Hallo Rasmus Ölme Keynote-speaker at CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

2012-10-02

When did you have your breakthrough as a teacher?
I did grow up in an almost too pedagogical home, with a lot of relatives working in the school system. My artistic and pedagogical practice’s has always been close to each other and because of that I feel that I haven’t had any specific breakthrough. Instead it is a steadily ongoing process, with short spurts of acceleration. That, or I am still waiting for my breakthrough.
What role has the teaching of dance in our contemporary society?
That is a big question that has many different answers depending on what aspect of dance teaching we are talking about. There is the development of the body and a playfulness in dance for school children, for example. From my own perspective, where I mostly teach professional dancers, is the importance to continue to delve deeper into once own art form. In a bigger perspective I believe that dance teaching presents an alternate understanding of knowledge and what the human body is. But to play this role, the dance teaching needs to develop so the teaching doesn’t stand in the way of the development of the art.
Why is teaching dance so important?
Beside what I talk about above, it is important that there are places, time and space for people to develop, and that those places manage to keep a creative environment where knowledge can happen. That is important for dance teaching but also for most situations, both in education and in professional environments. Teaching of dance is important because it offers those who chooses dance as an art form a place to grow and develop.