Creating self esteem through dance

Press, 28 September 1988, Page 24

Creating self esteem through dance

By

MAVIS AIREY

When Marlene le Cren attended an international conference on Dance and the Child in London recently she expected to learn a lot. She did. But perhaps the most surprising thing she learnt was that when it comes to the fulfilment secondary school students get from their dance programmes, New Zealand is well up with — if not ahead of — countries with a long history in dance education. Le Cren, who trained in a wide range of dance forms, has been teaching dance informally at Linwood High School for the .last 11 years. It was through attending the last Dance and the Child conference, held in Auckland in 1985, that she realised what she was doing had the potential to be a curriculum subject. Three Christchurch secondary schools — Linwood, Burnside and Hagley — now offer dance as a Sixth Form Certificate subject. This year’s conference, Young People Dancing: An International Perspective, attracted delegates from 25 countries, some of whom brought dancers with them. Le Cren found it fascinating to see dance as a cultural phenomenon through Turkish, Indian, Jamaican, Yugoslavian

and Dutch eyes, and to see the therapeutic uses of dance for children with special needs. A session on training young performers was notable for the insights given into the anorexic and bulimic problems of dancers by the counsellor employed by the London Contemporary Dance Company. But when it came to the session on dance in education, her reaction was ambivalent. “I think primary teachers do great things in Britain, more so than here, and about 70 per cent of secondary schools in London have dance in the curriculum. In some cases it’s compulsory for boys and girls. So in mechanics they are ahead of us,” she says. But she found none of what she regards as most important in a school dance programme: creating confidence and the self-esteem which comes from students finding out for themselves what they can do. “Watching my students dance, there’s a feeling, ‘We’re O.K. We may not have the best technique in the world, but we’re enjoying it.’ “In Britain, they never gave that feeling. It all

seemed to come from the teacher. They were terribly serious and terribly stiff,” she says. “You can’t be a dancer if you are always taught to do things. You’ve got to create, particularly in a school environment.” She found the British orientation narrowly balletic and failing to attract boys. At Linwood, boys make up about a third of the dance students. Le Cren achieved this remarkable gender ratio by encouraging the First XV to take part in a production soon after she joined the school. “Since then it’s been acceptable.” Students can do dance as part of a theatre arts option in the junior school and take dance for Sixth Form Certificate. Dance is also offered as one of the school “sports,” and the dance room is used informally most lunchtimes and after school. “Anyone can opt for the dance programme, even if they have never danced before, and this is part of my philosophy,” says le Cren. "I’m not trying to turn students into famous ballerinas,” she insists. “I try to give them a love of dance, and an apprecia-

tion of the arts through dance: the visual side, music, and so on.” Students doing Sixth Form Certificate dance do about 75 per cent practical and 25 per cent theory. Assignments can take the form of concerts in which each student takes turns to be responsible for each element, such as lighting, choreography, costumes, the programme, and publicity. They also have to compile a report on “How to put on a concert.” In the future, the school hopes to develop a seventh form course specifically in New Zealand dance and drama. The students often get assked to perform in the community, and ex-pupils, frustrated at the lack of opportunities for dancing when they leave school, have formed eXceL, an informal group which puts on occasional seasons of dance. ■ “We’re turning out a new breed- of students, able to do dance, drama and academic subjects — these kids are going to have to have somewhere to go,” Le Cren acknowledges. Arts council schemes and the polytechnics are making a start, she says, and most teachers colleges — except Christchurch — have dance specialists.