Testing Out Teaching.

(The superstars of Michigan strut their stuff.)









To put it bluntly, teaching scares the shit out of me. As a dancer, communicating with my body (how very “stripper-ish”) is comfortable, which means that whenever I have to verbally communicate to a group I freeze up a bit. In my life I have probably taught a total of ten classes but they have been so few and far between that everyone starts out the same:

1) I stress over the fact that my combinations are dull and academic as well as repetitious.
2) When I get into the classroom I usually have about 15 minutes where my voice is shaky like I am speaking as I run on a treadmill.
3) Saying the steps is much more difficult than dancing them. However, saying them is MUCH easier than spelling them and one view at my class plan would have you convinced that a 4 year old had phonetically spelled out French words. Sadly I think a 4 year old might be more successful.

Once I go through this checklist I am usually home free but teaching class brings up interesting ideas. First is the funny idea of assertion or lack thereof. Confidence comes with experience and by the time I get to center I usually feel confident enough to start giving corrections. It is through those corrections that I begin to not only realize universal difficulties of dance as a form of communication but also my own shortcomings. Yesterday in both classes I found myself giving combinations that I myself would struggle with which I find a little humorous. My tendency when choreographing is to fall back on the things I am good at, yet in class I focus on the things I am bad at.

(A few of my "students" mug for the camera.)

Of the two classes I taught I was probably a bit more nervous for the second one. The first was in the school of dance and consisted mostly of strangers. I am used to teaching 15 year-old girls so when I step into a room where everyone is older than me I doubt myself immediately. That class went off fairly smoothly and I could tell by center that everyone was beginning to have just a bit of fun (a quality that is sorely lacking in many classes.)

Throughout the past year I have started and maintained some great friendships with students in the musical theater program here, which made the second class more daunting. Suddenly I was in a room teaching 15 friends of mine which presents some difficult boundaries. Normally I would hesitate to give corrections but here at the university they have such a healthy history of constructive peer criticism that I thought maybe I could help a little bit. I am always amazed at how exhausting being in the front of the room can be and yesterday was no exception. By the time the two classes were over I was a vegetable.

(Michael and I relax after a long day, his energy never ends.)

Sometimes I think that my schedule in the city is hectic but how these friends of mine make it through their days here leaves me dumbfounded. I watched a run-through of dance workshop today (student choreographed numbers) and wished that someone had provided me the tools to choreograph in a school environment. Sometimes I feel that ballet dancers are not as well rounded through their education as they should be. I never had dance history, or cross-discipline opportunities or someone pushing me to create at NCSA. These are all important things that help create an artist yet for ballet they just aren’t expected. Someone commented that they assumed since ABT is doing “Othello” we would all have to read it. I would venture to guess a handful of people will have read it by the time we go on stage. Not pointing fingers at anyone, it just doesn’t happen.

After a hard week of working I am looking forward to doing a bit of college partying tonight. Last time when I was here I learned how to play beer-pong and flip cup (two things for which I have no skill) so who knows what fun activities will be going on tonight. Whatever it is, I’m just trying to make myself a well rounded artist.

Comments

[The Skeptical Arab]

The little I know about dance comes from spending 4 years around students in the Fordham/Ailey BFA program. I think the reason that students in that program are attracted to it in the first place is the diversity of its curriculum. They have a wide range of required dance courses they take at Ailey that are interdisciplinary (including choreography) as well as academic dance courses such as dance history and anatomy and kinesiology. Next to that they have a series of academic courses they take at Fordham that are required to graduate such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology, etc.

I think they like having the opportunity to study more then just dance or one form of dance. It's interesting to talk to some of the students about it to get a sense of how they really feel about the program (there's an article about it on FU's website). I'm sure it's great to be challenged by other disciplines while perfecting the art you love. I don't know if I could only focus on just one thing even if it were my favorite thing.

God they have crazy schedules too, I would never want to attempt it!!! Students always say that the dancers have the hardest major at that school.

[tonya]

Both the great and belitting thing about education is that the more you learn, the more you realize how vast the world is and how much there is to know that you don't! It sounds like you got a great dance education where you went, seeing as how you got into ABT! Ballet is so hard to learn, they probably didn't have time to teach everything. But, as I've realized for myself, just because your formal schooling may have ended doesn't mean your informal education does. You can learn so much from reading great books, attending lectures and discussions, taking classes here and there, surrounding yourself with intelligent and worldy friends who expand your horizons, and doing things like you're doing now at Michigan. Life is always a learning experience!

Regarding what you said about teaching -- ha ha, if you were ever my substitute teacher at Steps or somewhere I take classes, I'd run out of that classroom as fast as I could, I'm so embarrassed of my heinous dance skills! And I'm a lot older than you! So, it's not about age, but experience :)

[Tania]

I agree with what Tonya said about education. Education is a strange thing, because here I am, at the very University of Michigan you describe, where they offer such a huge diversity of things to study, but I find myself academically frustrated on a semi-regular basis because I've immersed myself so deeply in this wonderful and extremely demanding creative writing program that they have, and I have very little opportunity at this point to take classes outside the English department. That was a long sentance. But the point is that there are so many things that are worth persuing but you can only really persue one or two of them in college if you have any inention of actually having friends. And I know that after I graduate this year there are going to be all kinds of things which I will be glad that I finally have the time to read up on, that I didn't have time to learn while I was busy being "educated." If you are a smart and self-motivated person there is no limit to what you can teach yourself over the course of your life, college and formal education is just one way of doing it, albeit a great one.

I hope you had an awesome time partying Michigan style. Flip cup is my game. I rule the universe at flip cup. Or I used to anyway, I actually don't think I've played it since my sophomore year.

[tania]

By the way---one thing that I have NOT learned in my formal English Lit education is how to spell. Ha.

[The Skeptical Arab]

I hope my post didn't sound negative, I surely didn't mean it to come out that way!! Like I said before, I really don't know much about ballet and probably have no right to make comments at all! I was just giving my thoughts and perceptions on that specific program and the dancers I know.

I think you're very lucky to have accomplished something like dancing for ABT at your age. Dancing for a company like ABT and having that sort of comfort of knowing you have work, good work for that matter, is something hard to come by for dancers. How many 20 year olds do you know that have accomplished their career goals already!?!?! It's amazing really because now you can go about and do and accomplish so many other things. No one says your education stops when your schooling stops. Go take classes and read books and watch movies and anything really that will make you feel happy, fulfilled, challenged, etc. You're in NYC the opportunities to educate yourself outside a classroom are endless.

If you ever feel like you want to take an organic chemistry class, let me know and I will sneak you in :) (if you really cared to torture yourself that way)!!

[Chimene]

What a wonderful group discussion. I think everyone expressed valid points. Absolutely nothing sounds offensive at all here.

I have a BS, was a Master's degree candidate for 2 years before ultimately applying to medical school, which is really the educational level I wanted to be at all along, and now I'm 36. When I was in undergrad, I wanted to focus on the performing arts but my nursing program was too overloaded doing both academic and hospital work. I had to wait until my senior year to take a single beg. ballet & modern dance class. In addition, those dance classes required academic papers based upon mandatory attendence of a variety of dance and musical performances. I thought I was going to die under that heavy workload (like 18 units).

It was worth it for a short time, but it wasn't enough b/c trying to continue dancing after I graduated and became a full-time nurse was difficult. Finding the time & energy to pursue dancing and later voice & piano lessons took away from my job performance. I could have harmed or killed a patient not to mention myself and the public at large. I worked 8 & 12 hour night shifts then took class in the morning directly after; I could barely drive. I would literally fall asleep in class, skip class or wouldn't practice. Alright, let me wrap this 'ranting up'. Opportunities for further education/academics are available to you right now b/c of the internet/blackboard learning systems, continuing adult education courses and workshops, etc. You just have to decide in how many different directions you want to be pulled at a given time. Ultimately that is what everyone must do with all the available options now. For me, dance, music & nursing wasn't a good combo (duh!) since I couldn't do all of them well together. You might be one of those 'freaks' who can juggle a bigillion things well though :-)

Good luck

[7th Wave]

As a teacher at NCSA I couldn't agree more and I hope the New Dean, who knows who that will be, will know the importance of teaching a criticaly thinking dancer with a well rounded education in Art, Dance, and Music History, Mime, Composition, Lighting, Costume Design etc. I have been very frustrated about this at our school and piss poor excuses for not providing this type education.