Dancing English Teacher

On the Etymology of Attitude

Posted on 24.4.2016 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

After recently having come across some very poor attitude in some groups of people, I started researching the etymology of the word Attitude. This is the definition I found: 1660s, via French attitude (17c.), from Italian attitudine “disposition, posture,” also “aptness, promptitude,” from Late Latin aptitudinem (nominative aptitudo; see aptitude). Originally 17c. a technical term in art for the posture of a figure in a statue or painting; later generalized to “a posture of the body supposed to imply some mental state”. In other words, attitude is something fundamentally physical. Moreover, in classical ballet Attitude is the most difficult pose to master. It demands extreme turnout in order to look beautiful.

Attitude also makes me recall my late ballet teacher, Prima Ballerina Margaretha von Bahr, who recently passed away at the age of 94. She had a firm opinion regarding Attitude: if it did not look right to her discerning eye, she would shout out in a harsh voice: “that looks like a dog taking a pee”. Having been the first western ballerina to dance on the stage of Bolshoi in the 1950’s, she had the authority to say so. That’s why I came to fear that conspicuous pose so.

What is then wrong attitude in a business school? It is to reply “No I can’t do it” when asked for a small favor such as participating in a two-minute flashmob or in refusing to help peer students with some simple task in their project work. I also call it “ass glued to chair”-attitude, my apologies for the graphic language! The right attitude is about volunteering, carrying furniture, giving a hand in the kitchen, cleaning up after an event… This spring we have enjoyed several successful events, most recently the Alumni Night and the gala dinner at the Leading Passion Conference in April. The favorable outcome of both events was the result of so many people showing the right attitude throughout the process.

This spring I have also come across wonderful attitude in the people who volunteered to join the cast for the Teater Svenska Rummet tanzt theater production “Finess och Takt: Borgå svenska historia på ett ögonblick” that will be performed on 27 April in Theater Grand Porvoo. I was already contacted in January by the director at Grand who requested a performance in Swedish from Porvoo Campus on the occasion of legendary TV-historian Herman Lindqvist giving a lecture on the Swedish-Finnish legacy. Of course I immediately agreed to contribute with a miniature play. However, it turned out to be surprisingly difficult to put together a cast for this production. Early in the process I had an actor, a classical pianist and a hip-hopper joining, but we still needed more people. And where were all the Swedish speakers? I’m still asking that question on the eve of the premier of the play. Incidentally, we will have a play in Swedish, French and English with a multi-national cast. In Shakespeare’s words, all’s well that ends well. Against all odds, we finally managed to form a theater ensemble on Porvoo Campus! And what a brilliant and beautiful cast it is, including talented and enthusiastic people from several continents. People with the right risk-taking attitude for succeeding in business!

Three years ago my lovely Russian friends, film director Pavel Resser and wife Ludmila Elkonina walked in on Porvoo Campus and declared that we need a theater here. Yes we do! And voilà, here it finally is! I wish you were here with us – I know you are in spirit though!

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Clown or Cool – the latest turns of Dancing English Teacher

Posted on 15.2.2016 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

Recently I attended a lecture on self-branding by social media expert Zaki Azedani of Zakisome. One of his main points was that you need to brand yourself in order to obtain business opportunities. Being a representative for Generation Y, he shared this insight with genuine authority. So, how credible is it when middle-aged teachers tell young students to brand themselves? Over the past year I have increasingly often started calling myself Dancing English Teacher rather than Senior Lecturer, just for the sake of testing my brand and for setting an example to my students. Initially, I noticed that some people representing my own Generation X tended to regard me as a funny clown not to be taken too seriously. On the other hand, my students took my dancing introduction with curious interest. It all culminated in a new student declaring a couple of weeks ago the following: “I think you are cool” (this was after I had complained to Zaki Azedani about the clown label that seems to stick).

Looking back at the past year, I have written one peer-reviewed journal article, published another article in a professional magazine for English teachers in Slovenia. Not to forget the article I wrote for Creative Academic Magazine at Manchester Metropolitan University. Furthermore, I’ve given one experimental workshop at an international academic conference, as well as produced a semi-professional tanz theater performance at the business university where I work. Last August I also gave a creative workshop to communication managers from major Finnish companies and organizations. All these activities being related to my unique Business Ballet method that I have been developing for the past 17 years. So the question is, how much do I have to accomplish in order to be regarded an expert rather than a harmless clown, or at its worst, a delusional megalomaniac with a futile mission?

Well, for a long time the clown mask was a convenient disguise when working with unorthodox artistic methods in a business school. However, now I don’t need the mask anymore. I know for certain that I have a valuable contribution to the business education community. In my Business Ballet courses I have witnessed shy students develop into masters of stage performance. And I’m proud for all of them. This is a skill that makes a difference in the business world. Last Friday and today I had the wonderful opportunity of giving two workshops to a group of Japanese students from Osaka Gakuin University. Naturally, in the first “Beam me up for Business – Presence and Performance” session we started with embodiment and kinesthetic awareness – only later moving on to speech practise. And hour by hour I saw the students grow in confidence, until being able to take articulate possession of the stage. In the case of the Japanese group, I was the only teacher they met during their two-day stay at Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, so I had enough time to go deeper into my method. A great reward to me after all these years of working in solitude. Many times it would have been so much easier to just stick to conventional Business English teaching.

Clown or cool? Well, actually I don’t care anymore. I’m happy when I see students leave my workshop with good posture, confident gait and a smile on their face, ready to take possession of the world. In an era of technology and smart-phones, I have seen postures get worse – so there seems to be lots of work out there for Dancing English Teacher. One of the greatest inspirations during the past years have been Associate Professor of Social Psychology Amy Cuddy at Harvard Business School and her famous Power Posing exercise. Whenever somebody looks at me in disbelief, I drop the name Amy Cuddy into the discussion. Today my Japanese group left Helsinki with the word “Power!” – so now they have a life-time tool for being more confident as performers as well as in everyday interaction. I as a teacher need no more validation.

And the latest turns of Dancing English Teacher? Currently I am co-writer for an article that is part of a PhD thesis. In April I’m contracted to give a Business Ballet workshop at the International Staff week and, finally, in May I’ll do internal staff straining at Haaga-Helia. So, clown or cool? Well, maybe still a little bit of clown – and any actor would know that the classical clown is the hardest part to perform. Usually you need a lot of life experience to make a good clown. So cool, yes! And definitely clown – as I often find adult seriousness dull and uncreative.

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Partiture of Presence

Posted on 28.12.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

Recently I crossed the Porvoo Campus lobby during a project dissemination session. I did not stop by to listen, since in a fraction of a second I had drawn my conclusions on whether to stay or not. And I decided not to. Why?

Lobby. During my years of teaching on Porvoo Campus I have only once witnessed a speaker succeed in the Porvoo Campus lobby. Bruce Oreck. As US Ambassador and body builder he had enough mental and physical muscles to fill up the entire space with his presence during his talk on risk-taking. Interestingly, he used the whole floor space during the talk instead of just standing in one spot on that ridiculously small stage.

RULE 1: Consider choice of space carefully when planning a session of student presentations. A lobby is a challenging space for anybody without stage training and the message easily gets lost if the space is too big while the speaker is too small to fill it.

Locked knees. Are you aware that you should not lock your knees while standing on stage? Locked knees lead to locked hips which in turn lead to locked shoulders. The result is a lack of flow that hinders the message of getting through.

RULE 2: Use a lot of training to unlock knees, since in intimidating situations knees tend to automatically get locked. It takes a long time for the body to unlearn certain unhealthy habits. Feel the fluid in the knee socket.

Hands. What are those awkward gestures supposed to mean? Why are your hands so uncontrolled? Why are your arms dangling like dead leaves?

RULE 3: Hands are not an isolated entity. Hand movement starts from the shoulder blades and arm sockets and the chest should be fluid as well.

Horizon. Why are you looking down at your feet? Why is your head hanging?

RULE 4: You should gaze over the horizon at all times and keep your eyes alert and alive. Don’t seek for support from the floor. There is nothing but dust to be found there.

Audience skills. Is this a funeral? No? So why are you all looking so petrified with fear?

RULE 5: When an occasion such as a project dissemination is turning into a funeral, as audience, do something about it. Tap dance, sing a song, do some pause gymnastics – make everybody laugh! A teacher should be there to support the students if he/she sees them freeze. After all, there are lots of ways to make students defrost in an intimidating situation.

So now we have a simple partiture for a successful presentation. Only now are we ready to actually start sharing ideas!

My Business Ballet method is a lot about training the body into an autopilot mode for presentations and sales and service situations. The brain understands in a fraction of a second the point of not locking the knees or not looking at the feet. However, the body is painfully slow to learn. Locked knees make you tilt backwards, thus you feel “safer” as you get further away from the audience. Similarly, dropping your head and looking at the floor makes you avoid facing your audience altogether. Naturally, this all makes sense, the body possesses ancient mechanisms for dealing with fear. However, the audience will perceive this as poor presence and will most probably reject the speaker as somebody not worth listening to. That’s why we need to train the body to cope with intimidating situations such as public speaking.

Most of the students who have attended my Business Ballet course claim that the course should be compulsory, as stated by a student on this video. I tend to agree, presense is very much about technique. You can learn to be more present as speaker – yes, even to enjoy it. Undoubtedly, you cannot perform a piece of music without studying the partiture first, nor can you become a good speaker wihout understanding the notion of “Partiture of Presence”.

Finally, I choose to end with a heart-warming statement by a student who came to the course with no particular expectations:

Another nice day in the class. Feels kind of sad in a way that this course is almost at the end already. I’ve enjoyed it so much and in the process learned a lot about myself. I think everyone should take the class, since it’s important to know how to present yourself in the classroom, in public, inside a meeting room. Where ever really, because you don’t have to have a “presentation” per se to know how to carry yourself, make yourself convincing for an example in the field of business. You can improve your presence in your everyday life too, to improve your relationships and carry yourself more gracefully, make others take you more seriously. I’ve learned a lot and this course has given me a lot to think about for my future presentations and everyday situations. So thank you! Hopefully there will be other courses similar to this as well, would love to participate!

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Mustio Manor – Homo Mobilis was here!

Posted on 28.9.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

This year my autumn term started with flying colors, or should I rather say with dancing steps at Mustio Manor, where Dancing English Teacher had been invited to give a kinesthetic workshop to Finnish business professionals from various fields of expertise. The Finnish name for Mustion linna is actually even more grand as the word “linna” stands for chateau. Take a perfect August day with cliché-blue skies and a classical Palladian garden and you will have the perfect mix for a movement-based team building workshop. Upon my arrival at Chateau Mustio, I was first greeted by a sculpture portraying the antique goddess Diana. I took this as a promising sign as I recently had learnt that Queen Kristina of Sweden (1626-1689) had been fond of the art of ballet and even performed in the role of Diana. The setting soon turned out to be even more promising when I met my group of business people and they announced that they had stayed long enough indoors and were longing to get out into the sunshine to explore the splendid premises.

For once I had enough space to move about – acres of green lawns specked with occasional ponds, pavilions and fine art. This was as close to Jane Austin and British noble estate as you can get in Finland, you could even expect Mr. Darcy to materialize at any moment from behind the oak trees. Yet, even more inspiring than all this finery, were my students for that one afternoon. Over the years I have thought a lot about the concept of Homo Ludens, the playing human often mentioned by Professor of Educational Psychology, Kirsti Lonka. Additionally, it should be noted that the human being is very much Homo Mobilis, a moving being – there is an intrinsic need to move. As goes for Mustio Manor, it was not at all difficult to get the group of business professionals to explore the world through movement, both individually and in groups. We even managed to put together a choreography involving everybody as well as living sculptures in smaller group with the classical garden serving as pastoral stage setting. So for three hours we mainly danced and rediscovered the joy of darting into space and exploring the world through all senses.

As a matter of fact, I had prepared a 3-hour theory lecture on the body in communication – just in case. However, people did not wish to stay indoors for too long and hear me talk about the benefits of movement, they wanted to get out to dance, to move and to walk precariously on a rickety bridge to contemplate the beauty of the famous pink water lilies of Mustion Manor. They wanted to feel the benefits of movement in their bones and muscles. Once again I ask myself, why is there so much Logos in our education, all the way from primary level to adult training? Why are there so many unnecessary words at the expense of other means of communication? Why don’t we leave more space to the imagination? Luckily there are other educationalists asking the same question. I recently published an article “Beam Me Up for Business: Porvoo Campus Playground” in Creative Acadmic Magazine, UK, in a special issue on “exploring play in higher education”. So I don’t feel alone anymore with my questions, quite the contrary, nowadays I get lots of positive response for my work with kinesthetic learning when I meet people outside my daily context.

At Mustio Manor I had the privilege of having an observer present during the entire workshop, my hostess for the day, who has shared her insights in her Haaga-Helia teacher training blog, kindly letting me to share it here. Thank you for being brave enough to invite me! It was a true joy to take Dancing English teacher outside my usual context – I could even say that Homo Mobilis was here. Don’t worry, I did not leave such a tag on the pedestal of that goddess Diana sculpture. It is just imprinted in my kinesthetic memory, my skin still remembering the perfect summer day in late August.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged dance, kinesthetic, learning, movement, Mustio Manor | Comments Off

Vindauga in Valldemossa – upon looking through Chopin’s window

Posted on 12.8.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

I only recently came across the etymology of the English word window, having its roots in the Old Norse word vindauga – wind´s eye. That is, a hole in the wall or roof for the purpose of letting smoke out, then allowing the wind to enter the room. Only later in history was the vindauga sealed off by wooden shutters or glass. From this summer I recall one particular window, that of Frédéric Chopin’s study in Celda Number Four in the Royal Carthusian Monastery in Valldemossa, Mallorca. This small window provided light for him to compose the Raindrop Prelude during the rainy winter of 1838-39, so vividly depicted in George Sand’s book Un Hiver à Majorque. His Pleyel piano being placed close to the window to shed light on the music sheets. When I come to think of it, it must have been very draughty in the damp Mediterranean winter. Thus it is no surprise that it was here where it finally became evident that Chopin’s tuberculosis had turned into a terminal stage.

I tend to believe that intensely creative minds leave a trace in physical space. Rarely have I sensed this as strongly as in Celda Nr 4 with its day-time phantoms materializing within the thick stone walls. I can only think of one other similar place with as strong a connection to its past inhabitants, the Anna Akhmatova museum in Saint Petersburg. When lingering in the rooms of Celda 4, I listen to ancient whispers, absorbing the atmosphere into my skin. I then enter the secluded garden with its spectacular view down to the Valldemossa Valley. In the shadow of orange trees I try out a couple of Mazurka steps and I feel the wind catching the hem of my skirt. The spritely dance sequence is repeated by me and seven seconds of joy are caught for posterity on my cell phone. What blasphemy, the mobile device! I would rather have had George Sand’s artistic son Maurice sketching the scene in his tiny notebook.

Despite many hardships in the damp climate and among hostile villagers, this seems to have been a very productive time for the artistic couple. He composed and she wrote. Their difference in physiognomy is striking in the portraits on display – Chopin so frail and melancholic, Sand so strong and sanguine. Apparently drawn to each other by opposites, yet also by a shared passion for the arts and a strong urge to create. I rarely use the word passion since it is so often misused in our mundane times. However, in case of Sand and Chopin Passion is exactly the word that should be employed. For a dancer Chopin is ultimate ballet music and I recall the time in the early 80’s when my ballet teacher Margaretha von Bahr put together the ballet Les Sylphides (Chopiniana in Russian). This ballet created by Mikhail Fokine for the legendary Les ballets Russes in 1907 was entirely choreographed to Chopin’s music. Standing next to Chopin’s piano I strike a pose from Les Sylphides, asking my husband to take a picture. Yes, photographing is allowed within the premises. What blasphemy again! Yet a moment of true inspiration and euphoria, having found a secret passage to the souls of those people who stayed here so long ago. I look out the window into the blazingly hot afternoon and I hear raindrops accompanied by the Raindrop Prelude inside my head. What would life be without imagination, I ask myself? Without those brief defenestrations into alternative existences and universes. Something to remember when work starts again.

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A Tribute to the Anonymous Pianist

Posted on 18.6.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

I am softly landing into summer holiday mood, leaving a rather turbulent semester behind me, yet with many new interesting openings to explore during the next academic year. It’s midsummer week and raining, as would be expected in our arctic regions. However, this text will not be about anything as mundane as icy rain and bad weather, it’s going to be about the power of live music. And first and foremost it is a tribute to an anonymous pianist who has been embellishing my ballet morning classes for the past weeks.

The other day I walked into the dance studio after having suffered from a common summer flu. Thus I was one week late into starting my summer classes. It is a familiar studio, yet, something was radically different that particular morning in early June! There was a man playing a Chopin waltz on piano! The archetypal pianist incarnate, I would dare to say. This turned out to be only the warm-up for the morning class. I very soon realized that he was not there for random practice but for the purpose of accompanying the entire class. Such fantastic music, apparently improvised without sheet music. And I must say that it is so much more joyful to do the morning class routine to live music than to a CD. An accompanying pianist can play with tempi, accentuation and phrasing and there is a constant dialogue between him and the teacher in order to achieve the perfect balance between music and movement.

Since that first morning this stunning man has been there every time. By now we are spoiled, how will we ever be able to go back to doing our pliés and tendus to plain CD music? We are very well aware of the temporariness of this arrangement, since we have recently learnt that the musician is not actually employed by the dance school. He is playing the piano for his own joy, to counter-balance his job as restaurant musician. This makes us appreciate and cherish the treat of live music even more.

When I started my ballet lessons back in 1975, we always had a pianist accompanying the classes. However, I claim that I have not seen a pianist in a private dance school for over a quarter of a century. Apparently, it’s too expensive to hire a musician. Yet, music is such an organic part of a classical ballet class that something essential gets lost when a musician is replaced by a CD player.

But here I am for the time being, enjoying my summer morning ballet lessons to fantastic music. Yes, it takes some self-management skills to get up at 7.45 during your summer holiday, yet, I am amply rewarded by the tones from Bach to contemporary jazzy beat once I get to the studio. Thank you Mr. Pianist for sharing your talent with us, I can already tell that these dance classes are going to be the highlight of my summer holiday.

I would love to include a picture of the gorgeous man, however, disturbing class with your mobile phone is strictly against ballet lesson etiquette. Moreover, I want to keep this memory primarily auditive. Thus my readers have to be content with me striking an arabesque on the cliffs of Mustasaari Island. One of the rare days it was not raining in June!

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We are here to excel!

Posted on 10.6.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

Now I am going to be a bit provocative. What I am going to say is the following: “No, you cannot fail in my class!” It has become almost trendy to assure students that they are allowed to fail, however, I would like to challenge this a bit. What if we twist this worn-out statement into “In this class you can only excel

Over the past years I have seen many students conquer their stage-fright and turn into excellent public speakers. The first step is learning to take possession of the space. Leaving the safe corner and stepping into the open needs to become a reflex. As mime artist and dancer Adam Darius wrote in his book The Adam Darius Method: A technical and practical handbook for all performing artists (1984):

Why move like Prometheus chained to his rock or Petrouchka

confined to his cell when the space around us begs to be taken

over and conquered? Move spaciously through space. Manipulate

it, cut through it, sweep across it, gather it in all embracing arms,

cut patterns through it with scissor sharp legs and melting arms,

be master of the air.

In the passage above there are many interesting elements for movement improvisation exercises we do in my Business Ballet method, summing everything up into sweeping into space and filling it with your three-dimensional body. The second step is to learn to deliver a Pecha Kucha presentation. On Porvoo Campus we start with a mini version with ten slides only. What I tell students is that if they start panicking, they can stay quiet for those 3 minutes 20 seconds. It’s not that long! The slides will keep changing every 20 seconds and you don’t need to talk non-stop. You can just stand there and relax and breathe until its over. Note, breathing is essential! Usually, people manage to get in a word every now and then and many are amazingly fluent from the very beginning. However, I am particularly interested in helping the shy people who don’t possess an in-born love for performing on stage. With Pecha Kucha the point is not having text on the slides but pictures only, then you will have to focus on the story line instead of reading notes from the screen in a monotonous voice. Our talented student Linh Duong recently shared a blog post with her Pecha Kucha presentation she had performed in my Cultural Contacts course.

Finally, once you dare to fill up the space with your entire body, speaking will become very easy and natural. Even in a foreign language. Suddenly you find yourself alone on stage, talking to an attentive audience. And it feels great! However, there are no short-cuts to this state and the practice has to start from body language, not from delivering facts and figures only. With enough practice you will eventually understand the necessity of open space as fuel for your performance. Huddling like a little mouse in the corner will not take you anywhere. Start getting rid of that harmful reflex today!

Now I am going to be provocative again, I believe that it is easier for Finns to say “I am allowed to fail” than “I am allowed to excel”. That’s why I cringe every time I hear the phrase “we are allowed to fail here” – then failing turns into a collective act of failing miserably. No, let’s start excelling collectively. It’s a bit as with Harvard-Professor Amy Cuddy’s “Power Posing”: when feeling insecure you need to Power Pose with open gestures and your body will change your mind into feeling more powerful. “Fake it until you make it!”

Notably, my back-ground is in Classical Ballet, the most severe of all disciplines. There it is absolutely fatal to fail. How would it look in the Valtz in Act 1 of Giselle if one corps de ballet member stepped into the wrong direction? It would spoil the effect of beauty and harmony. So I learned early my lesson of the importance of being diligent and learning your steps very well before entering the stage. Back to my student on Porvoo Campus, this year I have seen so many people excel and flourish and I am very proud of the accomplishments of my students. No, we definitely are not here to fail – we are the masters of the air!

Below: My own Pas des Trois choreography for myself, Annukka and Maria performed many years ago – in a different millennium!

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Dancing with Chryssa

Posted on 28.5.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

Today, sadly, was the farewell lunch of my dear colleague and friend, Chryssa Skodra. Even the sky clouded and there was a sudden angry burst of wind when it was time for her to say good bye to Porvoo Campus, as if the ancient weather gods had interfered in this sad moment. I had prepared a Renaissance dance in honor of this Renaissance princess, because a Renaissance woman she is, in the true meaning of the word. Yet, at the end there was no time for any dancing, to my great regret, since dancing heals more than words and is of great comfort in those moments when words become futile.

I have a vivid first recollection of Chryssa from November 2009 on Haaga-Helia Pasila Campus. In the corner of my eye I saw a very young woman in the act of interviewing the Ambassador of India, His Excellency Om Prakash. I immediately became curious about this young woman who looked almost like a high school girl. Who was this person who seemed so confident and competent despite her young looks? Later it turned out that she was Chrysoula Skodra, Greek journalist and Master of Culture Management from the prestigious Sibelius Academy. It still was hard for me to match the youth and all accomplishments. Later, when I got to know her better, I got to see what a phenomenal networker she was, as expressed by our colleague Evariste in his speech to Chryssa, an extarordinary woman from the future!

I have been lucky to have Chryssa as colleague and friend for almost five years. With my own background in classical ballet and the rigid Vaganova system and with her roots in artistic gymnastics, we share the same childhood experiences of tough training and character building. I have never liked the phrase “it does not matter whether you fail.” Of course it matters if I take the wrong turn in the Waltz in ACT 1 of Giselle. It spoils the entire choreography! In this respect Chryssa and I share the same attitude: “We are not here to fail. You can do much better”, you might hear her tell students. This became evident in the We Do Weddings in Every Sense fair organized this May on Pasila Campus. Chryssa demanded perfection and the students excelled! Yes, I would claim that they even exceeded their abilities under the inspiring and sparkling supervision of Chryssa, and we could all enjoy a fantastic event!

Finally, anybody who knows me, is aware of the fact that I prefer non-verbal communication to words. This spring Chryssa and I prepared together a contact improvisation duet in an Anna Akhmatova inspired performance, Echoing Rooms performed at Encounters15 Conference on Porvoo Campus. Usually, it would take years to build up enough trust to do improvisation involving advanced weight shifts. In our case we had only one ordinary rehearsal and one dress rehearsal before going on stage. As it happened, during the performance I lost my balance and was already falling, when Chryssa pulled me back on my feet in a fraction of a second. This moment told more than a thousand words: about her alertness, intelligence and sensitivity. Chryssa would not let a friend fall, not literally nor metaphorically. She pulls people up and encourage them to do their best.

Chryssa, now, when you are moving on to new challenges, I wish that you, in turn, will meet people who will pull you up in difficult moments, who will push you forward to unimagined heights and who would show appreciation for your Renaissance multi-talent, so rarely seen nowadays. Than you for all the lovely and inspiring moments together. Let’s keep in touch!

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Chryssa Skodra, We Do Weddings in Every Sense | 1 Comment

Corridor Pedagogy for Risk-Takers

Posted on 16.5.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

Porvoo Campus became a playground out of necessity, not out of exhibitionist aspirations nor out of any inborn urge to cause stir and turbulence. The classrooms are simply too small for exercises involving any movement. Hence, my “corridor pedagogy” was born.

One of the most memorable corridor pedagogy sessions took place in early March, when I had the pleasure of hosting a group of Japanese students and their lecturer from Osaka Gakuin University. After having enjoyed a traditional Porvoo walking tour and lunch on Campus, the group found itself taking my Business Ballet class without any further fuzz or tedious introductions. Very soon we were already out of the classroom doing various corridor exercises: Risk-Taking Steps, Staying within your Skin and Follow the Leader, Campus thus turning into a gigantic playground. As always, we attracted some attention from those Porvoo Campus students who are not yet familiar with my kinesthetic teaching methods. “What are you doing? We also want to join your class!” You are very welcome to join my Business Ballet course, was my swift reply to the curious enquiries! Answering their question, I would say that we were practicing some very fundamental business skills, but also playing together just for the joy of playing. Echoing the founder of the Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics, Juri Lotman, if there is no play, what is then left? Lotman viewed adult seriousness as one-dimensional, defining play as something that creates a multifaceted world of possibilities.

Seriously speaking, play also enhances creativity, a core competence for future working life. I dare to claim that creativity is not taught in theory, it is something everybody possesses in childhood but many loose once they reach the upper grades at school. However, the creative streak can be rediscovered through artistic activities such as dancing together. I often see it happen in my workshops, where students get inspired by Porvoo Campus to discover the quirky building in a three-dimensional and joyful manner. Sometimes I have called Campus architecture a fun house, as it has the same effect on people as a fun house in a Tivoli.

So back to the concept of corridor pedagogy. What on earth is it then all about? First, it is about the risk-taking body. Needless to say that it demands a lot of courage to dart into open space with open focus, that’s why I put my students to walk so much. An advanced form of risk-taking steps is risk-taking dance, an exercise the Japanese students tried out with great success as you can see in these pictures. What makes the situation especially demanding is that upon doing corridor pedagogy we often involuntarily end up having an audience and thus have to perform the exercises under the scrutinizing gaze of outsiders. So next time when you are sitting in your lecture and you happen to see us doing corridor pedagogy, you don’t need to look so astonished. We are just tuning our business bodies into high risk mode. Or alternatively, we are practicing the subtle pair exercise called “staying in your skin”.

What is then the benefit of all this? In short, I end up with students who are great performers. I rarely see my students huddle in the corner in a mousy manner when they are asked to give a presentation. My students know how to fully benefit from open space, since the risk-taking body becomes a natural reflex due to all the physical exercises we do in class. Naturally, excellent performance skills are a competitive edge in working life and the good news is that also shy people can learn the tricks for succeeding as public speakers. For those who have never come across my corridor pedagogy, you are warmly welcome to join Business Ballet for Sales and Service Excellence! No tiptoeing here – welcome to jump into space! Beam me up for business – what’s that? You’ll find out when you join my course. I hope to see you there!

Code: ENG8PO012 Business Ballet for Sales and Service Excellence

Time: Period 5, Thursday 9-11.30

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Business Ballet, Osaka Gakuin University, risk-taking | Comments Off

Echoing Rooms – from fragments to excellence

Posted on 1.4.2015 by Pia Kiviaho-Kallio

PROCESS

When does a performance start to take shape? In the case of Echoing Rooms it was when I got to know Pavel Resser and Ludmila Elkonina, my kindred spirits in Saint Petersburg. In spring 2013 they walked into Porvoo Campus and announced that every university needs a student theater. I had no idea how this would materialize on Porvoo Campus, however, the notion of a theater was planted in my subconscious and left there to rest for the time being.

The first time I heard about Anna Akhmatova was in my late teenage years, so I had been aware of her oeuvre for a long time. However, my first real encounter with her as poet was when I visited the Anna Akhmatova home museum in Saint Petersburg on 1 April 2014, exactly one year ago. I wandered through the Echoing Rooms, looking out into the court yard with the silhouettes of the naked trees against a clear spring sky. I moved from room to room and the soundscape kept changing from the dance hall music in the salon to the oppressively ticking clock in Akhmatova’s tiny study. I vaguely recognized the violin solo in the last room representing her later stages in life, yet I was unable to put a label on it. Only later did I learn that it was Bach’s Chaconne.

Next, I had a powerful vision of Pavel opening the performance with an early poem in Russian and with Ludmila closing with a late poem, also recited in Russian. Without these true representatives from a time past, the Saint Petersburg-inspired performance would not have been possible. Still, what was meant to happen between the opening and closing was yet to be discovered. Then came the Ukraine crisis followed by financial turbulence – our burgeoning theatre company was at great peril. However, I trusted that Pavel and Ludmila would sail through the storm as so many times before in their life.

Then I had to find the student reciters for the performance. Again, I had a strong vision of the cast as it came to dynamics and kinesthetic presence. At the end, out of the initial six names I had in mind, only one had to cancel. Yet, he was soon replaced by a young man with genuine interest in performing on stage. The Finnish tourism students very soon got enthralled by the intriguing life of Anna Akhmatova and they chose their favorite poem translated by New York based translator Andrey Kneller, who had given his permission to use the texts. Somehow, all six randomly chosen poems formed a powerful entity.

What a joy when my dear friend and multi-talented colleague Chryssa Skodra joined the cast. We met clandestinely once before the dress rehearsal and figured out the outcome of a friendship between two strong women, poetess Akmatova and actress-dancer Olga Glebova-Sudeikina: how it would start, how it would sprinkle and clash and how at the end, there would be nothing left but longing, Olga never to return again to Saint Petersburg from Paris where she had settled as emigrant. As expected, Chryssa and I immediately found the right tone in our contact improvisation, so there was no need to rehearse any further.

Still, we did not have a performance yet – only fragments of a performance.

DRESS REHEARSAL

Then came Tuesday 17 March and I had a happy reunion with Pavel and Ludmila in the morning. On our one-hour bus ride to Porvoo we had time to discuss the performance in detail. By four o’clock the cast was ready to start the dress rehearsal – all being well on time. And then it happened by some magic, all of a sudden we had our theater company on Porvoo Campus. It must have been the presence of a Russian film and stage director and his spouse and companion in life that made everybody understand that this was for real. Everything fell beautifully into place, there was focus and commitment – and pure joy! Classroom 3421 had been transformed into a theater – it did not take much: just a couple of coaches serving as stage, and the chairs removed to the rare end of the room. A chess table and three simple chairs. The illusion turning real.

There were some unforgettable moments, for instance when Pavel taught young Mikael how to put a shawl on Akhmatova’s shoulders in an elegant old world manner. Also the Echoing movement poem at the end took shape and we decided not to involve the audience, since that would cause unnecessary stir. Ludmila was worried about the lethally slippery floor in Chryssa’a and my contact improvisation, but I knew that I could trust Chryssa 110% and thus take real risks (in the performance itself she actually saved me from a bad fall by pulling me back on my feet in just a fraction of a second). So at the end of the dress rehearsal we knew that we had a performance. A performance carved down to the very bone. Thus being a far cry from a sugar-coated opera production with plastic emotions played in guilded opera houses. No, I take no interest in such shallow depictions of human life. And I feel that also my students sensed the uniqueness of creating something rare and beautiful together as ensemble. The same feeling was also transmitted to Aron, the student who took care of the performance technique in dire conditions.

OUTCOME

Now the performance is just a memory, yet having left a strong and lasting imprint upon our soul. Photographer Jussi Niemi captured some intense moments, otherwise, there is no recorded trace left. Only a handful of people came to see the performance, half of them invited by me personally. What did we then all learn during this process? Firstly, my students learnt commitment and ensemble work. How important it is to come together and give your time to something you cherish, this obviously happened during the dress rehearsal when we saw all fragments suddenly making sense. Secondly, in a reality where it is trendy to say that “anything goes and it does not matter whether you fail or not”, my students got involved in a project where only excellence was good enough. We were not there to fail. And we all committed ourselves to that goal, the result being success, a production we can be proud of. Maybe this is the fundamental lesson we can learn from a theatrical production in a business school, when you strive for excellence there is no room for half-measures.

What next? Pavel Resser is rehearsing Chekhov back in Saint Petersburg with his student theater ensemble of Saint Petersburg State University. I, on the other hand, find myself once again homeless with my artistic ambitions. Yet, nobody can take away the moment we had together as ensemble. Just before Pavel and Ludmila were leaving for Saint Petersburg, the four of us came together to plan the future for our ensemble. What an odd gathering of three generations and three totally different geographical locations: born in the 40’s, 60’s and 80’s, growing up in the Soviet Union, Finland and Greece in different decades – yet finding a profound and immediate understanding regardless of age or cultural background. Finally, sadly Chryssa’s name is not even mentioned in the program, she stepped in too late to become the brilliant assistant director she turned out to be during dress rehearsal. Chryssa, I tried to get your name added to the program in retrospect, but I was told that it was not possible after publication. Well, we all know that in this world very much passes unnoticed and unmentioned. So, for a brief moment we had a real theater company on Porvoo Campus. It might never be heard again in that context, yet it flamed and made life beautiful and intense for the brief moment it existed.

P.S. Thank you Veijo for your great singing in Russian. You never fail to astonish me! And thank you Ivan for your research at the Akhmatova museum.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Anna Akhmatova, poetry recital, Porvoo Campus, tanztheater | 3 Comments