Teaching Practice

Nattie + Hollis have been guest artists and taught masterclasses at Princeton University, NYU, Swarthmore College, The Dalton School, SUNY Brockport, MIT, Nazareth College, and Rutgers University Their work has been commissioned by universities such as San Jose State University, Ailey/Fordham, SUNY Purchase, Roger Williams University, University of Maryland, and Salem State University. As sought out educators they have taught open classes and workshops throughout NYC at Peridance, The Floor, Gibney, MOtiVE Brooklyn, Triskelion, Mark Morris Dance Center and at festivals such as The Bates Dance Festival, The Dance Complex, 14 Street Y, and freeskewl. Currently they are adjunct faculty at SUNY Purchase and Montclair State University - teaching contemporary technique, improvisation, partnering, and composition.

Pedagogy Statement:

We see our teaching practices as vital research for both our making and performing practices. Inside of our class spaces, the information we are sharing is tied to our current choreographic makings. We are (constantly) working on decolonizing our class spaces and decentralizing ourselves as the “experts” of the physical and choreographic forms that have informed us. Acknowledging that our formal dance training is rooted in westernized, Eurocentric and post-modern forms which are often appropriated and colonized, we recognize our place in this lineage and continue to interrogate the value systems it upholds. We believe that the way to begin to unseat these long-held traditions is to bring our whole selves into the practice of teaching, acknowledging that this work is often messy and complicated.

Our current teaching practices are informed by our teachers: Gwen Welliver, Stephanie Tooman, Julie Mayo, Kendra Portier, Kevin Wynn, Kazuko Hirabayashi, Pamela Pietro, Stephanie Liapis, Nancy Stark Smith, Neil Greenberg, as well as our peers, our childhoods, and those influences we are actively moving away from. These are our “ghosts in the room” and we honor them in our class spaces. Improvisational scores, set material, anatomical awareness, strengthening exercises, expulsive exercises and space for discussions are all modes we actively utilize in our class spaces.

We recognize that everyone who attends class has knowledge that is vital and necessary for building these class spaces together. We work to craft the container for our classes while making space for varied contents. Our teaching practice does not have definitive answers, but rather leaves us with questions which we are asking of ourselves, the spaces we hold, and the world around us. We have crafted fluid agreements that we share as a way to acknowledge that we are all navigating this class space together.

Class agreements:
- You know your body better than anyone. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Trust yourself. Take care of your body. Be kind to it. You know your body better than we do. 
- Dance is a stolen and appropriated language. We are dancing on stolen lands. We do not have ownership over these forms but we do have authorship.
- As much as we are teaching we are learning: as much as you are learning you are teaching. We are building this space together. It’s not about Hollis/Nattie, it’s about the we, It’s not about you, it’s about us collectively.

Curatorial Practice