Defne Erdur

Defne Erdur

1. Report about T.T.T. 2013 Budapest

Topics to work on, agreed by all the 7 teachers before meeting were:

-Education and creative thinking, personal development, art education…

-Art Education:  What is the role of “art” in your teaching practice? At what point it becomes tangible?

  

Having come from a very hectic and unfortunate period of my country, I was not sure if I could be functional in this meeting. However, the way we decided to lead and moderate the meetings and the ways we utilized to discuss and come to decisions made me feel so embraced and hopeful; not only for my own teaching practice but also for my country’s future. This week was like a tryout demo for a more democratic, equal and humanistic way of living and teaching. And this tryout was really successful, inspiring and motivating for me.

We all were interested in “creativity” and “creative ways” for sharing knowledge. Moreover it seemed that we were also sharing a common interest on “bridging life and art” and transmitting these views in our teaching practice.

Therefore, we took the risk and decided to function in an unknown territory. We decided not to have a clear structure and plan for the arch of the week. We had an aim. We had tools, competencies. We knew what we were doing. We knew why we were doing it. However this time we allowed ourselves not to know how we were doing it! We had to negotiate each and every step, giving voice to all the opinions around the decision. Yes, it was taking longer time to come to conclusions, but at the end each participant was able to find a place for his/her functionality and need. And we managed to have a nice flow of exercises, discussions and games and presentations.

In this structure we created, we were also very open and flexible. The duties and exercises we realized together were distributed equally amongst us. Each participating teacher found his/her place in the group in the “doing” of things. Each teacher was able to share bits and pieces from his/her teaching. Although we did not have whole class teachings, I personally felt that I get an idea/feeling of what each and every participant teacher is focusing on in his/her teaching, which approaches he/she is utilizing, how s/he is transmitting his/her accumulated knowledge. And I was inspired by many of the sharings… It was so good to observe and experience different ways and approaches and relate them to my ways and interests…

Many useful points were raised during this week. As an active teacher, I was happy to remember once again; that in teaching we do not only transmit content but also energy, attitude, models for relating to information and humans. I was also remembering to pay attention to different ways of transmitting i.e. audio, visual, kinesthetic; different memory functions, different needs and qualities a learner may have. In this frame the relation between student, teacher and the content of the class and how to build the bonds thru trust between the three for a healthy and fruitful education environment was another interesting topic to discuss. This also bridged us to discussions around being a teacher in an institutional context and the roles and deeds we have to / need to take on as teachers teaching in these institutions. Coming from a young institution, which is trying to restructure its own curricula these days, I was happy to hear ideas from other teachers and learn about other institutional problems. Now, I can share these examples with my institution and shed light to some aspects from a more common ground.

Towards the end of the week, as we were getting ready to share our research week’s results with public we were coming back to the topics of “teaching performance and performativity aspect of teaching itself”. Interestingly due to the open and non-hierarchical structure we worked with, the “result” also happened to reflect this approach. We ended up having a playful, trust based, receiver driven sharing environment; where all the material we utilized (books, sketches, audio recordings, music, games and excerpts of teachings…) were presented all together to the audience and the audience was invited to choose from these as he/she went along. This way the possible stress was taken away from the shoulders of the presenter. The emphasis was on the horizontal sharing. As we have realized at the closing - sharing/harvesting circle, since this non-hierarchical structure was new to the audience and they were a bit lost and stressed at the beginning. Yet, as they found their ways to relate to the material they got relaxed and even started to enjoy the process…

I personally learned a lot from this “unknown” territory and am very much inspired to take this approach onwards in my teaching and also my daily life interactions. I should also say that at the finalization process of my own PhD I am very thankful of being part of such a research. I have been triggered a lot on many issues that relate to my own research on “artist education on the transitive line between life and art” and questioned many of the points I have been “concluding” within my thesis. I hope to continue keeping in touch with all the participants to elaborate more on their point of views and include these voices in my own thesis. Moreover I am inspired to carry on such meetings in my own country where local artists and teachers can come together to figure out innovative ways to function in this difficult period of my country.

2. Pedagogical statement

I am an independent dance artist working in the fields of performing arts, art therapy, physical therapy & education. Following my Sociology education (MA) I have studied & worked with pioneers in Contemporary Dance, Somatics & Expressive Art Therapies around the world. Today, I am doing my doctorate in Contemporary Dance Department and teaching regularly in the same department, besides giving classes at CATI – Contemporary Dance Artists Association and Elim Sende Association for teenagers.

Currently, I am collaborating with artists & pedagogues from different backgrounds and am seeking ways to integrate various fields of arts & social sciences in my artistic & academic works.

On the academic level; I am doing my Doctorate in Performing Arts at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory Contemporary Dance Department, in İstanbul. I am proposing to work with multi-disciplinary art therapy tools towards enhacing the creative processes of dance artists. The primary prospect of this work is to support artists/students/people to relate to their own self, reflect on their needs, tools, environment and ideas; in multiple and more creative ways. I aim to assist them in their physical, mental & emotional processes. Secondly the work anticipates to assist these individuals in finding and developing their unique ways to create as developing artists.

I am teaching in the same department for the last 3 years at different grades, along the lines of my own doctorate research. I have predominantly worked with 4th years and MA students where my classes also focused on analysing compositional tools; space & body awareness and creation of image and meaning.

Artistically, I am mainly working on instant compositions and site specific performances. Currently I have two on going personal pieces; a series of multi-disciplinary group performances in public spaces of Istanbul and a solo dance performance series in autobiographical nature. I am also part of an İstanbul based improvised music and dance ensemble KAROSRI.

The meeting point of the pedagogic & artistic spheres of my life is through the civil society initiatives that I am associated to. During my art therapy training (Uludağ University & Aura Psychotherapy Center Certificate Program), I have voluntarily assisted psychologists who were working with women struggling with cancer, women with eating disorders & people with physical disabilities. For the last 3 years I am continiously working at Elim Sende Association with disadvantaged youth that are the children of migrated families in istanbul. Besides, I conduct projects with different groups with different needs (e.g. “Self Esteem Building in Adolescence” – 6 week long project in a highschool in Kucukcekmece Region of Istanbul, “Developing Communication Skills – Being Ready and Flexible” 2 month long workshop for Yapı Kredi Bank On the Job Training Program, “Collaborative Leadership and Conflict Resolution” – 5 days workshop for Greek, Turkish and Cyriot Teenagers under Winpeace organization).

I see all that I do as a deep and long on going research, where I am personnaly dancing on the transitive line between art and life.