INSTRUCTIONS VIDEO ASSIGNMENTS
Before starting the three video assignments, please read ALL of the following carefully:
1. Recording Space: Choose a spacious area where you can move freely, ideally a dance studio. Ensure you are clearly visible, well-lit, and close enough to the camera for clear viewing and sound. Adjust the camera or your position as needed.
Important: Record in silence, no background music.
2. Capture All Exercises: Carefully follow the assignments and ensure all exercises are included in the video.
3. Recording & Submission: Record and combine the three assignments into one video.
(If you cannot combine the clips, you may submit them separately using the additional fields provided.)
4. Title Sections: Clearly title each section of the video to indicate which assignment you are presenting next.
5. Sound: Check the audio quality before submitting. It is crucial that we can hear you clearly, so ensure the volume is sufficient.
6. Upload the final clip to Vimeo or YouTube for online viewing.
Assignment #1: Countertechnique in Your Own Dancing
Film yourself—without music—performing the following four exercises from a Countertechnique class:
1. Slow Shifts
This is the exercise where you transition from parallel to leg rotation while shifting between bent and extended legs.
2. Head Rolls (in parallel, first, and second position)
This is the exercise that begins with a full head circle, stretches your hamstrings and increases bending sideways.
3. UBHAS (in parallel and first position)
This is the exercise that starts with swinging the arms, head and full circles of the upper body, and make sure you include a snake head, to warm up the upper back and head in a swinging motion.
4. Pre-Falling (across the floor, both right and left)
Perform the simple falling exercise from side to side, stepping on and falling off a straight leg (left, right) and then on a bent-to-straight leg to fall (left, right)
Please note:
Film yourself working as a dancer and speak aloud the tools you are applying (or re-applying).
Share Your Process: We are interested in how you apply Countertechnique to your own dancing. You don't need to demonstrate how you would teach the exercises, but share your personal process with us.
The goal of this assignment is to give us insight into your active process as a dancer, and how you apply Countertechnique to your movement. Speak clearly and keep your sentences concise. Move fully, with tools.
Assignment #2 Countertechnique in your own dancing
Create a Big Move Combo (the longer movement combination typically performed at the end of a Countertechnique class) that you feel belongs in a Countertechnique class. Film yourself dancing the combo on both sides (right and left).
1. First Round: Dance the combo fully. (You don’t need to speak while dancing)
2. Immediately after the first round, without pausing the video and without reviewing the recording, share your observations about your own dancing. Reflect on what you just experienced, and notice and identify which tools you’d like to apply for the second round.
3. Second Round: Dance the combo again, this time applying the tools you selected.
(You don’t need to speak while dancing)
4. Final Observations: After dancing the second round, again without pausing the video and reviewing the recording, share your thoughts on how it went and how the tools affected your movement.
Assignment #3 Your own teaching practice
Film yourself teaching a class to give us insight into your movement vocabulary, your instructions, and your engagement with participants.
If you don’t have a teaching practice yet, please send us a clip filmed in a studio setting that showcases either a solo improvisation, choreography, or movement material you would like to teach in the future.
We look forward to receiving your material!