This is a post I meant to do last year - here now with more time on my hands and a chance to reflect on the relevance to coaching in our new, very uncertain circumstances.
The starring role is this beautiful, mesmerising short film called IMPRINT, shot last year by Matt Bartram and capturing work by my partner: Contemporary Dance Choreographer, Anne Colvin. If you get no further in reading this, no problem - just watch the 11 minute film (and tell others about it).
Still here? Excellent. The film speaks for itself about the richness of connections to nature - a theme that is close to Confidence Centred Coaching. Here I want to explore another aspect of IMPRINT - the way Anne worked with people who were almost completely new to (and initially very hesitant about) dance. How did she bring out the undiscovered richness of expression you see in the film? First a little background.
Imprint
Anne has been developing unique and captivating work inspired by people’s connection with nature - different natural locations and different meaningful connections. As it happens, her first project featured in the very first blog post on this site.
“I can feel the strength of nature - it unleashed something”
The latest iteration of IMPRINT last year, commissioned by South East Dance and funded by the Arts Council, was based at Devil’s Dyke, in the South Downs National Park. It brought together three professional dancers who’d worked with her before and several people from the Brighton Unemployed Centre Families Project (BUCFP), few with any, most with no background in dance.
Unlike ballet or many other forms of dance with very precisely prescribed choreography, contemporary dance in general allows for more of a creative development between choreographer and dancers, as they together explore expressive movement. Anne takes that further, working with dancers and non-dancers and rooting the co-creation in their responses to a natural environment.
So how did she get them interested and committed enough not just to take part but to actively contribute of themselves, to lose instinctive inhibitions and self-doubts and to make their own deep imprint in the work?
The Process
The work started in a large studio space in Brighton. Anne brought together people from BUCFP who’d shown an initial interest, with her dancers Charlotte, Matilde and Charlie and film maker Matt.
Over the course of two days they together explored each person’s connections with nature - what they thought and felt, stories from childhood and other more recent experiences. Each person captured their recollections and thoughts as they felt most at ease to do - some through drawing on a big roll of paper, others by creating collages of photos and prompts Anne had collected.
Over the next six weeks they went to Devil’s Dyke, exploring the area and allowing themselves the time and space to take in whatever struck them - the wind through the trees, the sense of opening perspective from views up close to far off distant rolling hills. Each person seemed to find something that connected with a deeper feeling - an unburdening of worries, a stilling sense of calm, other emotions you can hear and see expressed in the film. Out of this came the ideas for movements that captured these sensations and reflections. After several rainy day rehearsals, the dancers performed to an invited audience, turning Devil’s Dyke into a grand, open air, wind-swept theatre.
And coming full circle back on how the project started, the audience was asked to record the imprint the performance left on them on a big roll of paper laid out between the trees, under makeshift tarpaulin covers.
Behind the Process
I talked with Anne about how she went about drawing in her untrained dancers. I was curious to see if there would be parallels with how I, as a coach, might help others take up running, swimming or other activities for the first time, moving beyond the “I could never do that” to feeling a deep personal connection that grounds and energises them in the way the BUCFP IMPRINT dancers found in themselves.
Anne emphasised the importance from the very outset of getting to know the would-be participants, making time for an unhurried interest in each one. And her interest was in each person - who they are rather than just as prospective dancers. Being genuinely keen to know about each person’s stories and backgrounds helped engender trust and a sense of being valued.
I know in my own coaching, even in the rushed and chaotic environment of people coming for a Club session or someone anxiously meeting me for the first time for a one to one lesson, holding in mind that each person comes with their own stories can have a stilling effect for us both, coach and coached.
A second point Anne gave special weight to was to start - and keep coming back to - her purpose, rather than going into the detail of how she wanted the work to look or what would be expected technically. My sense, watching occasionally from the sidelines, was of everyone being involved in creating something together, without a right or wrong way to follow or set dance techniques to conform to.
Obviously in the sporting context we can’t be quite so free-form and inventive. But the way Anne described her approach reminded me of the importance of conveying that sense of deeper purpose, such as the confidence and self-belief to reach for a new height of speed, or fluency or strength - instead of jumping straight to prescribing a certain technique or programme of training to be followed.
Another interesting feature, which others commented on, was how Anne didn’t make herself the centre of the creative work - though she clearly was the originator, carefully guiding everything along and occasionally lifting everyone’s energy or calling for time out to reflect and rest. The effect her approach had on the new dancers’ self-belief was extraordinary. You can hear at the end of the film how transforming that was for one of the participants. Another said to me after the performance “that’s the best day of my life - best thing I’ve ever done.”
One might think this is to do with personality, of not wanting to be centre stage and to a degree that may be true. But a lesson I take goes back to the process - that Anne devised a way of working that was rooted in others’ experiences. And her generosity and belief in the artists ripples all the way through.
In the sports coaching world we like to use the phrase “athlete centred” - but it has to be said the practice doesn’t always follow the rhetoric. I wonder if other coaches, seeing the film and reading about the process can see something of their practice in Anne’s IMPRINT: the time taken to get to know on a human level those we coach; an approach based in shared creation and learning together, unique explorations with each person rather than repeating the formulas that we think work best; and who would others, looking on, say is centre stage - do we show generosity and belief in action?
And a final thought - what kind of coaching is going to work best should we find that the current uncertainty and restrictions remain in place for much longer? Genuinely athlete centred and creative or more of the same, with just a different set of techniques and plans to prescribe? What will help sustain and motivate, bring out the best in those we coach when everything around is changed? And will we be able to guide others to a deeper purpose in the absence of the big events, competitions and challenges that used to be their focus, if as seems likely restrictions continue for the foreseeable future?
As always, please leave your reflections in the Comments box below - and share the film!
With many thanks to Anne for sharing with me her thoughts and to everyone involved in her wonderful project, including Matt Bartram for the photos below:
