Dancer’s choreography experience will aid teaching in Spain

Shortly after walking across the stage this June, Jacob Campbell will be packing his bags to move 5,834 miles around the globe.

In September, fourth-year world arts and cultures student Jacob Campbell will be moving to Madrid, Spain to fulfill a nine-month teaching assistant contract, while also pursuing dance and choreography. Campbell will be placed in public schools as a North American language and cultural aid to English teachers.

Campbell said his passion for teaching and choreographing inform each other in ways that will be useful to him in a setting where language is a barrier.

“Choreography is a really mental process. It’s organizing bodies in space and time. And as far as classroom management, it’s a strong skill to get a group of people to do something together,” he said. “Body language is going to be really key in the first couple weeks when I’m new to Spain and the students are still new to English and to me.”

Campbell said he hopes to perform in Spain in a routine by Michel Kouakou, a world arts and cultures choreographer whom Campbell has worked with in the past. Campbell danced in Kouakou’s show last fall quarter when they toured the Ivory Coast, Germany and New York.

In Germany, Campbell and two fellow UCLA dancers choreographed and performed a piece alongside four German students.

“Even though we didn’t speak the same language, we were still able to create this dance piece together. It was hard because communication is crucial so we had to be really patient with each other and find common ground.”

Although he doesn’t know much Spanish, Campbell does have significant experience teaching.

As a junior, Campbell designed and taught a unit on music video analysis at the UCLA Community School in Koreatown, a high school in an a community that doesn’t have regular access to arts education.

“We looked at what devices were used in the editing and the imagery – from there we had conversations about gender, race and sexuality,” Campbell said. “I really think what’s important about arts education is not that I’m going in to fix people, but that we’re talking about our lives and experiences and turn it into art, and through that medium we can all connect our stories.”

Barbara Drucker, director of arts education, associate dean of academic affairs for the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, and instructor of records for Jacob’s teaching sequence, said she and the entire class started crying one day when Campbell discussed his experience in the classroom.

“He started crying because he was so moved by the openness, gratitude and responsiveness of the children – and therefore the importance of being an arts educator,” she said.

In Spain, Campbell will be working 16 hours a week, which will leave him time to pursue his other passions: choreography and dance.

“It’s important for me to pursue the art-making part of my career so that when I am teaching I have real experiences to draw from,” Campbell said.

First-year dance student Sean Santhon, who has performed Campbell’s choreography for the world arts and cultures/dance department’s senior project exhibit “Moving/Still,” describes Campbell as an interdisciplinary artist.

“His choreography is different from what the audience is used to because he always incorporates an extra element,” Santhon said. “He’s able to think beyond the stage and the dancers. He always brings in projections or multimedia aspects.”

Campbell said he applies this multimedia approach to his teaching as well, which makes material relevant and keeps students engaged. He used YouTube clips as well as iMovie while teaching his music video unit.

However, Campbell said ultimately it’s the human element of learning and teaching that is most rewarding.

“It’s so easy to let tech do everything, and that’s where dance and performing elements come in. I like to have the students moving and interacting with each other,” he said. “I think my art knowledge and multimedia interest will definitely intersect in the Spanish-English environment.”