Facilitating in the moment

Abstract

This chapter responds to the ever-changing and challenging environment within higher education that sees high pressure on our time and workloads. As lecturers on the BA (Hons) Dance Performance & Teaching course at The University of Central Lancashire, we met to discuss how our dance training and practice might support us in our HE delivery. The discussion proved fruitful and led us to unpick what it is in our movement practice that could be useful for others working in the same environment. We propose that taking an embodied approach to facilitation helps us to attend to ourselves before, during, and after teaching experiences, and in being more attuned to self, we are therefore more able to be responsive and available for those we are teaching. We believe developing a personal physical practice regardless of subject expertise would support lecturers in this busy, distracting, and often stressful environment.