From technical movement to artistic gesture. Pedagogical guide

From technical movement to artistic gesture
The trampoline, training support for propulsion

Focus group #2 and INTENTS project leaders are happy to introduce the new pedagogical manual „From technical movement to artistic gesture“.

The basic material for writing this educational tool was the eponymous training session held at the Staatliche Artistenschule in Berlin, Germany, from 13 to 18 March 2016. The manual reports on the exchanges on the pedagogical orientations outlined by the participants during the round tables dedicated to the subject. It is also based on examples of pedagogical practices collected during series of individual interviews conducted by the associate author Agathe Dumont, the pedagogical coordinator Arnaud Thomas, with the speakers and participants, on exercises proposed by some of them, as well as complementary tools borrowed from the fields of sports sciences, other arts, history, aesthetics, or the social sciences.

The first part of the manual focuses on observing the different stages, possible transfers and pedagogical issues in the learning of propulsion disciplines. The second part proposes to look at the artistic performance of the technical movement. In line with the session’s workshops, each notion is explained, illustrated with examples and enriched by reading suggestions or enlightened by other ways of seeing, such as a toolbox from which everyone can draw ideas or resources.

Teachers and students had expressed the need to have tools that mirror the pedagogical and artistic evolutions, which are no longer based only on oral transmission, but also to have strong bibliographical references and a conceptual contribution for more reflection and research. However, the manual exceeds these expectations since it makes it possible to formalize the practices of today professionals and to transmit them. The proposals are transferable from one apparatus and practice to another and allow a cross-disciplinary reflection on aerial skills or, more broadly, on the way circus arts are constantly tackling the issues and difficulties of vertical work, weight and gravity.

A warm thank you to every person who contributed in writing, proofreading, translating and designing the publication. Please feel free to disseminate this publication.

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