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MaryX

So, I love teaching dance and I don't think after I move I will have the opportunity to do it a lot. I know that being a good teacher and being a good dancer are different skills, and that being good at one does not necessarily promise competency in the other.

What do you think is the best way to teach new dancers? What about existing dancers? What do students want from their teachers; in general and specifically?

hawkeye48 · Newbie Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 8 Location: Iowa City

I've always found that it helps to know how to explain how to do something in multiple ways. Some people will understand things when you say something one way, while others will be completely lost. Being able to change it up a bit allows for more people to be able to learn with their particular learning ability.

Dinn · Hepcat Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 83 Location: Ames

Hey hawkeye, who are you? Because I agree very much. I think a good example is counting. Some people couldn't care less about 1 and 2, 3 and 4, whereas others NEED that. So being able to count, say the steps (triple-step, triple-step) as well as do that face noises like Bee-ba-BAH, Oooh-oh-ah! (etc) will help you get through to more people I think.

I think the most powerful teaching tool, especially for me as a student, is to feel comfortable. I don't want to feel like I'm failing or that the move I'm doing is stupid. So when my teachers are totally committed to the movements and to being encouraging I'm a million times more likely to succeed.

_________________
"What is within shall now be without. / Don't just dance - you must throw down."

| Sarah |

Cinnamon · Hepcat Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 88 Location: Islands

I totally agree with what you all are saying. I have found each person learns differently, so you need convey the moves in different ways to different people. Some times it is necessary to break the move down frontwards, backwards and sometimes even in the middle.

But I think the number one factor is to make the students feel comfortable and make sure they are having fun while learning. Swing dancing is suppose to be all about fun. Enjoy the dance, music and people. Sounds like we are all on the same page here!

hawkeye48 · Newbie Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 8 Location: Iowa City

This is Kate! = p

And I defintely agree with the need to make your students feel comfortable, too! Positive energy and encouragement can really add to the enjoyment of the students, as well as the instructors...and students are more likely to take corrections and suggestions better if they are in a non-abrasive learning environment. And, of course, everyone always wants to have fun!

MaryX · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 3:08 pm Post subject:

I get in these weird arguments with myself when I teach a class. Part of me wants the class to be successful at completing my (arbitrary) syllabus, but another part of me thinks that the best learning comes from social dancing and just getting yourself out there.

Do you think it's best to work more on individual moves, technique, social dancing, music theory? When is the best time to bring these various aspects into a dancer's life?

_________________
Dear Baby, Please be independent. Love, Mom -SAC

Dinn · Hepcat Joined: 09 Dec 2007 Posts: 83 Location: Ames

I occasionally delve into crazy time and pound my fist on the table and shout, "NO LESSONS. ON THE DANCE FLOOR, YOU!" What I mean to say is, I feel that oftentimes lessons only serve the purpose to get a student excited about lessons.

I wish people would fall in love with the dance first, be so unencumbered by rights and wrongs, and so INTO it that they just go out dancing as soon as possible. And then, once they love it, they seek knowledge. A better swingout.

And so I think that the items Mary listed should come when that dancer decides they are a dancer.

It's kind of an extreme idea, I guess, but the thought has made me very choosy about how much I contribute to the teaching docket.

So that answer is kind of a non-answer. Sorries.

_________________
"What is within shall now be without. / Don't just dance - you must throw down."

| Sarah |

pwkicker97 · Posted: Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:15 pm Post subject:

I agree with much of what has been said so far. I often find it hard to convey certain types of movements and moves in my classes. I think to myself that I am not really getting the complete point across of what I am trying to show them, but then after class I ask people and/or try it out and they do understand it. Any thoughts on how to know when something is truly understood and when to move on, or when to keep hammering it out like frankie swingout swingout swingout.

(Honestly I like the swingout^n approach, but if doesn't always convey the funness and as Dinn said, that would be something that would make them less inclined to stick with it unless they already have the fever.)

MaryX · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 8:58 am Post subject:

I've had a recent thought about dancing and practicing. When I was a kid I used to practice my violin thirty minutes a day, no matter what. But when I would play recitals or rock out in jam circles or play competitions I didn't worry at all about how I sounded. I just wanted the audience to have fun.

I started wondering, why haven't I been treating my body the same way? It's analogous to my just going to jam circles with my violin without practicing. I suppose on some level with school and work and the responsibilities of life I just haven't made time to practice swinging out thirty minutes a day. Also, there haven't been any hardcore leads in the Ames area (Sarah rocks, but we're both follows at heart) that I could practice with.

Any thoughts on "practicing" dance?

_________________
Dear Baby, Please be independent. Love, Mom -SAC

sarahtar · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Iowa

Dinn wrote:

I occasionally delve into crazy time and pound my fist on the table and shout, "NO LESSONS. ON THE DANCE FLOOR, YOU!" What I mean to say is, I feel that oftentimes lessons only serve the purpose to get a student excited about lessons.

Oh, man. I end up telling SO MANY of our students NOT to take more classes. They're serial class takers, but they want to be dancers. To be dancers, they need to dance. For real, not in class.

Anyway, to answer the OP, we try to incorporate as many learning styles and senses as we can. We talk about the steps, we show the steps, we sometimes guide students physically, with a hand on their arm or whatever. Sometimes Randy farts and we get the sense of smell in there, too. Laughing

We count the steps out, we do them phonetically, we hum or sing, we say "step step, triple step, step turn triple step." It's always encouraging when individual students recognize that one of those methods works better for them than the others. We had an engineer once who needed everything to be broken down into a chart he could follow at home, so that's what we did for him. He had been struggling, but once we figured that out, he excelled.

I think adult learners want the impossible most of the time - they want to become really good at whatever they're learning without much effort. (Like I want to learn to drive a stick without really having to put a lot of work into it...) Research into adult learners shows this, as well. (it's handy having a PhD in education in the family...)

But, in reality, they just want to not feel dumb. They want to feel capable and competent, so we help them achieve that by starting with some quick and easy, see the results quickly things at the beginning, and as their confidence grows, so does their willingness to work harder on harder moves, and by the end of four weeks, they're easily learning things they would not have even tried at the beginning of those four weeks.

sarahtar · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Iowa

pwkicker97 wrote:

Any thoughts on how to know when something is truly understood and when to move on, or when to keep hammering it out like frankie swingout swingout swingout.

I usually stop the class after a certain amount of guided practice and say "OK, how are we feeling? Good? Not so good? Want to do it more, or are you ready to move on?"

They're very honest about what they need, and even if it looks like they're doing it fine, sometimes they feel they need a few more times of practice to really feel confident, so we do it. (if I notice that people are saying "no, I don't get it!" but they're doing fine, we tend to focus on building confidence rather than building competence, which are two entirely different things.

I talk about teaching a lot on our blog, too.

Cinnamon · Hepcat Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Posts: 88 Location: Islands

I like to to take classes, private lessons, and go to workshops to help myself become a better dancer and instructor. The learning process never ends, esecially as teachers. I bring so much more with me after a workshop now.

sarahtar · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Iowa

I agree. I find myself so often just sitting in on classes at workshops, because I want to be able to focus on what the instructor is saying, how the students respond, etc. I learn so much, as a teacher, from watching others teach. Both good and bad.

Here's a question: Those of you who teach, how do you respond when someone asks you "I once saw this move, the dancers arms were just going all over the place, and I don't even think they were doing it with the music..." and you start to realize they want to learn the Pretzel?

MaryX · Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:59 pm Post subject:

I can imagine many people here have similar reactions when someone wants to learn "the pretzel".

Part of me wants to oblige beginners that want to learn the pretzel and teach it to them in a way that doesn't induce tendinitis and torn rotator cuffs. The other part of me wants to let them know the pretzel is not fun and requires no connection or musicality.

I guess in the end I try to teach people how to hold their bodies and do the pretzel so they don't go flinging out thus not injuring themselves or others.

_________________
Dear Baby, Please be independent. Love, Mom -SAC

sarahtar · Newbie Joined: 12 Dec 2007 Posts: 13 Location: Iowa

That's typically how I have handled it, as well. A lot of "well, that's one of those moves that people get hurt on a lot because it's just physiologically not a good move" and "it's not really something to just pull out on someone who's not expecting it" and then showing them how it's done without causing injury.

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