Masterclass with Former Mark Morris Dancer Mireille Radwan-Dana
Learning dance is like learning a language. You learn simple nouns, then verb conjugation, then simple sentences, and after a while, you can actually feel comfortable speaking and comprehending. Just as you wouldn’t jump into a conversation in Spanish when all you know how to say is “hola,” you also wouldn’t attempt to learn a dance until you know the basic elements that are used to create movement.
“Start from the very basic,” says Mireille Radwan-Dana, a creative dance instructor at The School at the Mark Morris Dance Center. She has learned from her many years of experience with children of all ages that complication is your enemy when it comes to teaching young dancers. Break down the movements and use a lot of repetition -- then they will understand.
Like many dance teachers, Radwan-Dana developed this strategy—and many others—from trial and error. A native of Rome, Italy, she began dancing with the Mark Morris Dance Group in 1988, when they were still based in Brussels, Belgium. About a year later, she began teaching her first classes when doing school workshops or master classes while on tour. When the company later relocated to New York, Radwan-Dana joined them and continued to teach when she got the opportunity. When she retired from performing in 2001, it just so happened that Mark Morris Dance Group was building a large facility and dance school in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, so it was a natural transition for her to join the teaching staff.
In 2001, Mark Morris Dance Group also began its outreach program, working with many schools in Brooklyn to fuse dance and literacy. The program focuses around one particular Mark Morris piece, “L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato.” In the 10-week residency, the students learn about how Morris “collaborated” with three deceased artists: composer G.F. Handel, poet John Milton and artist William Blake. They learn about dance’s connection to other art forms, learn a few sections of choreography and learn to create original dances. The program culminates with the students coming to the Dance Center to see the Mark Morris Dance Group perform the piece. A few of the students, hand selected by Radwan-Dana, get to participate in the performance.
“Most of the students are very little, so I simplify the choreography,” Radwan-Dana says. “I pick a few things and add some basic structure and break it down as much as possible. With the older ones you can do more details. They can learn some of the moves. I tend to just develop a simple structure they can follow and have the accompanist slow down the music. It’s too fast to do it with the original music.”
In her creative movement classes at the Dance Center, Radwan-Dana takes a similar approach, breaking down movements into digestible chunks. “The concept of a creative class is to approach movement in a very simple way,” she says. “You tell the students ‘pick your leg up in the front.’ ‘Roll on the floor.’ ‘Jump up and down.’ ‘Turn around yourself.’ Start very, very simple and slowly build upon that.”
For example, she says, when teaching students to do traveling steps, have them begin by jumping up and down – a very natural movement for a small child. Teach them to keep their feet together and keep their legs straight. They can do this movement from one place in the room to another. Once they master this, move onto skipping, she says. She also emphasizes discipline and classroom rules at this very basic level.
Mireille preforming "The Hard Nut" - Spanish variation
Peter DaSilva
“They need to learn how to be in a dance room,” Radwan-Dana says. “You have your own spot. From here you can learn directions in relation to the spot: your front, your back, the top, the up and down, side to side, right and left, under, around, over, through.” In order to teach pathways, Radwan-Dana finds the use of props helpful. She places hula hoops on the floor to jump over or inside. She puts colored spots on the floor and has the students move from one to the next. She sometimes sets up a bit of an obstacle course of props and provides specific instructions for navigation.
“This has them doing things that are complicated without even being aware of it,” she says. “When they are old enough, you can tell them to imagine those things on the floor.” Radwan-Dana didn’t always have such an intuitive perception on classroom discipline. When she began teaching, she says she was “much more permissive” when it came to classroom management.
“It was different when I was in the company because the school workshops were brief,” she says. “If you see the students just once, you can concentrate more on actually moving rather than how you have to behave in dance class. I learned later you have to trick them [into behaving] in dance class.”
Structure became a core concept of her classroom approach, and it became applicable to her various teaching venues, whether she was teaching at the Dance Center or in an outreach program.
“Discipline is 50 percent of the class,” Radwan-Dana says. “A lot of dance class is about learning to behave in a group—how to be nice to each other and how to respect each other. They have to take turns in a structured way. All of that becomes very important. And every group has a different set of problems. Some can’t pay attention. Some like to bother their friends. Some can’t listen. It depends on what kind of kids you get.”
Another early mistake Radwan-Dana made was overwhelming her students before they were ready, and this has shaped her “start simple” philosophy today.
“I learned how to build structures from very easy to very complicated,” she says. “You advance differently with different kids, but sometimes I’ve done things that were too complicated too soon. So you break it down in a different way. It’s always a learning process.”
The mark of a good teacher is one who continues to learn as well. Radwan-Dana says she’s learned a lot from simply observing other teachers’ classes. Since she visits Brooklyn-area schools for outreach purposes, she often comes in contact with public school dance instructors who regularly work with small children. One school in particular, P.S. 372, has a dance teacher and a drama teacher Radwan-Dana has worked with frequently and has acquired a lot of useful ideas, she says.
“I’ve come in contact with some really great teachers, but I also have my own strong opinions. I like watching other teachers to see their tricks and the things they like,” she says. “It’s all about borrowing—giving