Turning point on Curaçao
- Dance
- Education in Art
For her research and graduation from the Dance in Education bachelor course, Romy Houwers spent three months on Curaçao. Teaching in a different culture enriched her in terms of learning to work with various target groups. “I like working with pupils with special needs.”
On Curaçao, Dance in Education finals student Romy Houwers learned that there’s no such thing as ‘normal’. “The theatre school I worked for teaches in the deprived neighbourhoods of Curaçao, where a lot of children don't speak Dutch. What is normal when a child needs to be brought up at school? Teaching was so different there then what I was used to in the Netherlands. Without this internship, I wouldn't have learned so much about working with different groups." In the past, Romy preferred teaching at a dance school to working in a primary school. Her perspective has since changed. “I don't see myself working in standard primary education, but I do see myself working with pupils with special needs. I am now consciously acquiring relevant experience during my internship in the Netherlands."
Interdisciplinair work and research
Together with Renske, another student from the same year who is studying Theatre in Education, Romy has also written an educational dance and theatre performance for the Turning Point dance school and the Drazans youth theatre school. Over a period of eight weeks, the duo wrote the teaching material and performed the piece with performers from both schools. Romy: "I consider collaboration to be important in my work and it was great not to have to do all that work myself in such a short time. We created an interdisciplinary performance for primary schools, with peer-to-peer education. Teenagers first gave their performance and then spent an hour teaching the primary school pupils. You get a better reception that way than when a teacher takes over."
"I gave the advise to my pupils to let go of the process."
“For her personal profile, over the past academic year Romy had already been investigating how experts in the Netherlands go about interdisciplinary coaching for different art forms. "I did the final part of my research on Curaçao. I shared the knowledge I acquired there with coaches in the form of a teaching video, in order to inspire their lessons during the Week Zonder Naam, an interdisciplinary talent development project on the island. Above all, I advised them to let go of the process and to ask open questions, so that they aren’t influencing the pupils’ end result."
Growing is enjoying
“It's great to see a child arriving as a blank canvas and in the space of a few lessons something clicks and they progress in leaps and bounds. That's what I enjoy most about my work." As of this year, Romy has dared to let the reins go a bit more when teaching. “Warming up, tandu, a swing and a stretch before the big movements begin… I find the standard sequence kind of boring. I often did things by the book because I thought that's the way they were supposed to be done, but thanks to feedback from my internship lecturer I'm now able to let that go. I like combining jazz with Physical Dynamics and I consider it important to teach pupils free dance."
Romy on her course
Romy looks back on her time at ArtEZ fondly. “I found the course tough, it's mentally and physically hard work. But I learned a huge amount and being part of the group was so great. Your fellow students here are your mates, everyone helps everyone else." After graduating, she will set off on a world trip with her boyfriend. “We are going to Asia, South America and, if we have enough money left over, Australia and New Zealand. In all those countries I want to dance, give dance lessons and, like I did on Curaçao, discover what dance means in a different culture."
