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Dance and science

6th scientific conference with international participation All About People: challenges for science and education (2018)

6th international scientific conference “All About People: Challenges for Science and Education” / Dance section: The art of dance in national culture, science and education (2018)

A message from the Dean of the Dance Academy, organiser and moderator of the dance section

Marking the centenary of stage dance in Slovenia, Alma Mater Europaea – Dance Academy organised a section on the theme The art of dance in national culture, science and education within the 6th scientific conference with international participation All About People: challenges for science and education, held in Maribor on 9 and 10 March 2018.

The dance section, organised within the conference for the first time, was very well attended. The contributions were of a high standard and the round-table discussion constructive. Numerous experts from various fields of the art of dance responded to the call.

The section The art of dance in national culture, science and education dealt with dance in a generic sense. The first part was devoted to sport dance, with a contribution by Dr Bor Sojar Voglar and co-authors (A statistical analysis of the restricted programme of the rumba in Latin American competitive dance) and a contribution by Martina Serban (Creative dance – dance therapy by the method of Maria Fux: origins, development, positive effects). Dr Vesna Bajić Stojiljković then presented a programme for opening a department of ethnic dance at the Dance Academy.

The second part of the section dealt with contemporary dance and with dance in education. The contribution of Dr Andreja Kopač (Fearlessness and the century-long history of Slovenian contemporary dance) addressed the rich history of contemporary dance and its persistence in Slovenia, while the contributions of Dr Vesna Geršak (Integrating the art of dance into the learning process – what do pupils gain and what do teachers gain?) and Nina Meško (The power of creative movement) spoke about the pedagogical aspects of dance. The discussion turned on the importance and the proportion of process and product in the educational process — that is, on the objective evaluation of a pupil’s progress and on the realisation of the adopted goals through argument and clearly defined criteria. This discussion was successfully built upon by the contribution of student Martina Kramer, a teacher at the Conservatory of Music and Ballet in Maribor, on contemporary approaches to teaching ballet and contemporary dance in accordance with inclusion and with the Midway method of Jacqueline Smith-Autard (Pedagogical approaches in dance education).

Snežana Filipovska and Aleksandra Nikiforovska, guests from Macedonia, informed those present about the situation in Macedonia and about their Dance Academy at the Academy of Music. In their presentation The ballet pedagogy, creativity and the use of modern technologies in order to reach quality in the dance education in R. Macedonia they presented the use of new teaching methods.

The final part of the official conference programme was opened by the legend of Slovenian ballet, Dr Henrik Neubauer, who spoke about the century-long history of Slovenian ballet (A brief overview of the century-long history of Slovenian ballet). He was followed by Dr Svebor Sečak with the national and transnational perspective of academic ballet, describing the main diachronic line of world ballet history with a focus on the situation in Slovenia. He recommended tertiary education with a twofold function: on the one hand preserving indigenous culture and tradition, and on the other opening up to new tendencies and philosophies that are an integrative factor in Europe and in the world (Academic Ballet: A National and Transnational Perspective).

There followed a contribution by Elena Fedotova from Russia (Ballet in Russia – more than Ballet) on the 300-year history of Russian ballet and its ties to the tsar and to other politics. Melinda Szitt also spoke informally about the Hungarian Dance Academy and its cooperation with the academies in Zagreb and Maribor.

At the round table, Tomaž Rode, president of the Slovenian Association of Ballet Artists, read a paper on the situation in Slovenia and thanked Prof. Dr Ludvik Toplak, president of AMEU, and Assist. Prof. Dr Svebor Sečak, Dean of the Dance Academy, for the great step forward they have made in the educational vertical of dance in Slovenia, in the hope that the programme will develop at national level. Students of ballet and contemporary dance then presented their papers. An open discussion followed on the future of dance education in Slovenia and on finding a balance between private initiatives, which are proactive, and state ones, which follow the needs of their artists at insufficient speed. Besides students, academy professors and representatives of artistic associations, the conference was also attended by the leadership of the Maribor and Ljubljana Conservatories. Helena Valerija Krieger, director of the ballet school of the Maribor Conservatory and at the same time a second-year student of the Dance Academy, emphasised how important the knowledge gained at the Dance Academy is for future work with young dancers at the Conservatory. Numerous other experts from abroad also attended the conference: from Serbia, Macedonia, Russia, Hungary, Croatia and elsewhere.

The round table closed with an address by the president of AMEU, Prof. Dr Ludvik Toplak, who explained his vision of entering the educational space, which in his words is not sufficiently recognised by others, and with an address by the president of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, Prof. Dr Felix Unger, who praised the efforts of the Alma Mater Europaea Dance Academy and the progress achieved.

An informal gathering followed, continuing the discussion of themes important for dance education and international cooperation.

The organiser and moderator of the dance section at the conference was the Dean of the Alma Mater Europaea Dance Academy, Assist. Prof. Dr Svebor Sečak, president of the Croatian association of professional ballet artists.

Conference contributions