Kerwin Barrington
Dance Artist
Kerwin Barrington
Dance Artist
_preview_rev_1.png "Illustration made by Adele Reeves")
Research
The Axis Syllabus
I have been studying the Axis Syllabus since 2013. The Axis Syllabus is an archive of information about the body in movement, which a network of movement enthusiasts compile, source and contribute to. A common pedagogical approach for facilitators in this community is to research one aspect about the body in great detail, by interviewing multiple points of view on this subject through their own practice. The facilitator's findings related to their chosen topic is further investigated through the different experiences of the learner's body in the context of a dance class;
Certification
Ultimately, becoming certified to teach the Axis Syllabus takes a long time. Crucial is time to integrate the responsibility of being autonomous with your own learning. It takes a lifetime of learning contexts which prompt, support and accommodate this. Like the process of learning a poem by heart, there are stages to this integration. First, propelled by your own desire, you decide what interests you within its archives. You then start to build an intimate connection to that information. It takes many years of experience to integrate this information in depth into your own practice — the process of the information becoming a part of you. Next, you start to share your interpretations with others, but you are still sometimes searching for how to articulate. Finally, in your own time, the information of the Axis Syllabus starts to flow without effort. It becomes how you answer questions, how you navigate obstacles — your tool box (Rosen, 2009). This becoming is a solid awareness of principles which paradoxically “explodes the ideas about what we are and what we can be beyond the categories that seem to contain us” (Sotirin, in Stivale, 2005, p. 99). They enter as concrete intellectual information coming from the outside of you. Through movement propositions you intently integrate and explore these principles instinctively — through the physical body.
At the same time, this information is already intrinsically a part of you in a way that can not be defined. For it is information about who you are. What you are made of. A heightened awareness of how you can move with what makes up the potential of the body you live in and beyond. In this becoming you are: “animat[ing] the possibilities of life, constantly moving through what we know to be real or true, and running beyond the limits, boundaries and constraints that make those realities and truths what they seem to be” (Sotirin, in Stivale, 2005, p. 99). Simultaneously, you are living the experience of learning it, of dancing it and being it, adding to your bank of lived and embodied experiences — your intuitive knowledge. Furthermore, the experience of learning the Axis Syllabus in an intensive and immersive learning context in community, enhances this embodied integration in a holistic way. The more you live this experience of whole integration and application in dialogue, the more it becomes a part of you. You know this information by heart. You have experienced it. You know with all of your being. Once this has occurred, you can become a model of this. You will transmit this learning process just by being because “Becoming produces nothing other than itself” ( Deleuze and Guattari, 1987, p. 238). And THEN you will be what you teach.
To Learn By Heart
A conceptual and practical inquiry of the potential inter-connectivity between the heart and significant learning in a dance workshop
UQAM 2019-2023
Abstract
My own lived experiences as a student of dance brings into question the perpetuation of mainstream teaching conventions around learning, memorizing and embodying movement in a dance class. I feel it is problematic to devalue what a learner's body already knows (their innate abilities) and to underestimate the potential of a student, to intuitively apply, assimilate and adapt information in an autonomous way. As a result, I am in search of fluid organization of cognitive content, alternative forms of knowledge and pedagogical skills which support significant and autonomous learning. By interweaving philosophical concepts related to the Heart, Learning, Knowing and Complexity, prompted by imagery, the imagination and symbolism, and anchored through anatomy, my goal was to explore questions surrounding autonomous and significant learning in a dance class. I imagined and thoroughly investigated the heart in relation to learning from different angles by means of the laboratory of my own practice as a movement facilitator and as a candidate to teach the Axis Syllabus.
This inquiry includes both: A conceptual investigation of the expression To Learn/Know by Heart which explores the complex relationships between the heart (and its diverse meanings) and learning/knowing (in a profound way). As well as a practical investigation of how this intellectual information is tested and lived through a dance experience. For the research project, data was collected through the methodology of Action Research of a six day intensive and immersive dance workshop prototype called To Learn by Heart. This event was held in Puglia, Italy in June 2022 in alliance with the Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork (ASRM) and included the experience of seven international participants. The major findings from this project bring useful information regarding psychological, conceptual and practical aspects to consider when learning and teaching in the context of a dance workshop such as: Diversity in Learning, A Methodology for Teaching New Material and Time Management. By integrating the reflections and actions of the direct lived experience of the learners into future practices, there is a potential for (and a validation of), the continuous cycling of learning about the body through the body and learning experiences of others. They reveal a thorough study of the four main concepts of Heart, Learning, Knowing and Complexity through dance experiences, materializing embodied meaning of the expression To Learn by Heart. Finally, this research served as a framework for the in depth study of the Axis Syllabus, resulting in a profound learning experience which led to my official certification to teach the work.
“With the intention to promote empowered self-reliance and in keeping with the highest international standards of education, it is the ethic of the Axis Syllabus Research Meshwork to propose rather than impose protocol, to inform rather than instruct, to offer counsel rather than dictate procedure.” (Faust, Mission Statement of the ASRM, 2021)
As a learner, this philosophy changed the quality of my learning experience in an important way; it reconnected me to my own body and set me on a path of discovery of ritually relating what I learn to my practice. I was guided by my mentors and teachers to explore movement principles through my own experience of my body. I was encouraged to take time to discover my own pathways and I learned to build a practice that I could always relate my learning to. A NC is defined by the the ASRM as being:
“ [...] an itinerant school for the principle study and application of the Axis Syllabus. Rather than a festival, or celebration, The NC is what its title suggests, an intensive study context. The study of the AS is meant to empower the individual to defend and promote their own health and the health of those they might be responsible for, in other words to sponsor responsible autonomy.” (ASRM, January 19, 2022)
As a movement facilitator, the Axis Syllabus and its pedagogical methods have given me tools to provide the opportunity for autonomous and significant learning to those who attend my dance classes. Since 2018, as a candidate to be certified to teach the Axis Syllabus, I have followed in my mentor's footsteps, and taken on a detailed research of the heart.
The process of remembering by heart:
- Short term memory. This is where the information lands for a moment before the body decides whether to get rid of or keep in the information.
- A visceral or personal connection. Here we are paying attention, building bridges, making links and grafting or transplanting information.
- To know by heart beginnings. Here the memorisation flows. You know it but you still have to find it. At times it arises on its own to meet you. You cannot rest in the known for long and you must stay present. You start to share it with others.
- Surrender. Trust. It's part of you, effortless, mindless with every breath. It sings to you. Allow yourself to be carried by it. It is part of your body (Kim Rosen, p.115-128 ).
To Learn by Heart: The Dance Class
Skip to minutes 4:10-52:25
