The Workshop of the Body - Sabine and Karine

 

How do you choose a long workshop?

Why choose a long body workshop?

What are the expectations and discoveries?

Sabine teaches children aged 10 and 11.

Karine with children aged 3 and 4.

They went to their first long workshop session:

Juan's body workshop...

You've just finished your first long workshop session.

How did you find it?

- It's very interesting because there's not a lot of talking, which makes it easier to get involved. You talk with your body, showing and doing. That's when you realise that body language, dance, theatre and mime are very international.

- It's universal.

- At a meeting as long as the RIDEF, it's important to get moving.

- It's good for you.

- It rests the mind.

- You meet a lot of people in this workshop.

- It's easier to meet people.

- You're less bothered about the language, you get to know people much more quickly and you laugh very quickly.

- We laugh a lot in this workshop.

What makes you laugh?

- When we can't dance, for example. We motivate each other, we help each other and in the end we all manage. The fact that you can't do it makes you laugh when it's a question of the body, whereas when it's a question of speech, you're more embarrassed.

- We're really glad we chose this workshop.

How did you choose this workshop?

- The presentation helped a bit, but it was mainly because I knew Juan.

It's also because I'm involved in the translation group, and I can do it, but it tires me out.

I told myself that I shouldn't choose a workshop that would make me more tired.

I was very interested in another workshop on South American teaching methods, but I was afraid of the mental fatigue of having to translate again, first for myself and then for others.

Did your choice of workshop have any implications for your work as a teacher?

- Yes, because I'd already offered body expression to my pupils and I realised that it was really important for the children I teach, who are special children. I really want to do more next year and this workshop will enrich me and I'll be more at ease with my pupils in this area.

You say that your students are special. Could you be more specific?

They have difficulty communicating. Some resort to violence.

This year I proposed a "dance" project and I was very worried that my hyperactive and violent pupils wouldn't be able to take part.

In the end, they were great and they were even the driving force behind the activity, whereas I had thought that dance would be difficult with the boys.

The whole class managed to work together.

It's a good way of calming them down and enabling them to see that they can succeed with others without having behavioural problems. Once they're involved in this activity, they forget their tough-guy image and get away from their aggressive behaviour.

So I want to do more of it, all the way through, every week, all year round.

I'd also like to do it as an 'outdoor class', to do body expression with my pupils outside, to find a place near the school to do an 'outdoor class' with moments of body expression.

Why outside?

We'll do it inside too, but outside there's space, trees, street furniture that can be used for improvisation matches and poetry. It's a richer and more stimulating environment than the classroom, which is more sterile, or even the sports hall, which is just as sterile.

The fear I have is that they'll be afraid to let themselves go because of people walking by and staring at them.

It may not work, but I want us to try.

And you, Karine, did you choose the same way?

- No, I knew I wanted to do this long workshop for a long time.

I'd done other things at other RIDEFs, but this time I needed to get moving and do something less cerebral.

So it's a long-standing project and it's a workshop that can be found at every RIDEF.

- Yes, and I really needed it. It's also linked to my professional situation, which has been very trying this year.

Sitting down too much, having to listen, having to talk, having to translate...

Perhaps what's true for children is also true for adults?

- Yes, I needed something lighter.

- What's more, it's something I like, because I already have a body practice and I'd already had a little experience of this workshop (Juan came from Spain to offer this workshop at an ICEM congress in France).

I offer bodywork activities to my students but for me it's very important to practise it yourself.

In my personal theatre work, for example, I work a lot on staging, but I need to get back to bodywork.

- I too have a personal practice in traditional dance and partner dance.

But here, in the workshop, we have something in common, which is that we are educators with the perspective of the Freinet pedagogy, this emancipatory pedagogy, which is not at all the case in the dance classes that I personally practise.

It's not at all the natural tango method, for example.

Here, I can think about what I could do with the children in my class and I'm in contact with people with whom I can discuss what they're doing in their class. It's a kind of emulation between teachers.

- We see something different to what we do ourselves.

- And we don't have the same practices: some share their dance practices, others their theatre practices, for example. And even in the same field, like dance for example, my personal practice is very coded, it's not contemporary dance for example.

How would you describe this type of bodywork in this workshop?

- It's more a case of trial and error.

Some people have different practices and others have none.

And when these people are together, they share, they experiment, they grope, they try, they discuss, they build.

- There's no notion of performance, as you might find in other places where these activities are usually practised.

We go to this workshop for our own sake, but also to think about how we can offer this activity in the classroom.

- This workshop is also a reminder of all that is possible.

We don't necessarily discover everything, but we are reminded of the importance of certain activities that we have forgotten about or that we no longer practise without knowing why.