Clare Guss-West is a former professional dancer and choreographer as well as a teacher, holistic health practitioner and author specializing in the integration of holistic approaches to professional dance training. Her innovative approach to the training of classical ballet translates sports science Attentional Focus findings, adapting them for professional and vocational dance practice. Supported by her Eastern movement practice, she provides mindful attention and focus strategies for dancers that harness mind, energy and effort to empower, giving them ‘the edge’ and the tools to enhance their own physical and mental performance and achieve their optimum dancing best. She teaches this work for such companies as Finnish National Ballet, The Royal Ballet, Houston Ballet, Ballet de L’Opéra du Rhin, Opéra de Paris, Dutch National Ballet Education, and organisations such as The Royal Academy of Dance and The Nureyev Foundation. Originally a professional contemporary dancer and musician, Clare began her career choreographing with American composer Philip Glass and was resident choreographer and later director at English National Opera. She created productions for San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles Opera and Ballet, The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dutch National Opera and Ballet, The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, BBC Proms and Opéra de Paris.
Abgesagt: Attention & Focus in Dance
Clare Guss-West
A new frontier in dance: mindful mental training to enhance power, precision and artistry
If you could access a simple mental ‘on-off switch’ that would unlock your physical power and stamina, enable efficient movement, heighten your sensory perception, free up brain capacity and support you to achieve your dancing potential, wouldn’t you take the opportunity to experience it?
The workshop follows a systematic, science-based approach to the mental work of dance and hones the skills of attention, focus and self-cueing, to replenish energy and enhance physical and artistic performance with immediate results. In the last decades sports science has refined the use of attention and focus to enhance physical performance and provide ‘the winning edge’ to elite performers. These practices begin now to infiltrate professional dance training. Recent research is in line with ancient Eastern movement practices such as Chi Kung, Tai Chi and Kung Fu. Both agree for example that: adopting a specific attentional focus, on the movement-outcome, effect or quality, as opposed to a focus on the ‘self’, has an immediate impact on performance results, on power, stamina, precision, balance, consistency, fluidity, artistry and speed. Science and Eastern movement practice agree that a lack of attention and focus training means that many dancers are working inefficiently, using inappropriate amounts of energy and that can lead to a global movement dysfunction, lack of stamina, exhaustion and increased risk of injury. In the workshop we look at the foundations of Attentional Focus theory and the practical application and benefits of this research in day to day training to address today’s performance challenges.
- Bühne 2
Tanzhaus Zürich
Wasserwerkstrasse 129
8037 Zürich - Wheelchair accessible
- Wheelchair accessible
- English
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The workshop is aimed at professional dance practitioners.
Our course rules apply.
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Photo: Eeva Suorlahti
