Warm, kind, generous, open, loving.
These words come to mind when I think about Christina Mertzani. We first met when she came as a guest trainer to the company I was working with at the time. Her presence in the studio was like the sun coming out after a long, grey German winter, and she always exuded such a positive and warm energy. Her classes left me feeling so motivated and inspired to move, and she managed to bring out the dynamic and confident side of me which very few teachers or choreographers have been able to do. That’s why I’m so grateful that she was willing to take time out of her busy schedule to answer some of my questions in regard to my previous post about dealing with drama and bad behavior. She has been an inspiring mentor to me since the beginning of my new journey, especially because her approach to her work is through encouragement and kindness.
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| © George Terzis |
Even though I only managed to scratch the surface of her wisdom and experience, her response to my questions have really opened my eyes, and I can safely say I am even more inspired than before! Here is the interview:
Me: How would you define a ‘bad attitude’ in a dance setting?
Christina: It is hard to define what "bad" or “good" really is, and this interpretation changes every day as we experience new situations and get involved with new ideas and people from all over the world.
I would like to share with you an example from my experience teaching in China: When I would ask the dancers there if they had any questions or if there was something they needed help with, they wouldn't answer and just looked at me. This was very confusing because they were so friendly and talkative in person, and I couldn’t understand why they were so different in the studio.
After my first class with that group, I went to talk to the artistic director of the festival to ask him why the dancers were not talking to me and I was really surprised with his answer! He told me that the dancers showed me their deepest respect by remaining silent. In their culture the teacher explains and the dancer follows without questioning. Wow! I would never have imagined that.
By observing the behavior from that group of dancers in China, here in Europe we would think that they were not interested or not showing respect to the teacher, right? On the contrary, they had shown me their fullest respect, love and care in a way I had never seen before. What I thought was a ‘bad attitude’ was in fact the exact opposite. So I would like to thank those dancers and the director for teaching me something I was not aware of, that what I see, and what I think, it is not necessarily the only truth.
Then something interesting happened. Once I changed my understanding of how they work in this culture, I started to notice changes in the way they were responding to me as well. They became much more open in the studio and began asking me questions!
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| © Marigo Aggelidou |
I’m sure you have experienced some ‘extreme cases’ of bad behaviour in your career. What is your approach in dealing with such situations?
I have been teaching for more than 17 years in different countries, universities, studios, companies, different levels and over different time periods, so as you can imagine there were definitely some "extreme cases"! It only makes sense once you consider that we are all human, and while we are working or studying, many things can happen in our lives.
Death, divorce, economical problems, broken hearts, pregnancy, depression, being in love, political issues, insecurity; it is normal to be in any of these situations. We could see them as "extreme cases" and of course any of them could influence the energy of the group. But this is life, and I am thankful for each"extreme case", because we grow from them. Most of the time we don’t even know what a person is going through and it would be good to find the time to understand the reasons why something happens instead of judging or blaming them straight away.
I believe in love, in art, in discipline, in taking the responsibility for our actions and in growing every day. It is okay to make mistakes and it is amazing when we do the work to realize, apologize and grow as a person and an artist. "Extreme cases" are a gift for us and the people around us.
I also think that we need to allow people the time to deal with their issues. I have received messages from former students, apologizing for their behavior, sometimes even years later!
What do you try to teach your students to encourage better behavior and professionalism?
Like I said before, everyone is different, and you have to deal with each person individually but learning how to be a responsible and reliable person is just as important as becoming a good dancer. For example, if I am teaching in a university or a professional dance school, I feel it is very important to educate the student and prepare them for the professional dance world.
So I give them my time and effort for dance technique, but I also teach them the importance of arriving on time, being focused in class, doing their best, behaving with respect towards each other, trusting themselves, thinking positively and to get them to apologize when they do something wrong or when they break the rules. It sounds like common sense, but it’s not!!
What I’ve mentioned above is important to me because these are the dancers who are going to work in companies or projects after their studies. If you don’t learn how to be on time, you could possibly miss your train or flight for a performance, and create problems for the production and your colleagues. If you don’t learn how to apologize when you do something wrong, you could create a really bad atmosphere in the company. If you don’t learn to trust yourself, people might not be interested in working with you. If you don't learn how to do your best, you will probably not get the collaborations you want. If you do things because you have to and not because you want to, you might do the same as a professional and it will give you the feeling you are doing a job and not something you really love. If you don't learn that you can find positive things in any situation, any teacher, any person, or any technique, that can lead you to focus on the negative. By learning to focus on the positive you can always be thankful, happy and develop in life every day.
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| © Nynka Brandsma |
Do you think there is anything in general we could do as educators to reduce the amount of bad behaviour in class?
Thank you for this question. Educator is such a beautiful word. In my eyes, the educator has so much responsibility and importance.
Yes, we can do many things as educators. Number one is to make sure that being an educator is our mission in life. If helping others is our mission, then we can be an educator.
We have to set an example and make sure we are working on ourselves first. If we aren’t interested in learning, then how can we be interested in teaching? Read books, go to seminars for personal development, learn how to be a good teacher, get better at understanding others, meditate, talk to people who inspire you and see how they deal with similar situations.
As educators we need to take interest in development and growth for us and our students, and work towards creating a better life. In this way we can become aware of our own behavior and have the tools to help and inspire others. We are doing this because we feel it is important and that’s what makes it a mission.
Do you believe there is a specific way that can lead you to success or to achieve your goals?
To answer this question, I would like to share a story about a friend of mine (we will call her Maria) and the way she responded to her two year-old daughter.
Maria was with me in the living room while her daughter was playing with a ball, which rolled under the sofa. The girl looked at her mother with her eyes full of questions: ”where is the ball?”
Maria was prepared to help her, and told her, “yes, I know, my love, the ball has rolled under the sofa”.
Her daughter didn't get disappointed or anything. Instead, she tried to figure out what she could do in order to get her ball back. She left the room and came back with a very small kitchen towel.
Maria, wanting to help her child, was really debating if she should teach her daughter to get a stick or something like that, to get the ball from under the sofa because her belief was that with the little kitchen towel it would not be possible to get the ball out. (As a side note, I was thinking the same thing). Maria decided to allow her daughter to do what she felt was good for her, and let her experiment. Then what happened? She managed to get the ball from under the sofa with the little kitchen towel. Yes yes yes, she did it!
What do I want to say with this story? There is not only one way to do things, we are not limited to just one specific way of achieving our goals even if everyone else has a different belief. This is an important mindset to have, to allow the space for creativity and to see things from different perspectives. We should all try to be like a two year-old, and believe that we can achieve everything we are dreaming of, both in dance and life. That's what success is for me.
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| © George Terzis |
When I participated in your classes, I always felt so motivated and positive. How do you maintain this energy even if you’re not feeling at your best?
Thank you for your kind words. I deeply appreciate it, and I am happy to hear them. As I mentioned before, I see teaching as a mission, so before entering the studio I make sure I know what I really want to get from that class, what my goals are, and always allow the space to get inspired by what happens. My main goal is to help and learn, which gives me energy and joy even if I am not at my “best”.
What do you do when you walk into the room and notice a tension or bad energy in the group?
As humans, we all want attention, love and to feel that someone understands us. So what I normally do (though it doesn’t always work) is I try to take the tension or bad energy and transform it into something positive. This is the same thing I do with myself, try to see the positive side of things. This can happen automatically or take more time, but since this is the goal, it moves in this direction sooner or later.
Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us, Christina!
I would like to thank you for giving me the possibility to talk about such important issues in the dance world. By sharing our thoughts and our opinions with each other, we can all improve and have a better world to dance in!
Christina is a choreographer, dancer and teacher who has been performing and teaching all over the world. She graduated from Athens State School of Dance in Greece and holds a degree in Homeopathy by Akadimia of Ancient Greek and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Over the past 17 years, she has been teaching and choreographing for different companies, universities, state theaters, festivals and studios for professional dancers. Some of the places she has collaborated with are Sasha Waltz & Guests, the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, Beijing Dance Academy, Tainan University of Technology, b12 festival, one small step festival, Cie.toula limnaios, Marameo, Theater Osnabrück, Landesbühnen Sachsen, Staatstheater Kassel, Theater Heidelberg, Tanzbüro Basel, Stadttheater St. Gallen, Staatstheater Bern, Nachschub, HJS Profitraining Amsterdam, SOZO visions in motion, Landestheater Linz, Anton Bruckner University, Stadttheater Bielefeld, Staatstheater Braunschweig, AKBANK Sanat Istanbul to name just a few. Christina co-directed for 9 years (2010-2018) the International Contemporary Dance Festival <one small step> in Corfu, Greece.
If you would like to find out more about her, check out her website and her beautiful photos and videos on Instagram.
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