tea bag I thought? Why on earth would you just walk about the stage and occasionally do a 'gymnastic' movement with your fellow dancer? How can it be 'dance' when all you are doing is gesturing, not pointing your toes and pushing, shoving and rolling on the floor wit...

I found the film of Itay Yatuv and his daughter which Helen posted on her blog this week, absolutely mesmerising with its graceful energy and flow. The raw innocence and trust that a daughter gives to her father was so tender. Sadly, I have had little experience with contact improvisation and when I have been lucky enough to have been involved in a workshop, I have spent much of the time trying to relax and turn off the voices in my head that say ‘ I don ’ t know this person. How can I touch them, we ’ ve only just met? Etc, etc ’ Finally at the end of the session I have built up enough respect and trust to enjoy myself. It made me think that when teaching our pupils, we need to build up the respect and trust that our pupils need from us and not just expect it as a given. When I moved to Carlisle in 1984 I set up dance classes. I expected (in my ignorance) that people would choose to come to my classes, as I was the better qualified to teach dance out of the schools on ...

I was listening to the radio on Friday. It was St David's day and Iwan Jones was teaching Jeremy Vine how to speak Welsh. Jeremy apologised every time he made a mistake. Iwan told him not to apologise as Mistakes are the Life blood of Learning. It seemed to be a thought provoking statement. On Sunday I attempted to join in the 9am skype session. I must have made a mistake somewhere as my microphone was not working. This meant I could only listen. This was prophetic as this week when looking at my AOL's, one of the soft skills I felt I had learned was listening! This promoted me to research listening theories. Rogers and Farson (1979) describe active listening as 'an important way to bring about changes in people.' They recommend three activities: Listen for total meaning : Listen both for content and also for the underlying emotions. Respond to feelings : Sometimes the real message is in the emotion rather than the surface content.  Note all the cues...