Lamine Gueye – about his system “La Vitamine”
“I’ve always had the approach of a rebel in dance, for I was continuously asking myself many questions. For me, though, this approach has opened many doors of understanding of other aspects and forms of dance. I listened to the advice of my dance teachers and I was convinced about its usefulness. But I was not absolutely sure that there was only this classical approach to dance that could lead to the imaginary peak of the mountain...
In my opinion, the classical approach to dance education has been framed only for a certain type of a body. On the contrary, I wanted to break these limits and borders.
So I started to work by myself. Gradually discovering each part of my body, I learned how to listen to myself and I came up with many surprising results. I have carefully held onto these acquired treasures, which are very valid for me, in myself. Thanks to them I have gradually started discovering new truths that helped me to achieve results in modern dance education comparable to what I would have gained through a classical school system – and all of that with less energy and less tiredness.
Afterwards I returned to my dance classes without mentioning anything about my previous work. The proof of my discoveries was that suddenly I started to progress a lot, and I managed to do movements which are almost impossible for Africans. Then I realized that everything is hidden in ourselves – in our abilities. I believed that I was on the right path which gave me the courage to continue in my creative work.
Over the next couple of years of hard work, I started to share my knowledge with others. Through my system I have been trying to give courage to my students, who needn’t have gone through the classical dance education in modern dance and who want to discover their qualities on various levels of dance. I’ve been trying to show my students another approach to achieving comparable results in dance.
I would like my students to get rid of any doubts and, at the same time, I would like to help them realize themselves in dance. Most of all, I emphasise motivation, determination, enthusiasm, discipline and freedom and all of that with the full awareness that it is not necessary to achieve absolute perfection, which is required in “classical dance education”.
PHOTO: Lamine Gueye (archiv)