talking-dancing-howling-walking-whispering-spiraling…: Learning English while performing a dance score from the 1970s

Agnès Benoit

doi:10.33178/scenario.19.1.6

Authors

Agnès Benoit

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33178/scenario.19.1.6

Keywords:

arts-based language education, dance improvisation, Movement, performance score

Abstract

“Moving Words in Space” is an artistic and teaching practice based on a dialogue between dance improvisation and language learning. I have been developing this teaching approach with adults for the last twenty-five years, but I have also used it with children to teach English under the name “Jump’n Turn”. In this contribution, I retrace the developmental stages of “Moving Words in Space”, before describing how I use performance scores to introduce children to the English language through “Jump'n Turn”. To illustrate this process, I use “Scramble” (1970), an exercise and performance score originally created by the American dancer and choreographer Simone Forti. The tasks are extremely simple yet have a strong pedagogical potential. I explain how I guide young children through the activities so they can experience language fully through movement while performing a score that was created during the development of postmodern dance in the United States.

Author Biography

Agnès Benoit

Agnès Benoit works in the field of dance as a teacher and improviser. She received both her BA (1992) and MFA (2000) in dance from Bennington College, in the U.S. She moved to Berlin in 2006 and initiated Books on the Move, a traveling bookstore specialised in dance and performance studies. Since 2013, Books on the Move is based in Bordeaux. Within this project, and in collaboration with journalist Stéphanie Pichon, she initiates different types of workshops and events where reading, dance, writing and languages are addressed simultaneously. For the last 25 years, she has also been developing a multidisciplinary and experimental teaching approach around language learning and movement exploration: Moving words in space.

Danseuse et pédagogue, Agnès Benoit est diplomée (BA-1992 et MFA-2000) du Bennigton College, aux Etats-Unis. En 2026, elle s’installe à Berlin et crée Books on the Move, une librairie itinérante spécialisée en danse et performance. Depuis 2013, Books on the Move est bassée à Bordeaux et a pris le statut de librairie associative. Dans le cadre de ce projet, et en collaboration avec la journaliste Stéphanie Pichon, elle initie différents types d'ateliers et d'événements où se croisent lecture, danse, écriture et langues. Depuis plus de 25 ans, elle développe également une approche pédagogique pluridisciplinaire et expérimentale autour de l’apprentissage d’une langue et de l’exploration du mouvement : Moving words in space.

References

Benoit, A. (2022). L’atelier Jump’n Turn. Sauter, tourner, se faufiler dans les méandres d’un dispositif d’éducation artistique et culturelle. Recherches en danse, 11, danse et éducation. https://doi.org/10.4000/danse.5501

Benoit, A. (2022). Moving words in space. Pratique artistique et pédagogique pluridisciplinaire langue & movement. Centre national de la danse, Aide à la recherche et au patrimoine en danse 2021 — synthèse dec.2022. https://www.cnd.fr/fr/file/file/2595/inline/ARPD2021_Benoit_Agnes_synthese.pdf

Benoit, A. (2nd edition, 2009). On the edge / Créateurs de l’imprévu – nouvelles de danse 32/33. Contredanse.

Cooper Albright, A. (2024). Simone Forti – Improvising a life. Wesleyan University Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/book.118730

Forti, S., Zambrano, D. & Benoit, A. (2021). From scramble to passing through. Video conversation, Los Angeles (my own transcription). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sNJFOWcfxI

Forti, S. (2009). Scramble. Video excerpt of a performance at Baryshnikov Arts Center. vimeo.com/8910430

Forti, S. (2003). Animate dancing. a practice in dance improvisation, in Ann Cooper Albright and David Gere (dir.), Taken by surprise. A dance improvisation Reader. Wesleyan University Press.

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