Values for dance making and methods for critique

Choreographer Liz Lerman has evolved methods for dance composition that emphasize a collaborative role for dancers, who participate in the invention of movement by responding to questions, improvisational structures, and research assignments. She attributes the success of this approach in part to her ability to function as an environmentalist, cultivating a setting in which artists can do their best work. In this article she describes two techniques that she has devised, mutual coaching and the Critical Response Process, which afford dancers an active role in shaping choreographic work and assure a constructive atmosphere for critique and collaboration. She reflects on the values of enquiry, learning and mutual respect inherent in these techniques. She illuminates their role in sustaining the daily functioning of a dance company and in nurturing artists with multi-disciplinary capacity as performers, creators, teachers, administrators and community facilitators.