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| Typical student photo.. FEET ! (in HK) |
Each time I teach a course in China, I learn more from my
students than I suspect they learn from me. Especially as I get to know some of
them better, our conversations are deeper and more substantive. In addition,
how they respond to movement and psychological frameworks also helps me get
glimpses of both differences and similarities between my cultural patterns as
an American and their Chinese ones. This
time, the course I taught in Beijing was an advanced level course focusing on Laban
Movement Analysis (LMA). We use this in dance/movement therapy to help us
better understand the meaning of our clients’ movement and body patterns. So
learning LMA means learning this systemic framework for making sense of all
non-verbal movement patterns. Because movement is so complex, LMA is a complex
and challenging system to learn and I am used to students becoming easily
overwhelmed and frustrated in their learning process. The students in Beijing,
while some of the times frustrated, excelled in their grasp of the system in
some ways, but also faced challenges, different from students in the US.
For those of you who wondered how I managed to teach the
class, when I can’t read of speak Mandarin, I had an amazing translator who is
quite insightful and a joy to work with. I also think that many more students
DO have a fairly basic understanding of English, but are shy to speak. In fact,
one student bravely tried to speak a few sentences in English, and all of her
attempts were met with rousing applause for her efforts and success. Sadly, my
own language skills come nowhere near those of my students.
Students tended to be able to memorize the various terms and
concepts easily, but often had a hard time moving between concepts
fluidly. They tended to prefer more
specific levels of expression, and while they could express emotions easily, it
didn’t seem to be something they expressed in more complex movement situations.
It was interesting to observe and make guesses about how their cultural and
background influenced how they worked with and interacted with the various
concepts used in LMA.
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| Getting ready for photos in Beijing- Last Class |
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| Lunch Conversations in HK (Vietnamese Restaurant) |
As an American and a psychotherapist, I also wondered about
my own biases and valuing of individual expression, and emotional expression. In
our conversations, students sometimes shared that, while they loved the way the
class gave them permission to express their own feelings (including things like
assertion, aggression, anger and sadness) it was not the way they were raised
in their families and in school. At one point as I mentioned that the students
in the class seemed to move in unison faster than any other group I had worked
with (even accounting for the fact that they have worked together for 4 years
and so are extremely close and attuned to each other.) My students pointed out
that for most of their lives, stepping outside the line, or being too emotional
was punished by the rest of their society.
I wonder about the value of individual expression, when the dominant
culture sees it as wrong or inappropriate.
How much of the need to conform is an ancient Chinese value the reflects
the priority put on balanced relationships, and how much is due to the
influence of conformity from more recent political influences (not following
political policies would often result in extreme punishment). Similar conversations
about the importance of secure attachment, being seen and ‘gaze’ in infant/caretaker
bonding raised questions about whether these needs are actually universal or
culturally biased. When we discussed this in class, many of my students began
to share how the usually avoided being seen. Was this due to the cultural value
of not sticking out, or the result of generational trauma resulting from years
of governmental political actions, or even that my role as the teacher was
scary because they feared being wrong and lose face in front of their fellow
students. I did notice that on the last day of class, many students shred that
they felt more connected to other students than with anyone else they knew (due
to the expressive and deeply introspective training process). While I don’t know
the answers to these and many other questions, I appreciated the opportunity to
question my own assumptions and values.
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| Graduation Cake and Roses for Graduates |
Finally, since several students were ‘graduating’ having
completed all of their required course, I was able to join in on their
amazingly ecstatic ending ceremony. At
times silly, at times wild, at times deeply emotional, we danced each other’s
movement patterns to honor them as part of the group, we shared cake and people
took about a zillion photos. After about 20 minutes of primping in front of the
mirror-replacing their glasses with contact lenses and applying lip stick and
mascara. Then endless photos -with flowers,
cartoon kissing, serious expressions, silly expressions (usually with two
fingers in a ‘peace’ V shape), and some with graduation caps and diplomas. Everyone
was hugging each other, as they handed their cell phone to someone to take a
picture (often taken with me.) Eventually, I left to find Bruce, while the
students continued their party by going out to celebrate with (as I was told) ‘many
bottles of wine’. I felt honored and
appreciative of being included and hope to meet many of them again in the
future.
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