If you stumble, make it part of the dance
I mentioned in my introductory post my aversion to performance. Many people find this quite strange coming from an aspiring teacher.
How can you be afraid to perform in front of people when your life goal is to 'stand up and talk in front of a group'? (No - this is not what contemporary teachers do - but many people are still fixated on old ways of teaching, and we need to be understanding of that - change takes time).
To be honest, I understand their point. It really does seem quite strange. If you think about your teachers from childhood you probably remember many of them being quite strange and silly, doing little actions or silly movements at the front of the room - isn't that a performance of sorts?
The best I can do to explain it is by saying that I am first and foremost an absolute horrible liar. I've never really been one to even try because all of my being rejects the idea of lying. I get flustered and my face turns bright red, I giggle and I avert my eyes, sometimes it can even bring me to tears. So, it is definitely something I do my absolute best to avoid doing. That really is the best explanation I can give. To me, teaching comes from a place of honesty. As a teacher, I am trying to encourage students to uncover there best selves. I am sharing genuine information for them and together we are searching for truths. Contrarily, for some reason I have come to equate performing with lying. I don't know why, but the idea of trying to do something unnatural to my organic self feels entirely uncomfortable and once again, my body rejects it.
So, as you can imagine, the concept of teaching dance has created quite a bit of internal turmoil for me.
In Class Dance Education: Day 1
I am happy to share that I left day 1 feeling much more at ease than when I entered day 1, here are a few reasons why:
Dance education is not about steps, it is about following a process. Students are learning to create abstract movement with their bodies in whatever way seems natural and justifiable to them rather than following a prescribed list of instructions on how and when to move.
How can you be afraid to perform in front of people when your life goal is to 'stand up and talk in front of a group'? (No - this is not what contemporary teachers do - but many people are still fixated on old ways of teaching, and we need to be understanding of that - change takes time).
To be honest, I understand their point. It really does seem quite strange. If you think about your teachers from childhood you probably remember many of them being quite strange and silly, doing little actions or silly movements at the front of the room - isn't that a performance of sorts?
The best I can do to explain it is by saying that I am first and foremost an absolute horrible liar. I've never really been one to even try because all of my being rejects the idea of lying. I get flustered and my face turns bright red, I giggle and I avert my eyes, sometimes it can even bring me to tears. So, it is definitely something I do my absolute best to avoid doing. That really is the best explanation I can give. To me, teaching comes from a place of honesty. As a teacher, I am trying to encourage students to uncover there best selves. I am sharing genuine information for them and together we are searching for truths. Contrarily, for some reason I have come to equate performing with lying. I don't know why, but the idea of trying to do something unnatural to my organic self feels entirely uncomfortable and once again, my body rejects it.
So, as you can imagine, the concept of teaching dance has created quite a bit of internal turmoil for me.
In Class Dance Education: Day 1
I am happy to share that I left day 1 feeling much more at ease than when I entered day 1, here are a few reasons why:
'Dance Education is not formal dance training'
Dance education is not about steps, it is about following a process. Students are learning to create abstract movement with their bodies in whatever way seems natural and justifiable to them rather than following a prescribed list of instructions on how and when to move.
'You do not need to be a dancer to be a dance educator, just as you do not need to be a dancer to be a dance education student.'
Seeing as dance education is not related to formal dance training or traditional dance steps it is not necessary for a dance education teacher to have received formal dance training themselves. In fact, we learned in class the importance of being able to teach a dance education class without ever doing a move yourself. We are doing a disservice to our students if we show them what we interpret rather than allowing them to interpret with their own bodies. The job of a dance education teacher is to encourage students to find the movements that make sense to them rather than showing them what makes sense to us.
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